Virtual reality is a flexible tool, ready to be used in many ways to support learning – including developing literacy and creative writing in your classroom. Here are 3 ways you can use virtual reality to deliver creative literacy lessons.
Virtual Field Trips – Take Students to Iconic Locations from the World of Books
Virtual field trips are great way of transporting students to new places without leaving the classroom. In literacy lessons, students can visit the Globe Theatre in London to think about the staging of Shakespeare’s plays, or the Theatre of Dionysus in Greece to imagine plays performed in ancient societies. These 360° photos, along with hundreds more, can be used with ClassVR headsets for an impactful, immersive experience.
The ClassVR and Avantis World platforms allow teachers to manage this experience in different ways. One option is to ensure all students are exploring the same experience at the same time, and draw attention to points of focus to look at and discuss together. Alternatively, you can create a playlist with a number of experiences available to students. They can then choose to explore these in their own time, in any order, giving learners additional control to follow their interests within the content you have selected.
For a reminder of how simple it is to create playlists for your students to use, visit this page.
We even have a dedicated land within Avantis World for the wonderful world of books – Literacy Land! You can take a tour of some of the most well-known settings from classic texts such as Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye or 1984, or walk your students through fantasy lands from the Gingerbread Man, Hansel and Gretel or Puss in Boots. This amazing land gives a completely unique opportunity for students to walk through their literacy studies and collaborate with their classmates like never before.
Provide Creative Inspiration & Improve Descriptive Writing
When students become immersed in new surroundings, this can spark new ideas for stories and narratives, and support creative writing. Distant locations, whether mountaintops, beaches, or forests, can be visited to provide inspiration and help generate a wide vocabulary to use in a following writing activity.
Teachers from around the world have found that the immersive VR experiences can inspire detailed writing, including Hanover County Public Schools in Virginia, US!
As well as the option to become immersed in a VR experience, teachers can provide creative inspiration by holding and exploring 3D models in augmented reality. This might be a character, such as the 3D model of a minotaur found in the ClassVR resource library, or an object such as a treasure chest which could give students ideas for a story.
It’s easy to create your own exciting 3D models in apps like Paint 3D and experience them in ClassVR! Simply build your model, save it as a .glb file and begin exploring it in virtual reality.
Contexts for Spoken Language
Many educators report that the use of VR is motivating to their students. A key skill for students to develop is speaking aloud, whether that is retelling a familiar story with appropriate pace, intonation, and drama, or building atmosphere using their tone of voice when reading poetry.
VRroom allows teachers to invite groups of students into a shared virtual space, which can be experienced through ClassVR headsets any device with an internet browser. Being virtually inside these contexts, such as the setting of Snow White or Little Red Riding Hood, could encourage younger learners to recall the familiar story out loud to the group.
Older students can visit the Concert Hall and step onto the stage, experiencing that feeling of being ‘on show’ and presenting virtually. Students can then perform a piece of their own writing, or read aloud from a set text for a selected virtual audience.
Furthermore, we have also made two of our most popular Avantis World scenes available completely FREE for the rest of March! Take your students to Far, Far Away and climb the beanstalk in the Jack and the Beanstalk scene, or explore George Orwell’s grim dystopian future in 1984.
No account or sign-up is needed, it’s free for anyone to use! Simply visit VRroom and start exploring!
How have you made use of ClassVR in your setting? If you would like to share your experiences, or contribute to a future case study, we would love to hear from you. You can get in touch at community@classvr.com
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