Monday, September 6, 2010

Lesson Plans On Film Making - Quickly Get Your Students Motivated

By Todd Robertson

There is no medium more ideal for storytelling than film. In a classroom setting, lesson plans on film making can be an excellent teaching tool to promote and support literacy attainment in elementary schools. Lessons can be as simple or as detailed as teachers want, and can be easily adapted to suit interests, thematic content and student abilities. The process itself can be broken into many different stages, and is a resourceful strategy for teaching with many assessment opportunities.

The creative planning process requires students to exercise their collaborative writing skills, and allows teachers to plan writing lessons that divide the process into teachable segments. Initial lessons may have story structure as the main focus, using group brainstorms as n instructional strategy. Next, a script will need to be written by students, which may also present opportunities to teach about tone of voice. For example, documentaries often use formal tones from the narrator, and informal tones from interviewees. Finally, students can illustrate a storyboard, thus allowing those with a visual style of learning and those who lack confidence with writing to actively participate.

Reading will also benefit from the filmmaking process. Students will constantly read other student work during collaborative writing, and will also interpret and re-read work of their own during the natural progression of the project. Acting in the film will also require reading of the script.

For those students who are less confident or speak English as a second language, filmmaking can greatly help with listening and speaking by providing a well structured and planned environment. Confident students will also relish the opportunity to excel. Valid assessments will also be easier to obtain when listening and speaking activities are recorded in the form of storyboards and the film itself.

Since students will be constructing something for others to view, they will learn very quickly about viewing conventions such as audience. Like listening and speaking, assessing viewing is traditionally a little difficult, however, the resultant film will clearly show evidence of student understanding about viewing.

Collecting the resources needed for a film project may seem like a daunting task, and teachers may avoid this type of project because of this seeming difficulty. Teachers who are not comfortable with the technological requirements may similarly avoid filmmaking. It is, however, not too difficult. Webcams and personal cameras are well equipped to deal with video footage, and students often own camcorders that can also be used. Whilst doing post-production editing on a computer is fantastic, it is not a vital necessity, especially when camcorders are used. Students and teachers may simply need to spend additional time on planning and preparation before filming.

If it is within the means, students may like to use computer programs to edit their work once the filming is finished. The fact that computers are involved will motivate students with their editing work. Editing will also create an avenue for self and peer evaluation outside of viewing the finished product.

Lesson plans on film making are clearly advantageous when it comes to delivering an appealing and detailed literacy program. The range of possibilities associated with the project is endless, and teachers of any budget or level of experience can plan using film making as a foundation. - 40732

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