Authentic Lessons for 21st Century Learning

Unboxing Video

Jared Whaley, Keiana Cross | Published: February 27th, 2023 by K20 Center

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Unboxing Video

Students create a YouTube-style unboxing video to demonstrate their learning.

Unboxing Video

Summary

Students synthesize and summarize their understanding of a reading, historical event, time period, or curriculum unit by finding or creating items relevant to their topic. Students use these items to make a YouTube-style unboxing video where they remove items from a box and explain each item's significance to the assigned topic.

Procedure

  1. Present students with a topic to research or review, either on their own or in groups of two.

  2. Ask students to write a summary of their specific topic.

  3. Have students decide which portions of their summary would benefit from visuals for better understanding.

  4. Give students time to find and collect items to represent those visuals. Students can also create items, if needed. 

  5. Provide students with boxes where they can place all of these items that they collect. 

  6. Have students use a camera or smartphone to record themselves unboxing their items. This can be done by showing only the box and their hands in the frame.

  7. As students remove each item from the box, they should explain its significance to their assigned topic. They can also add some creative flair inspired by the type of unboxing videos found on YouTube. 

  8. (Optional) Have a whole-class viewing of the videos. This can occur virtually through a class blog or website, or you can watch them together as a class. If you are concerned about the content of the videos, be sure to watch them yourself before making them available to the class.

Miller, M. (2022, September 27). The unboxing video: A fun classroom video activity. Ditch That Textbook. https://ditchthattextbook.com/unboxing/