Learn How to Use Pixar in a Box with Your Students

Hey everyone, this is Jeremy Schieffling from Khan Academy. Thanks so much for joining us in our long-running series of Remote Learning 101. It's gone on a little longer than we expected at the beginning back in March, but we're happy to serve you with whatever is most of interest. What we've heard from a lot of teachers across the country is that, yeah, technology is hard and academics are hard right now, but motivation and engagement—sparking that fundamental curiosity and passion for learning—is really the toughest thing to summon when everyone's feeling a little down.

Into that void has stepped this amazing Khan Academy ambassador, Laura Lagasse, who is an incredible sixth-grade teacher in Southern California. Even before this crisis started, she was motivating her students with a very special part of Khan Academy that was built in collaboration with Pixar, which is called Pixar In A Box. Basically, it's an online curriculum that's not about calculus or algebra or AP U.S. history but about how do you tell really amazing stories using both human ingenuity and technology.

I would love for you to learn from Laura about her experience and her recommendations. I also want to give you a little bit of an extra bonus today. In the spirit of Pixar and innovation, we're going to try a new way of asking questions for these webinars. Instead of just asking questions in the question box and then waiting to see if your question will be answered, we're actually going to use a new tool, which you can find at con.co. I will chat that into the chat area right now.

What you will find when you get there is a list of questions coming in from teachers across the country that you can not only add to but you can also upvote. If you see a question that you're really excited about, just go ahead and give it a thumbs up, and those will rise to the top. Those are the ones that we'll turn to Laura first to make sure they get priority answers.

So, that being said, Laura, we're so excited to have you here today! Thank you again for sharing your expertise in the midst of everything else going on. Take a moment to tell us about your own educational adventure and how you got to this moment.

Well, I'm a teacher here in Southern California. I've been teaching for about 20 years now, and I teach in the Victor Elementary School District at a school called Galileo Academy. I've been there teaching third grade and now I'm currently teaching sixth grade.

That's awesome! And tell us how things are going. How is the remote learning going for you? What are you learning along the way?

Well, I've become much more technological. We've been really doing a lot of Zoom classes, and it's been really great. I'm able to see the kids still, and the kids are able to see me. I'm still able to give them a lot of different lessons. Today, we even took a virtual tour of the Great Wall of China, so it was pretty neat!

Yeah, that's awesome! Well, clearly, I can tell that you're really focused on that engagement and motivation piece, as well as the technology piece. So why don't you tell us a little bit more about Pixar In A Box? Like, what is it, and why did you use it in your classroom in the first place?

One of the reasons why I started using it is I actually started out as an elective. We were able to choose something that we really enjoyed doing—not something that I really enjoyed doing. I really think that Pixar In A Box is the art of storytelling by storytellers, which is pretty fantastic.

In the last couple of years, I thought these lessons are just amazing, so I'm actually going to use them in my writing block rather than just using them as an elective. The kids absolutely enjoy it, and they really have blossomed as writers. I really think they enjoy the process too.

That's awesome! And so tell us how you typically use it with your students. How do you roll it out? How do you get them excited about it?

We usually do lessons per day. For example, the very first lesson we go to the art of storytelling. In the art of storytelling, it’s just so fantastic! All of those different lessons are just about storytelling.

The first thing that I like to do is show a Pixar short. What's amazing is Pixar has so many fantastic shorts, and they are short! It's so great for the kids to be able to tell back the story, and they'll be able to use those to help tell their stories. So we start with "We are storytellers.” I don’t think that the kids realize what great storytellers they truly are. They just don't know how to tell that story in a pitch, and they learn how to do it in a Pixar way.

First, they learn what amazing storytellers they are in the first lesson. It talks about the characters and the unique perspective of characters. What we do is so relatable to the kids. Once we watch the videos—that's another really important piece—there's always a video there. Pixar has allowed us to see a lot of the different stories that come from people who actually work at Pixar, who share their stories about how they became storytellers.

Then what it asks the student to do is allow the student to self-reflect. What's great is most of these kids have already seen these Pixar movies, so they're going to say, "Pick your three favorites." Okay, now let's apply what we've learned. If there are, for example, in the first activity, it's about the emotions, and it's about really trying to express a memory that they have.

They'll take it and they'll put it in the same concept as that memory as a story that they can expand on. So it asks the kids to actually draw on their own experiences to be able to write those stories, which they soon find out that they are now storytellers.

Then we work into just the structure of the story or the "what if" activities. In one of them, the "what if"—this happened or that happened—and what's fantastic is you can take, say, The Incredibles, and then I'll ask the kids, "Well, who asked? What if? What is that 'what if' they asked?”

They'll be able to tell me exactly "What if there were superheroes that couldn't be superheroes anymore?" Well, there's your story, and that's how you can start it. After that, we'll work into character. The kids will start creating their characters, which is really fantastic because once they really get their character developed—we spend a lot of time on developing that one character—once they get the character developed using the internal and external characteristics, they have to draw the character.

They have to tell me who this is. Do they have a lisp? Do they limp? They have to really define their characters very well. Once they can define that character, they can then put the character into a world. So then we talk about setting. Okay, let's go ahead and talk about what kind of world do you want to act or to live in. I love that one piece where it talks about the wants versus needs because it's an amazing way to start the story.

They can ask, "What does your character want and what do they need to do to get what they want?" After we get our character designed, we want to know what's happening to the character, what are their stakes, those kinds of things. Then we start looking into the story structure, which is where the kids really start to develop their story itself.

One thing that's absolutely amazing is the story spine. The story spine is just something that gets their juices really flowing—“Once upon a time...every day...until one day...and because of that...and because of that...until finally...” It's a great way to start the story. Sometimes, what we'll do in class is I'll put up the story spine, and I say, "Okay kids, tell me once upon a time,” and we'll do it in a group.

Then the kids will tell me, “Once upon…” and then I said, “Okay, now every day what did they do?” and then somebody will tell me this, that, or the other thing. Then we'll have a class story that we can repeat, and we just have a really good time with that because sometimes they turn out pretty funny. You could even do that over Zoom these days, have that sort of class-wide story building.

After we work through the story spine, I love that the spine then turns into three different acts. So then we have Act One, and then we have the three—there's Act One, beginning, middle, and then Act One is the "once upon a time every day until one day."

So then we work through our Act One and then we go on to Act Two, which is the “because of…because of…because of…” Then we’ve worked through that, and they get their middle part of the story. Finally, we'll go on to Act Three, and that's the "until finally," and then "ever since then." Then they have a story, which is really fantastic.

After that, what we do is then we'll start storyboarding our story. We'll work through that, and they can see what their story is going to look like. Once they have their story, we were talking a little bit earlier about then they really get excited about writing their story into a script.

What we then do is we go to a Chrome extension called Umi Script, and the kids can download this into their Chromebooks, and they can actually write a script. They end up having a complete story’s full script. Sometimes we talk about going from script to screen. If we end up having a little bit more time, we can maybe record it or do a live-action. Sometimes they can do claymation and do a stop-motion, and so they get a complete story.

But the other wonderful thing about this—we've been talking about narrative for a while here—this also I have used in expository writing, which has been really great. We will study something like ancient cultures, and then what we'll do is I will give them a prompt and tell them, “Okay, now you are the character in this ancient culture.”

They have to do the research on their ancient culture. They have to find out everything there is to know about that culture because they have to be able to write the setting for that, and then they can have an adventure. In the meantime, they're also learning how to write an expository piece to show what an ancient culture is or even scientists—they can become scientists too!

That's awesome! I have to tell you, like, I am super impressed because not only is everything you shared the kind of stuff that I think any student would love to work on during normal times, that's especially the kind of material that a student could work on even in these very strange times, whether it's with the class or resume or on their own through assignments.

Yeah, that being said, I know there are a ton of questions coming in, and I want to remind folks, if you want to ask those questions, it's khan.com/pixar. Con, and if you don't mind, Laura, I'd love to start at the top with some of the top questions coming in.

Okay, so I think this is kind of the elephant in the room at this point, which is: Laura's a sixth-grade teacher, but do you have any recommendations as far as like—would this work for younger elementary? Would you recommend it all the way up to high school? Like, who is this really for?

Well, I'm actually going to be doing third grade next year and I am going to use it in my third-grade class. I think this can be used for all ages. If you're in kindergarten or first grade, you can do it as directed instruction, and they can talk through it in kindergarten and first grade and even second grade. Once you get to third grade, I think this is really something that they can absolutely do as well.

When you reach the sixth grade, it's just going to be a little bit more sophisticated writing. They're going to have a little bit more—it’s going to look a little bit different. But this can be used, I would suggest in kindergarten, first, and maybe even second for it to be a whole class direct instruction, and maybe write a story all together. But third through sixth works out wonderfully!

Great! And we'll also mention we've talked mostly about the storytelling element, but there are a number of technical sections focused on animation and visual design and all that, and those are actually recommended for fifth grade all the way through high school, with some chances to really apply advanced offerings if your students are hungry for that. So it definitely serves a wide range.

Yes! I use the animation in my sixth-grade class, but some of my kids will come and tell me, "Oh, we've already done this. You know, we did this when I was in fourth grade or we did this when I was in fifth grade.” So it depends on if the kids really love to just really go in there and try.

Very cool! And then, in terms of actually finding it, I'll send out this link again, but it's basically right here in your chat. If you ever have any trouble hunting it down, just flat out type "Pixar" into the search box, and there you go.

Okay, so the next question that was coming in is that unit you described with storytelling, all the way from coming up with inspiration to building a finished script. How long does it typically take, Laura?

Well, it depends on the group. I think it's really important when the kids are really working hard and they're so interested in these things to take as much time as the kids want to take. I typically will do a lesson a day, but there are quite a few times when I'll take the character development; sometimes I'll take maybe two to three days because we really want to get that character down.

So I would typically do it maybe a lesson every two days or so. The first couple of lessons are going to take maybe, you know, an hour, but as you work through it and start getting into the meat of it—the acts, the three acts—that's going to take a little bit longer, maybe two to three weeks to get through that. But it's typically, we work on trimesters, so typically in a trimester I can have all the lessons finished!

That's great! So it sounds like if a teacher started right now, depending on when their school schedule goes through, they could probably finish it up by the end of the school year—kind of a nice thing to head into the summer with.

Yes, I think so!

Great! Now, going back to the sort of mathematical piece that we alluded to—the more technical side of things. Can you talk about how that works? What that looks like? How you may incorporate math into some of that?

Well, that's mostly for the ones that, when you look at Pixar In A Box—when you're looking at the animation, they are working through math with that in the artistry. So they're just learning how to plot and how to program, how to do the animation—use how they're using the animation. So really, in the animation, that's where they're using the math piece.

We don't do it as much, but they get right in there, and with the animation, there are so many tutorials in there that actually show them exactly what to do. They plotted out for the kids, and it's so exciting with the one that you're showing around now—with a bouncing ball, they get so excited when they get the bouncing ball!

But most of the kids will go right in there and plot it themselves.

Very cool! And then just to sort of expand upon what we were talking about before, for each of these more technical sections, there's both an introduction and then a more advanced mathematical section. So if you have fifth graders, you can start with the intro and stop there. If you have middle or high schoolers, you can even go all the way to the end.

Exactly!

Great! What do you think about this as a whole course versus a supplement? If it goes back to that elective versus integrated approach?

Well, I have to say that when I did it as an elective, I only had an hour maybe a couple of days a week, and the kids wanted more, more, more because they really enjoyed it. They also enjoyed watching the Pixar movies in short, so everybody wanted to be in that particular elective.

I think that this is such an incredible program—Pixar In A Box—that it just helps the student so much with their writing and their writing block. I think it's just—I use it in my writing block and I will continue to use it in my writing block for my whole class from now on because I just think the quality of their writing that's coming out is fantastic.

Then when they write scripts, they also start learning about dialogue and they also start learning about how to place the action, and those sorts of things. I just feel it's better to do it as a writing block.

Wonderful! I know folks are asking about Google Classroom, which is something that you mentioned to me before we got started here. What do you recommend there as far as the integration?

Well, I have to say Khan Academy has done an amazing—and Pixar together—have done an amazing job with creating Pixar In A Box. The lessons are just right there for you, but then what I would do is I would go ahead and create a Google Classroom, and then you can share that with your students. That gives your students an opportunity to start adding all of the lessons there, so you can see all the different things they're doing.

I've had quite a few students, what they'll do is they'll take pictures of their character with them side by side, and they'll send that to me. You can have each—you can separate your Google Classroom into different activities. Start with the storytelling activity one, two, three, four, and then work it that way. Then you're able to see what the kids are able to create when you're there.

We also do our distance learning Zoom meetings, and kids are able to share all of their information that way too. But I think Google Classroom is probably one of the best ways to get some assignments and be able to give your kids some feedback on how well they're doing.

That's great! So we do something as simple as take that URL right out of the assignment or the exercise and then paste it into an assignment in Google Classroom?

That's it!

Okay, cool! That's awesome! As far as a teacher guide, obviously it's going to feel a little overwhelming at first because it's such a big piece of content. Any sort of resources you've found that are useful for digging in and making those first steps?

Well, again, when you're going to Pixar In A Box, what I would suggest doing is just looking at that educator's guide. It really will explain a lot of the—what's behind Pixar In A Box and how the lessons were created. I would just go through each one of the lessons. They're pretty straightforward because they've done a great job at explaining exactly what they want the student to learn.

That's awesome! Okay, we shared that link there. I know someone else is asking for a link to that script writing extension. We'll put that in as well.

Let's see what else here. Ooh, can we see a finished product? I don't want to violate any of your students' confidentiality or PII, but can you give folks a sense of what your sixth graders are coming up with?

Well, I’ve been getting a lot of stories about unicorns and a lot of pictures of unicorns and things like that. I wish I could—I had some of those things, but we left before we got to get a lot of the finished products. Some of the students will come up with amazing narrative scripts about things that are happening in their own lives, and I just wish I had some to show you. But you're going to be amazed at what you find and what you guys are going to get—some of their pictures they draw for me, and then with the characteristics, you have to draw on the outside, the external, and then the inside, the internal. Some of the pictures these guys are sending me—you could tell they really enjoy it!

Oh, that's awesome! And especially right now, I think, you know, like we've been talking about the really tough emotions of this moment. For students to have an outlet to share how they're feeling, even if it's through a fictional script—like it’s so powerful to be able to get that out there.

Yeah.

Okay, as far as the scripting piece, I don't know if you'll be able to speak to this, Laura, but have you heard of anyone doing something similar on an iPad if they don't have access to Chromebooks? Maybe a scripting app or something like that?

They should be able to—if you go into Chrome and you're opened up, you should be able to access the Umi Script on any device that you have. I haven’t had anyone tell me that they haven't been able to access it because it's an actual app that comes from the Chrome Web Store.

So if you haven't—you should be able to find it.

So it looks like the extension is a nice thing if you do have Chromebooks, but even if you just have a web browser, like Safari on an iPad, you can still go to uniscript.com and get started.

It looks like you should be able to do that.

Yeah, absolutely!

Great! Again, sort of the question around isolation versus whole unit. Obviously, there's this huge cornucopia of lessons here. Do you think it's okay just to sort of pick and choose, like, "Hey, maybe I want to do a little bit of geometry" or "a little bit of stat," or is it really better to go through that full unit of storytelling?

Well, it’s better to go from beginning to end, especially with storytelling. Now with the animation, you can—the some of them build upon the other ones, so it’s really better to go in the sequence in which the lessons are provided for you.

Makes sense! Yeah, I think storytelling is such an additive cumulative process that you don't just dip in and out for that one.

What about this question, especially for younger students? So maybe like sixth graders and below, obviously, anytime you have students who are under 13, there are very specific policies in place when it comes to technology. Do your students actually have Khan Academy logins or is that actually irrelevant?

Every single one of my kids has a Khan Academy login. That's one thing that we have emphasized. It's been incredible to be a Khan Academy ambassador because I've been able to show all the teachers how to get on Khan Academy, how to set up their classrooms—all of that. So they're able to—every single one of our teachers is able to use Khan Academy, and they all have their own accounts on Khan Academy.

Great! And I'll just mention, like I think that's probably the best scenario in the sense that that way you can track their progress using Khan Academy reports and things like that. However, I know these are very different circumstances than we're used to.

If you're just like, "I want to roll this out, but I don’t have time for another platform, another set of passwords," like we were just saying a second ago, you can always come over to Google Classroom or whatever your LMS is and just flat out paste the URL in. Anyone can access it even without a login and then just say, "Hey, send me your finished product. Send me your brainstorm. Send me your script. Send me whatever." Then your students get all the benefit of all this goodness without having to create another password and registration process. Just throwing it out there.

Let's see here, here's a really interesting question around special education students. We did a session dedicated to this audience a couple of weeks ago, which is one of our most registered sessions ever. There’s a real concern right now that I think every student feels like they're being left behind in some ways, but special education students have unique challenges that we have to solve as educators right now. Do you think that this program could work for that audience and drive that same level of engagement?

Absolutely! I work pretty closely with our special ed team. Those students are—and I'll go back to when I was doing it as an elective. I had some of the kids that were from special ed that came into my classroom and they were going through all the lessons together with us. We work closely together, and I absolutely think some of those kids have great imaginations, and I think that they can do it without any problems.

Cool! Yeah, it does feel like this is really happening something pretty universal in this moment, which is our desire to tell our stories. It doesn't matter where you're coming from or whatever—this is a chance to really have that outlet.

Right!

Cool! Well, I know we're at the bottom of the hour and I want to respect your time, Laura, because I know you have your own students to serve. Any final words of wisdom that you want to leave your fellow educators with as they go off on their own journeys?

I like to say Pixar In A Box is just the art of storytelling. We are going to create generations if we continue to use this. We’re going to create a generation of storytellers, which I think is going to be fantastic. I would just keep plugging away, and like I say, it’s very straightforward. It’s pretty easy to use, and you just can't imagine the wonderful stories that you're going to get from your kids.

Cool! I think that's what we all need a little bit more of right now. So I thank you for sharing your story, Laura, and then I wish everyone else incredible adventures yet to come and stories yet to be written. Please, please, please wish you all incredible success on that tough road ahead. Thank you so much, Laura, and thanks to everyone!

Thank you!