Claymation Project for 12 th grade English Composition Class Mrs. Scumpieru North Hagerstown High School

12 th Grade English Composition  For this course, we wrote nine papers for the course. Students wrote the following: A College Essay (required for all college applications) Two SAT Essays (practice for the test they needed to take for college) Research Paper How-to Paper Extended Definition Paper Cause and Effect Paper Narrative Paper Letter to the Editor Reflective Essay

Why a Claymation Project?  Mrs. Scumpieru, the teacher, went to the Technology Academy over the summer and learned how to do Claymation. She asked the students if they wanted to persuade middle school students on a topic of their choice. They said, “Yes!”

The Process  Claymation is like “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. If you saw this, it took the creators of this movie three years to create it. They took 20 still shots per second of film.  We worked on a smaller scale. The Claymation entitled “Cafeteria Rumble” that you will be watching took 250 still shots and is five minutes long for the presentation. It runs like a movie after completion.

The steps the groups took:  Students had to develop a storyboard first.  Students then had to make backdrops, clay figures, etc.  Students had to then take all of their still shots with the digital camera.  Students had to then put all of the shots into a program called “Frames”.  Students then worked on adding sounds from voice recorders and typing information into the program.  Students published their work from the Frames program.

4 week, 45 minutes each day.  At North, we have 90 minute blocks. Students were only given 45 minutes of the mod to work on their project. The rest of the mod they read persuasive pieces and had to analyze their effectiveness.

Things Mrs. Scumpieru learned the first time around:  A more thorough Works Cited Page is needed.  If audio is used, have students only use small clips to avoid copyright issues.  Work with the students on a more regular basis. 45 minutes each day was tricky.  Play around with the software more before tackling such a huge task.

Final Message  Mrs. Scumpieru asked the students what they were going to say over at Northern Middle and a vast majority said, “We were going to tell them that they should take what they are doing now as what they are doing in high school seriously. We wish we could turn back time and be where they are now. Some of us messed up and will not have the option of college. We will start working real soon and pay for our mistakes. Do well in school! The Class of 2009!”