Hall Pass makes reading practice videos

Rising Starr Middle’s Hall Pass Entertainment is helping elementary students in their reading practice with a series of informative and entertaining videos. 

Hall Pass Entertainment is a self-funded, student-run label that distributes original content, including music,

podcasts, audio books, commercials, short films, virtual reality tours, and video games. Every quarter, Hall Pass students do a different mixed-media project, which means combining several different tech programs, like music tech software and visual software. Past projects include stop motion films, photo journal essays, and joke reels. 

This year, they decided to make background tracks for literacy videos to help students learn to read. All music tech students participated in creating the projects, and the best examples are showcased on the Hall Pass Entertainment YouTube channel.

The 7th and 8th graders took rap lyrics about the Orton Gillingham approach to literacy and set them to a drum beat to record. Classroom instruction guided them through adding chord progressions, bass lines, melody lines, and effects to make their music sound polished. They created bright, colorful animated videos in Canva, then synced up the lyrics to finish the video. 

The 6th graders used a digital audio workstation to create audio tracks with the help of instructional guides from a pilot program. Then they worked as a class to record “Tap It Out” videos. 

Music technology teacher Ashleigh McDaniel Spatz built the projects around concepts elementary students use in class. The “Tap It Out” videos were inspired by watching her son in kindergarten practice reading homework each night. The Orton Gillingham videos were inspired by a collaboration with the Peeples Elementary gifted department called “The Word Attack Jingle.” 

“Rising Starr students were very excited to be making projects that will help other students learn. I hope that the music tech students learn some good techniques for video and music creation and get inspired to create and share more,” she said. “I hope that these videos will help teachers to introduce or wrap up their literacy lessons, and that these videos help young learners get excited about reading!” 

Watch the videos on YouTube: 

Tap It Out – Phonics Practice to a Beat!: https://bit.ly/4qpTfaZ

Orton Gillingham Teaching Raps: https://bit.ly/4qarHpM