Authoring with Video (AWV)

I often find that writing in the first few months of first grade comes easily to students, and they often are able to come up with ideas and write a great deal.  As the months go by, students start to lack motivation in their writing and have more difficulty as they write.  I am certain there is a similar trend in all grade levels for many students. I have discovered a great and exciting resource to use to motivate student writing! 

Authoring with Video (AWV) is an exciting new idea to try in the classroom.  Students are shown short video clips with no sound and asked to write the dialogue for the scene. The software used for the program even allows students to type their narration right into the computer underneath the scene. This gives students the sensation of adding text to a story. Students are also given the opportunity to write or type their thoughts in and then go back and revise them later. This lets them focus on the content and then go back and make sure their writing looks right.  The overall reaction from students is that AWV allows them to be more creative and encourages them to write more.

An exciting component of AWV is that it can be incorporated into Writer’s Workshop. If you do Writer's Workshop in the classroom like I do, this is a great thing!  According to the article, many influential people in the writing world (Calkins, Elbow, Ray) have described that the best way for students to learn to write is to have good writing modeled for them. AWV also has videos that model good writing for students, and students are given more freedom than traditional Writer's Workshop might allow for some reluctant writers. They are able to write more using the program than they would be able to with journal pages with only a few lines given for students to write on. I know I am guilty of this in my classroom, and I often have students ask for more paper when writing because they are only given so many lines.

The article goes on to discuss teaching ideas and units that could be implemented using AWV. As for schools being able to utilize AWV, they must subscribe to use the resources and video clips. The National Center for Accessible Media has the manuals to download and sample videos to share. This is an intriguing idea that would be great for writing motivation. The whole article can be read on Reading Rockets.

Strassman, B. K., and O’Connell, T. (2007). Authoring With Video. The Reading Teacher, 61(4), pp. 330–333