It helps if you press "Publish"....My treatment (now after the fact)

In my French classes, I use the AIM method to teach French. It is a new(er) program designed by Wendy and Matt Maxwell and it uses gestures to teach French as a second language. The content is presented through songs and plays based on one story. Several of the stories are fairy tales like Chicken Little, the Three Pigs, and the Three Bears. Last summer, a fellow French teacher sent me an email telling me to check out a video. She guaranteed me it was hilarious and I would love it. The video was based on the AIM version of the three little pigs. The production was done with hand puppets in some guy’s living room and the dialogue was set to a Lady Gaga song.  It was ridiculously entertaining, my students loved it and I found they were all very eager to learn the words so they could sing along. I have often thought about doing one of my annual French plays as an ode to Lady Gaga, but have never had the time, opportunity, or guts to try it out. Upon learning I would be required to complete a video project for this class, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to Gaga-fy the upcoming unit for Purplelocks and the Three Bears.

I plan to create a short video that presents the story of Purplelocks and her shenanigans in the bears’ house and set the dialogue to another popular song. I’m tempted to try something out of the Gaga realm, but I want to ensure it is still a song or genre that will appeal to my elementary students.  I believe that a lot of the charm of the video comes from its questionable production values. I hope to prove my knowledge of video design while maintaining the campy-ness of the original video.

Production decisions will be modeled after the original video: The sets will be made with bulletin board paper and other small crafty items, I hope to find a set of hand puppets from the university or local children’s store (although I will have to make Goldilocks’ hair purple somehow) and the song will be sung by me over a karaoke track. As in the original video, French subtitles will accompany each line of the song so that beginning learners can keep up with the quick delivery of language. I may also include a version with English subtitles on the DVD.