Puppet Pals
is an app where students have the opportunity to create their own stories and
animation. Many children (and adults for that matter) may find it hard to be in a
movie themselves or to stand in front of the class and present their work, but
with Puppet Pals this might feel easier. In this app, anything can happen - you
can be a space monster on Mars, a prince/princess in a far away country, a
pirate on the seven seas, and much more. The sky is the limit!
There are
two versions of Puppet Pals: a free version and the Director's Cut. In the free
version you get a few characters and backgrounds. I recommend buying the
Director's Cut where you get many different characters and a lot more
backgrounds. You also get the opportunity to take your own pictures that you
can use when making your story/animation.
When we
were working with this app the students were divided into smaller groups. The
task was to first write a story together with a focus on having a cohesive storyline
framed by a beginning, middle, and an end. When the students were finished writing
the story they were to plan and organize a presentation of their work by making
a movie in Puppet Pals.
What abilities
are we training? If we read the syllabus for English the students should be able to communicate both orally and in
writing, and they should be able to
understand and interpret the content of spoken English. We also get into
other subjects such as art, where
students should be able to communicate
with images to express different messages as well as be able to create images with digital techniques.
The above
mentioned work with Puppet Pals was implemented during a lesson in Swedish, but
you can of course do a similar task while teaching English. With good use of
your imagination you can do anything you want to do!
Wow, what a fun thing to do with your students! This sounds like a great and fun project to work with. It could really include a lot from the English syllabus as you wrote, it all depends on how far you and the students are willing to go, and of course how much time there is. Its also a great way to get the students that might not feel secure with talking English in front of others. I think this is something you do with older students though. I would probably say 3rd grade and up, just because it does included quite a few different steps and you have to be familiar with the technology. I think you could introduce this idea with younger students as well, but then I Think the teacher should maybe do her own Movie and show it to the students instead. It could be a very fun and different way to teach. An important thing to keep in mind when working with these kinds of apps though, is that it can easily get out of hand. My experience with anything new and existing which also include computers and/or apps like these, are that the students Always want to try Everything at once and make a 2,5 hour Movie. It's of course great that they are excited but at the same time they have to have some limits.
ReplyDeleteHello!
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your description of Puppet Pals I found that the resource could be used as a mixture of play and education. One example that you use in your text is to include the pupils that can find oral presentations to be hard, both physically and mentally. The strength that I found with the program is that it can help to include the students that have a hard time with oral presentations. With this program students can work toward the same goal, and thus fulfil the same criteria in the curriculum. This also helps the students to practise on oral presentation, which in turn can make the presentation less hard in the future.
Some questions were raised when I read your blog post. The first question that came to mind was, what has the teacher have to know about the resource before starting to use it? By this I mean how hard is the program to use and learn? I think it´s a relevant question because the teacher has to know how much support the pupils need when they will do a presentation. This will also include some planning from the teacher on how groups will be composed.
The second question that came to my mind was; what resources do the whole classroom need to work with Puppet Pals? By this I mean how many Ipads do the class need, if all pupils shall make a movie that they shall present to the class? A following question to this is how time consuming is this work? If the pupils shall do some research, writing a manuscript, making their Puppet Pals video, presenting their video and finally getting some response to their work.
You have written in your blog post that you have used this resource before in your classroom and I think that you have considered these questions when you planned that work. The reason why I ask these questions is that I found that type of resource interesting and I wonder what considerations other teachers, like you, who have worked with these types of resources, have had and how they resolved them.