Michael Novick
Educator. Cinephile. Calxophobic.
PROJECTS
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Project | 01
Project | 01: Romeo + Juliet + New Media
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Seventh grade students were deeply immersed in William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. While reading the play in Humanities, students were also assigned a character to perform as on Twitter. The entire story played out on Twitter over the course of a month. Through Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, students explored and analyzed the medium of film as a visual language. Students learned about "mise-en-scène" and how what's left out of the frame is just as important as what's included. Students created their own bedrooms for characters in the play using Autodesk Homestyler.
At the end of the unit, students edited their own movie trailer for Luhrmann's film using Final Cut Pro X. They were encouraged to think about how trailers are used to sell them a story and apply that thinking to their work.
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Project | 02
Project | 02: Minecraft Civilizations
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Applying concepts and content learned from their Humanities inquiry, sixth graders were tasked with recreating an Ancient River Valley Civilization. Students reconstructed Ancient China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus River Valley. Students began by analyzing topographical maps to help them understand the terrain. Worlds were created in World Painter. Once students had their worlds built, it was time to populate them with homes, merchants, animals, farms, etc. To learn more about the project, click here.
Project | 03
Project | 03: Spring Media Production
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This video showcases how my colleague and I were able to redesign our curriculum, driven by student interest while staying grounded in media literacy concepts, student critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration.
We planned a production assignment that would have students edit their personal archival footage to present themselves as learners over time. However, we found that not all students were as interested in the footage as we had expected. The clarity of our essential questions "who am I as a learner?" and "how can I express that using media production?" allowed us to open up the parameters of the project.
Project | 04
Project | 04: Puppet Project
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For use in an elementary school classroom in conjunction with lessons on how to use a compass and/or cardinal directions. In line with the New York State Social Studies Scope & Sequence, this video was designed to be used during the second grade unit on Community. In addition to learning cardinal directions and how to use a compass, students can work in groups of four to learn the R.E.M. "Stand" dance. The video could also be used as an introduction for a classroom puppet project.
Project | 05
Project | 05: Analyzing Personality Types in Real + Virtual Worlds
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Sixth graders were put into groups of four based on their Myers-Briggs Personality Type. Together, each member took on the role of one of Mario’s actions (Move Left, Move Right, Jump, Fireball/Run) using the MaKey MaKey. They had to work together as a team to get to the end of the level. Some personalities had some major conflicts before even stepping up to the MaKey MaKey. Other groups had amazing communication that allowed them to get to the end of the first level quite easily. All students were told the personality types of each group member and were asked to observe the players during the gameplay. Students took notes based on these observations and tried to determine which personality types worked best together.
Our final exercise had our unique personality groups attempting to understand and complete a level in Little Big Planet designed by myself and current 7th grader, Damian. Each student took control of one of the four unique characters and had to determine which character’s unique ability was needed to pass each obstacle. We’ve been using video games to observe how different personality types interact with their virtual environment. This extended into the real world as we observed different personality types have trouble communicating what they wanted to the other members of their group. We discussed how ecology is scientific analysis and study of interactions among organisms and their environment. That led us into a discussion about how our environment influences our behavior in both our real lives and online lives. We discussed interdependence and how that plays out in an online space.