Teaching the Documentary NELMS 2015 Presentation

Teaching the Documentary

Dolores FrazerAshland Middle [email protected] www.frazerenglish.comwww.teachertoteacher.info

The Power of Story

Everyone loves a great story.

Stories teach us things, move us emotionally, and form the basis for how we understand the world.

But what is the formula for a great story?

Common Core Alignment

• Understand analyze, evaluate, and create texts in various media formats

• Understand, analyze, and evaluate appropriately complex selections of informational text.

• Use technology to produce and publish work for a specific audience and purpose.

Considerations for Mentor Texts

• Interesting topic to explore

• Scaffolding of lessons to teach content

• Differentiation of assessment product

• Access to technology

Unit Topic: World War II

• Bomb by Steve Sheinkin

• Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley

• Maya Lin: A Clear Strong Vision by Freida Lee Mock

The Ken Burns Effect Documentary filmmaker, Ken Burns, talks about the techniques

that make up his signature style.

The Ken Burns Effect: Content Vocabulary

Visual • Photograph • Newsreel • Interview • Live Cinematography

Oral• First Person • Third Person • Sound Effects • Music

The Photograph

Content Vocabulary• Focal point• Foreground/

Background• Framing • Movement (pan

and zoom)

Style • Where is the story? • What is the

emotional impact ?• If the image were

moving, what would you hear, smell, feel?

Teaching Photographic Analysis

1. Observe

2. Explore

3. Make Inferences

4. Inquire Further

“It isn’t what a picture is of, it is what it is about.”

John Szarkowski

Modeling in the Curriculum

Lesson Common Core RI 8.7Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums to present a particular topic or view.

ObjectiveStudents will compare and contrast how George Strock’s photograph “Dead Americans at Buna Beach” and Ernie Pyle’s article “The Death of Captain Wascow” portray the high cost of war.

Essential Questions

• Is there such a thing as a just war?

• What is the journalist’s role when documenting war?

• How do filmmakers use the Ken Burns formula to create documentaries that tell good stories about real people or events.

Learning Activities 1. Define just war.

2. Watch video clips of Pearl Harbor

3. Analyze photo Americans at Buna Beach

4. Discuss animating photographs with Ken Burns effect.

5. Read and respond to Ernie Pyle’s article.

Life Magazine’s Response

“And so here it is. This is the reality that lies behind the names that come to rest at last on monuments in the leafy squares of busy American towns. The camera doesn’t show America and yet here on the beach is America, three parts of a hundred and thirty million parts, three fragments of that life we call American life: three units of freedom. So that it is not just these boys who have fallen here, it is freedom that has fallen. It is our task to cause it to rise again.”

The Interview

Salvatore Guinta’s Story

Content

Style

Point of View

The Comparative Analysis

Salvatore Guinta

Mike Strank Capt. Wascow

Identify two qualities that all of these heroes share and explain why this quality is essential to their heroic actions.

Introduction to Flags of Our Fathers

The Mission

The Men

Two Photographs, One Big Controversy

The Legacy

Assessment

Scoring the Response • Checklist or Rubric • Expectations • Feedback • Reflection

Curriculum Embedded Experiences Mirror PARCC Expectations

Common Core W.2Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

BombWhile reading Bomb, students watch a variety of documentary films to support reading of informational text, and analyze for documentary features

The Saboteurs of Vermok (BBC)

Hitler’s Sunken Secret (NOVA)

Maya Lin: A Clear, Strong Vision

Content • What are the purpose of

memorials and how are they designed and built.

• What was the controversy over the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and why is that a good story?

• Which memorial best exemplifies what a memorial should be and why?

Style

• How does the filmmaker use film techniques to tell Maya Lin’s story?

Differentiating the Project

Choice of Topics

• War correspondents • A Veteran’s Story• The Japanese Internment Camps• Memorials

Curating Resources

Social Media Google

The Tool: iMovie

Give it to them and they will create

iMovie Basics • Collect photos on camera roll. • Drag and drop onto timeline • Record and add audio • Sync images to soundtrack • Add music

The Documentary

Student Samples Reflections

The Effect of

Fear

More Student Samples

A Sad Chapter in US History

A Forgotten Moment

The Story Tellers of War

Student Feedback

Choice of Topics is Appealing

War Correspondents 27% Japanese Internment 70%Veterans 13%Memorials 30%