A few years ago, I was lucky enough to have a great student teacher and two really awesome honors freshmen classes. While my student teacher, Annie, was still working with us, I had some time to brainstorm a new project. I wanted to do something that would not only take advantage of the amazing students that I had, but also help them to really dissect the play we were studying, Othello by William Shakespeare. As I said, I had a great student teacher, who literally could have stood on her own in class and been effective on the first day of student teacher, so I brainstormed with her, and we decided that these students could make movies.
We met with our TV broadcasting teacher, Gary, and decided that if we were going to make movies that the students were going to be "all in" from beginning to end. Gary walked us through the process of script writing, story boarding, filming, and editing, and we just knew that these students could do it. The project began with a presentation by Gary to the classes so that they knew the process and the vocabulary of being literate in this process. I then allowed the students class time to write scripts, which we then "okayed," create storyboards, which Gary checked over, and prepare for taping. All taping was completed outside of class time, and editing was completed in class. Upon completion of all movies, Gary and I linked these together to create one all-encompassing movie to cover the entire play.
After the movie was complete and previewed by the students, we had a "premiere" at night for all parents, family members, students, friends, etc. to attend. This was also a very civic minded class, and they had decided that they wanted to raise money to support the victims of the genocide in Darfur. The students collected donations at lunches, and also charged $2 a ticket for the premier. To further entice potential audience members, they provided food and drink for the event, and created what ended up being a very nice reception prior to the film. The event was a hit and $2000 was sent to SaveDarfur.org.
The next year, the word was out that my classes completed this project, and the challenge was on. From the beginning of the year, students discussed what background they would set Othello in (i.e. Harry Potter, That '70's Show), how they would raise money, and what roles they would each play in their groups (i.e. director, editor, artist, on-screen talent, videographer, writer). Gary was on board once again, and ran two meetings this year as well: one to begin the project and one to train videographers and editors on the equipment. In my wildest dreams I did not think that the students could be more successful in both their cineliteracy, but also in their work to help those in Darfur. This year, students completed editing on their own and understood the process of production even better, and they raised $5,000 for SaveDarfur.org.
I am one week into this year's movie project, and the challenge seems even more difficult this year. My students have not been as successful this year as in years past on previous projects and overall are having a difficult time working up to the expectations of an honors class. But, I began this project, and all of a sudden, they "stepped up." So far, they are working tirelessly to create scripts that not only represent the major themes of their portion of the play, but also ones that are appealing to an audience. The scripts have been written and the storyboards drawn, and groups began taping this weekend. Project based learning seems to be what wakes this class up and pushes them to success. They will become more literate in their analysis of literature, as well as in cinema production. This class, no question, is one that can definitely benefit from being encouraged to be civic-minded, looking outside of themselves and looking to help others. The discussions of who to support and how to support them have begun.
I am keeping my fingers crossed.
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