Student Self Reflection Video for Parent Teacher Conferences

I love the idea of student led conferences. Letting students talk about what they’re most proud of, what goals they want to set for themselves, and what their favorite part of school is something that everyone should try. While some districts partake in full blown student led conferences, my district still does traditional parent teacher conferences. In order to try and mesh the two a little I decided to have my second grade students create a video of themselves expressing these ideas to share with their parents.

Students created this video using Apple Clips, (a FREE Apple app), Keynote (a FREE Apple app), Stop Motion Studio (a FREE app), and Green Screen by Do Ink ($2.99). Students used an iPad to create their videos but if your students use a Chromebook or other laptop you could use Google Slides or another stop motion app to achieve the same outcome.

Students started by reflecting on their trimester using reflection checklists created by Brooke Brown. Her student led conferences unit can be found HERE. I like these reflection checklists because they are easy for the students to understand and fill out. There is one for reading and writing, one for math, and one for work habits. There are other versions created by others that are simpler if this is too much for your students. I used a different one when I taught first grade that combined math, reading, writing, and work habits into a single page checklist.

They used the Stop Motion app to draw a picture of their favorite part of second grade. Stop Motion is something that seems very complex and overwhelming but is actually super simple for the students. (I like to introduce Stop Motion by using directed drawing videos from YouTube. Look for a future blog post on this!) Students saved this video to their iPad.

They then used Keynote to create their reflection. They placed three shapes onto a slide and used text to write about what they felt they were good at, what they wanted help with, and what they wanted to get better at this trimester. Students were able to “spice” the project up by changing the colors, patterns, adding additional shapes, etc.

After they finished the Keynote slide, they recorded themselves reading what they wrote on the slide using the green screen app. They put the Keynote slide into the green screen app to create the part where the parent could see the student standing “in front of” their slide.

Our Teacher Librarian helped the students record themselves talking about their goals from the reflection sheet. We talked about adding some narration like “Welcome to Parent Teacher Conferences, Mom and Dad,” “Now it’s time to talk with Mrs. Martino about my goals,” and “I love you!”

Although we talked about adding some lines like this, the students ultimately had control over how they introduced and concluded their video. I’m lucky that I was able to have an extra set of hands to help with this part, but if you’re not then a tripod would easily work too. (I’ve used a tripod many times when I haven’t had any extra help!)

Finally, students took all of these pieces and added them to Clips to make their final movie. They added each component, added some “spice” to dress up the movie, and added a soundtrack. The students did all of this by themselves. Voila! You have the final product!

I would love to hear how you tweak this project to make it work for you! Feel free to share your ideas and comment below.