Blog 14

The article, “Splicing Video into the Writing Process,” is a very informative article on the concept of teaching students through the creation of a video. The aspect I like most about this concept is the required collaboration of the entire class. The class is divided up into groups based on their strengths. There will be a director, a talent crew, a writing crew, etc. This brings the whole class together which I think is a great skill to master for the real world. The project not only teaches students how to work together, but it also teaches them the facts of the topic they are working on as well as technology, writing and creativity. The example the article describes is the Civil War documentary created by one class. Students are compelled to learn about the Civil War in depth so that their video is accurate. Another aspect I enjoyed about this type of project is that the students help each other when filming. For example, they work together to come up with ideas on how to prompt the actors to remember their lines. They also all come together to edit when the class views the rough draft of the video. Everyone has an idea on what to do when it comes to editing. This is where the creative process can be explored. One student wants to add sound or cut a clip or add in a picture from the web. Learning through this type of exploration is one of the best ways to remember something. As everyone vies for their ideas to be heard, students have to learn to work together. When working together, students have to accept that some ideas will be used and some will not. In this way, students learn when to be leaders and when to accept the ideas of others. When the video is finished, the students invite their parents to watch the video they worked so hard on. I think this part of the project is important. Knowing the video is going to be presented to parents and peers, students will work extra hard to make sure it is done right.
I found the filming process of movie making to be very fun. I was not sure how I would feel about it at first as I am not experienced in acting or film. However, as a group, we had a lot of fun with the project. It is interesting to watch other people act and give as well as get feedback. I was concerned with how the lighting and sound was going to come out because we filmed outside. For the most part, everything turned out great. There are a couple of parts in our film when the camera was too far away from the actor and the result is poor sound quality. This is the first project I have ever had to film and then edit. The editing process was also very fun. To cut out bloopers and add in sound effects and transitions is great. The best part, of course, is watching the final project and seeing how all your hard work has come together. If I were a classroom teacher considering movie making for a class project, I would definitely talk to other teachers first for tips. It is important to give students enough time to complete the project correctly. I felt my group was very pressed for time as we only had 1 week from the time the project was assigned to the time the filming had to be done. Granted, the film was not required to be very long, but given mishaps and multiple people’s schedules, enough time is essential. I also think it is important to make sure students understand how to use the filming equipment. It is very easy to record over scenes you wanted to save or even film with the cap on! When assigning this type of a project to younger students, there may need to be a bit more direction. You can’t just tell younger students where to get a video camera and tell them to start like you can with college students. We were required to make and submit a storyboard before we were allowed to begin filming. I think this step is especially important for younger students. Storyboarding allows the teacher to monitor the students’ progress and topic choice before they begin the filming process. All in all, I think film making is a great way to teach group collaboration, creativity, technology and content.