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Authoring with Video


Project Period: January 2004 - December 2007


Deaf students struggle with developing reading and writing skills and often have difficulty mastering standard English. Teachers of deaf students are hungry for strategies that will motivate their students to engage in reading and writing. They are also eager to use technologies that are directly tied to the challenges they face in the classroom.

The Authoring With Video project is utilizing MAGpie, NCAM's free student- and teacher-friendly captioning software to explore the effects on deaf and hard-of-hearing students and their teachers when caption writing is integrated into a content area.

Dr. Barbara Strassman of the College of New Jersey is leading a classroom research initiative to gauge whether caption writing in content areas helps students focus on the craft of authoring and not only on the task of writing. Students are creating captions for content-matched digitized images, working with the video to construct meaning, organize a response to a writing prompt, and create a narrative as captions for the video.

NCAM encourages interested teachers to explore the potential of caption writing with their students and share their experiences. Visit our Teacher Resources page to download MAGpie, digitized videos, lesson plans and writing prompts that can be used by teachers working with students at diverse ages and writing levels.