“ESL students create mini
YouTube video lessons”
TESOL – March 28, 2009
Tom Rohrbach
Spring International Language Center
Denver and Littleton, Colorado
tom@spring.edu
OVERVIEW – You may be wondering…
 What do you do on YouTube?
 Why?
 How do you do it?
 How can we do it? (Do we want to?)
 Discussion … Questions and Answers
 Watch a final video (if time allows)
I. Our websites, and sample videos
 Spring WebRoom – www.spring.edu/webroom
 WebRoom VIDEO LESSONS page –
www.spring.edu/webroom/video.html
 Spring’s YouTube Channel –
www.youtube.com/springinternational
 Videos – “Make Up” and “The FBI”
 “Tacoman” – if time allows at the end
II. A. What do I teach with videos?
 Classes – ‘Vocabulary-Video’, ‘Idioms-Video’,
‘Verbs-Video’ (all kinds of grammar included)
 Students learn phrasal verbs, idioms, grammar
points. What else could you teach this way?!
 Students practice their English – vocabulary,
conversation/discussion, creativity, writing skills,
teamwork, spelling, grammar, pronunciation and
intonation, acting, word-processing, etc.
 Great book: A Year in the Life of an ESL Student
II. B. Why do I teach with videos?
 It’s FUN for the teacher AND the students, with
lots of built-in motivation and challenge for
students, and real-world rewards … when family,
friends, classmates, and strangers the world over
watch your videos on the Internet.
 We (my school and yours) can create an everexpanding library of online video lessons for ESL
students: linking to each other’s YouTube sites, OR
building a ‘mega-site’ together, if you’re interested.
III. WHO ?
 Our Spring classes so far
have been with
intermediate and high
intermediate adult
Intensive English students.
You could do the same
with high school or junior
high students, or…?
 Our classes are 4 hours a
week, for nine weeks.
 Who watches?
We’ve had thousands of ‘views’ on
our Spring YouTube channel.
Classes or individuals at your
school can use the videos (you
can also create quizzes for
them).
Students from all over the world can
watch, subscribe, study and learn
from your online site. Cool!
IV. HARDWARE and SOFTWARE
 HARDWARE WE USE …
 Camcorder: We use a high-quality Sony HDR-SR1
digital camcorder, with a hard drive (much easier than
DVD- or cassette-based cameras). $600 - $1,500
 Microphone: An external mic is usually better than the
built-in one, so you can record from a distance and get
more control of sound. A computer mic works well.
 Video Capture Hardware: You can transfer direct from
camera to computer with a USB cable, but sometimes
‘vch’ gives you more control.
IV. HARDWARE and SOFTWARE
(continued)
 SOFTWARE WE USE …
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Microsoft Windows XP
Microsoft Movie Maker (free, included as part of Win XP)
YouTube (www.youtube.com) - Go to main page, sign up with a
name for your school or program, and begin creating your ‘channel’
OR, you can use an Apple Macintosh system with iMovie software
and a firewire connection
 BOOKS
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SAMS Teach Yourself Digital Video with Windows XP in a Snap by
Greg Perry. SAMS, 2004. ISBN 0-672-32569-1
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(best resource for using Movie Maker)
MAC: iMovie ‘09 and iDVD: The Missing Manual
(’08 edition also)
IV. HARDWARE and SOFTWARE
(continued)
 OPTIONAL SOFTWARE:
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Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro - if you want to make better
title screen JPG pictures)
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ConvertXtoDVD 3 - great if you want to burn your movies to DVD
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PrimoPDF maker (free) or Adobe Acrobat - if you want to create
PDF scripts like we do
V. THE COURSE
 We teach a nine-week course, 4 hours per week.
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Teach the ‘subject matter’ for a few weeks.
Students get into teams, start planning a skit/lesson week 3 or 4.
Teams present their first draft idea for teacher and peer review.
Teams finalize skits and ‘learn their lines’ (weeks 4, 5, 6)
Teams plan productions, props, locations, etc.
Shoot the videos, review the ‘rushes’, re-shoot as needed.
Edit and create the movie, choose background music.
Music – we use free tunes from www.partnersinrhyme.com
Upload to YouTube and add to our Video Lessons page.
Celebrate and give out Awards! 
VI. HOW TO DO IT
 FILMING
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Set up on location. Do sound and light check, with a TV.
Students rehearse and do simple blocking. Camera person sets up
best spots.
Shoot. Watch. Shoot again. Shoot again as needed. (Tell them in
Hollywood, actors need 20 ‘takes’ sometimes!)
Teacher – watch again to check grammar, pronunciation, and such.
It’s easy to miss while shooting!
Keep a ‘Shooting Log’ sheet with title of video, names and email of
actors, camera person, guests, etc.
VI. HOW TO DO IT (continued)
 EDITING
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Upload (import or capture) raw video scenes to Movie Maker.
Use Movie Maker to ‘split’ each scene exactly where you want to
start and stop it. You can also merge scenes, fade in and out, etc.
CREATE TITLES – You can use the built-in functions, but I prefer
to use Microsoft Word to make precise screens in ‘Landscape’ mode,
then print screen and crop it in a photo program. Save as JPG.
Import your JPG titles.
Drag items to the “Storyboard” at bottom of screen to make movie.
Change to “Timeline” view to add music. SAVE often!
VI. HOW TO DO IT (continued)
 FINISHING YOUR MOVIE
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Add ‘transitions’ as desired. Watch movie to double-check.
Save – file will be something like “Check_Out.MSWMM”.
Then, click “File”, “Save Movie File” and follow instructions.
Now, your movie is done, saved in “.WMV” format.
 UPLOAD TO ‘YOUTUBE’
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Log in to your school’s YouTube channel.
Upload your new video. YouTube will convert the movie
automatically to its format.
VII. ADVICE, TROUBLESHOOTING
 1ST - Have high expectations and demand quality from students from
Day 1.
 2nd - Remember Murphy’s Law!
 3rd - Budget your time, then double it!
 4th - Try to have hardware backups, if possible.
 5th - Be a patient and supportive director with students.
 PROBLEMS you can expect: dead batteries … microphone trouble …
cable and adapter trouble (I tripped over a cable, broke an audio
adapter!) … uploading-to-computer glitches … uploading-to-YouTube
glitches … can’t redo a video once it’s on YouTube (delete, do over) …
VII. ADVICE (continued)
 ALWAYS SAVE EVERYTHING IN THE SAME
FOLDER !!!
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Raw video footage
Pictures, title screen JPGs
Music files
MSWMM Movie Maker projects
Finished WMV movies
“My Documents \ My Videos” is a good place to save
VIII. WANT TO TRY IT ?!
 Try it at your school!
 Consider your first batch of videos as
practice. 
 Link your YouTube channel to Spring’s.
Let’s start a trend!
 Keep in touch!
tom@spring.edu