Teacher resources » Animate your knowledge

Animate your knowledge

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Overview

In this activity students will create an RSA animate video to make what they know visible to you and their classmates! 

RSA animate videos are a form of storytelling that synthesizes information and makes our thinking visible to others. Using a whiteboard or other slate medium, students will narrate what they know about a topic while drawing pictures or text to help their audience visualize the information being presented.

This style of expression allows for both the student and their audience to take in information in different modes and allows for greater access to knowledge and learning. Along with being fun and engaging, animate videos of this kind allow a student a different way to show their understanding about a subject or topic.

Keywords: Communication, Digital literacy, Reflection

Good for: Individual work

Grade level: K-12

Skill level: Intermediate

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Student Instructions

Copy and paste the information below directly into the description box when creating your student assignment, or, use it as inspiration to make your own!

Create your own RSA animate video sharing your knowledge about something we learned this week. You will use a whiteboard, slate, or other medium to narrate and illustrate your topic to your classmates.

First, illustrate you topic using pictures and text, then go back and record a voiceover narration, telling us about your illustrations.

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Lesson planning support

Tips to help your instruction in this activity or help to get you started!

  • Use this style of explainer videos regularly to help give students a choice and amplify their voice, allowing them to show what they know!

  • The instructions call for the students to animate something that they learned during the week but this type of activity can be used at the end of a lesson, a unit or project, or done monthly. 

  • RSA animate videos are a great substitute for traditional formative and summative assessments. These videos are a fun and engaging way for students to show what they know and what they have learned about a topic or subject.

  • Have students write scripts so their narration goes smoothly. Scripts help students memorize the content they will share on their video! 

Technical Skills

Students Will…

Academic Skills

Students will…

21st Century Skills

Students will…

  • Use the webcam or other device to create a piece of media

  • Practice narrating over a media clip

  • Edit a created video clip and sync it with voiceover narration

  • Create an artifact that demonstrates meaningful connections or conclusions

  • Communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively using a visualization

  • Write explanatory/informative text to convey ideas and information clearly

  • Engage in a creative medium to help share their knowledge about a subject or topic

  • Analyze and interpret a topic visually using critical thinking

Communication: This activity can help students practice communication skills through a creative medium like animation. Students will learn how to express their thinking using words and images and how to effectively communicate them to others. 

Digital Literacy: Understanding how to use digital tools to deliver messages and how an intended audience will receive those messages is an important skill in developing digital literacy in our students. 

Reflection: Activities that work to help students recall information and synthesize their knowledge offer powerful moments to reflect on learning and meaning making and allow for deeper connections to content. Animate videos such as the one described in this activity allow for these kinds of reflective moments.