8th Grade Civics Class Goes Digital with Documentaries
This fall, a Civics 8 class decided to present their research in an unconventional manner: documentary films. Ten teams of one to three students each set out to research a topic of current interest, create a storyboard based on their research paper, and then to bring in interviews, photos and video clips to compose 5-10 minute documentary films. In addition to learning about their chosen topics, they learned about the process of creating documentaries.
Video is not as easy a medium to work with as television would make it appear. The project turned out to be larger than envisioned, rivaling the magnitude of Science Fair, and requiring over 50 hours of work by a number of the participants. As this was the first such project in the history of Walker Middle School, there were some unexpected technical obstacles along the way, but the students and the various support staff handled these setbacks with panache. The IT team here at Walker, and many of the parents helped us find solutions for the technical problems and the resulting videos are a tribute to the many hours of work by all involved, especially the students.
The rewards of producing the films lie in the process itself, and in the resulting product. In addition to meeting the requirements of the civics project, the films are eligible for entry in a C-Span student film competition. Congratulations to some of our students for earning honorable mention in the competition. The results are available at (http://studentcam.org/Winners08.htm).
To all of those who helped out in making this project a success, THANK YOU!
May you enjoy watching the films as much as we enjoyed creating them!
Brian Surkan
Civics 8 Teacher / Documentary Project Advisor
|
