This is a Powerpoint presentation I recently shared with teachers in Australia via an adobe Connect session. The presentation documents how I teach kinetic typography to my grade 11 animation classes. They are totally new to kinetic typography but they have had prior experience with Photoshop and Flash, the software I use for kinetic typography. It walks you through...

1. a brief intro about the concept of typography complete with a few examples that help build understanding

2. a brief walk through the steps I go through in my classroom

3. and a few additional notes / observations and last but not least,

4. there are student samples to watch and discuss.

Although the presentation starts with thoughts and text I actually begin in class by showing the examples from Vimeo that are listed on one of the slides. That gets them intrigued and on-track (especially the Cave Johnson Lemons piece). Get them engaged and then - let them lose. It is a serious challenge to build one of these pieces but so worthwhile once completed. BTW - these pieces could be constructed around absolutely any subject at all, which I why all of them are clicked on in the descriptor.

Also - although the more interesting examples are a bit complex to build, simpler ones could be constructed... and therefore made accessible to younger grades.

In this lesson, students interview someone about their visual and sense memories of an event and use those memories to create an oral and visual history. They then use the interview for creating a digital video in Adobe Premiere Elements 11. By creating a personal digital video narrative, students learn valuable research, inquiry, and editing skills. They also learn that the stories of all people have historical importance and are unique and valuable. Oral and visual histories can be used for a variety of topics in asking students to research, compare, and document things of historical importance.

In this lesson, students interview someone about their visual and sense memories of an event and use those memories to create an oral and visual history. They then use the interview for creating a digital video in Adobe Premiere Elements 11. By creating a personal digital video narrative, students learn valuable research, inquiry, and editing skills. They also learn that the stories of all people have historical importance and are unique and valuable. Oral and visual histories can be used for a variety of topics in asking students to research, compare, and document things of historical importance.

Creating documentaries requires many higher-order thinking skills: students need to research and collect information, analyze and interpret that information, and edit the information into a coherent story. The documentary process yields a final product that showcases the knowledge students have acquired, regardless of subject area. Students can use documentaries to understand an issue, its complexity, and the perspectives through which different people view a subject. In an excellent documentary, students show the viewers different perspectives through carefully chosen video clips so the viewers arrive at their own conclusions. In this lesson, originally created by teacher Dan Greenwood, students choose an issue that impacts them personally, the school, or their community; interview individuals on both sides of the issue; integrate clips about the issue with interview shots to document the issue; create the documentary with Adobe Premiere Elements 11; and write a reflection detailing the learning process.

Creating documentaries requires many higher-order thinking skills: students need to research and collect information, analyze and interpret that information, and edit the information into a coherent story. The documentary process yields a final product that showcases the knowledge students have acquired, regardless of subject area. Students can use documentaries to understand an issue, its complexity, and the perspectives through which different people view a subject. In an excellent documentary, students show the viewers different perspectives through carefully chosen video clips so the viewers arrive at their own conclusions. In this lesson, originally created by teacher Dan Greenwood, students choose an issue that impacts them personally, the school, or their community; interview individuals on both sides of the issue; integrate clips about the issue with interview shots to document the issue; create the documentary with Adobe Premiere Elements 11; and write a reflection detailing the learning process.