I'm slightly embarrassed to type that I haven't really thought about implementing Movie Making in the classroom, it might be because I haven't had an opportunity in placements. But I have thought about this at great length while I was at lunch and believe I'm making excuses for being narrow minded and not thinking like a teacher when I see movie making programs. And I'm willing to call out other teachers, who still believe that Movie Making has no place in the Humanities classroom. Movie Making is a fantastic task that contains a clear set of Objectives, Roles and at the end has a completed effort where all the hard work can be seen. I won't go into too much detail but think about the roles of a Director, Costume designer, Lighting expert and etc. These are all complicated roles that can be discussed as well as questioned before, during and after the process of Movie making; which is vital to observing whether or not the student understands the task. But it is also important to remember that a task as exciting and involving as movie making is going to force personalities to rub up against each other.
Now that the justification for Movie Making is complete, lets discuss some the creative ideas for respective topics. When I use the term Movie, I don't use the term definitively, documentaries or news broadcasts are both equally valid when setting up Humanities projects. For instance a documentary response to this article by Andrew Bolt (I could say something witty about him and his values but you know..........is there really any point)
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_cameron_is_right_and_multiculturalism_has_failed/ . Or a theatrical response to the political underpinnings of Ayn Rand's
Objectivism. There is a reason why I continue to place an emphasis on Response, student's interpreting data and then creating a response can be useful when observing signs that infer critical thinking.
There are a lot of people who wish they had thought of this earlier.
Today's entry will only be a short one, so I leave you with a request rather than a quote, read through the blog by Bolt and then scroll down to the comments. Even these comments can be used in the Humanities classroom, whether you agree with them or not, they still provide interesting and diverse data for students.
I think you make a good point about how complex the process of constructing a visual text is. I believe that students need to be aware of the process of construction, as applied to any medium, in order to understand the ideologies and values that are intrinsic to the text. For this reason, it is particularly pertinent to humanities subjects (I write specifically with History and English in mind). Let's face it, it's a more interesting way of understanding the relationship between ideologies and text than what is traditionally offered.
ReplyDeleteYou raise a valid point about students needing to be aware of the process of creation and the role they will play in a collaborative effort. It's something that I overlooked but upon reflection realise that it's vital to the task/project.
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