I recently found your blog through reading Dan Meyer’s blog. I’m also an English teacher, and I’ve been experimenting with having students create videos the last two years. I agree with you that the process of making a video is very similar to writing a cohesive essay. I’ve found that the students who do the most planning in the beginning often have the best videos at the end.

Another good point you made in your post is the reality of time restraints. This is very true in the classroom, where it’s tough finding the time to do these more out of the box type of projects. Time is a big barrier whenever I’ve tried making movies with students. You really have to push the students to work efficiently, and often I have students come in after school if they’re motivated, and they often are.

Lastly, it’s cool that you are trying this out yourself first. You learn a lot about the process by going through it before you try it out in the classroom. I have lots of examples of movies my middle schoolers have made the last two years if you’re interested. Glad I’ve found your blog, I’ll be back! :) George