Please post your initial pitch relating to your final "Inquiry" video. Address the following questions/thoughts;
1. What is the envisioned project that students will be doing after watching your "model".
2. What content will your DV address, how will it support the larger project?
3. What "genre" or "non-genre" will you produce your video within. How your selection of genre effect your student's in their quest to make meaning.
4. Describe your overall "idea" How will you bring in multiple modes of video/audio/editing.........
9 comments:
Matthew Gasquez
I have come up with a topic that truly interests me and I think is a noteworthy topic to explore in terms of education. I am very interested in homophobia in schools, why does it exist? Has it gotten any better over the past few years? Any worse? Now obviously these questions are too broad and would be a huge undertaking but thinking along these lines I began to think of a club that is present in many high schools and colleges nowadays; the gay/straight alliance (GSA). I unfortunately did not have a gay/straight alliance at my school in North Carolina and I always thought that it would have helped with the homophobia in my school but when I transferred to high school in New York, where there was an active gay straight alliance club, homophobia was still ever present and damaging. Here at UB we have the LGBA but I myself have still been called names while walking though campus and I only know that we have this club because I went searching for it, not because of any type of campus advertising or word of mouth.
After being in the LAI program for a year now I have obviously met many practicing teachers. I have spoken with them about my experiences with the gay/straight alliance both in North Carolina and here in New York. Many of the teachers that I have spoken with say that in their school there is a gay/straight alliance but that no one attends meetings and that homophobia is rampant. For my digital video project I would ideally like to interview some of these teachers, and I would definitely like to throw some symbolism into the video as well, I’m not sure about the rest, I am still thinking of ideas. I would also like to interview students if possible. Please don’t interpret this to mean that my video will be just a montage of interviews, I will layer the interviews, I’m just not sure how yet, to speak in terms of Gee I feel like as I write this I am ‘playing’ with the ideas I want to use and it is not until I actually begin to film and edit that I will actually enter the ‘doing’ stage of the process.
Students can take a lot away from this video and it can be used as a platform and example for many other projects. As much as people don’t like to admit it America has, and unfortunately still is, been a very racist, sexist society. Students can take the idea of this video and explore different types of clubs within their schools or different types of organizations throughout history (anything from the N.O.W. to SADD could work) What is the history behind these clubs? What was present (or still is present) in society that made these clubs come into being? Are they still present in your school or society? What are/have been the sociocultural effects of the organization? Has the organization been successful? Why or why not?
So to make an already long post even longer I will sum up what I would like to explore with my video (I will not be focusing on the history behind the GSA as that would make the video too long):
1) What types of recognizable homophobia exist in our schools?
2) Why are gay/straight alliances generally not successful?
3) What do teachers and students working in a school that have a gay straight/alliance think about its ineffectiveness?
4) What is needed to change the effectiveness of GSAs? A drastic shift in social mores, a new political front, or do some American’s just need a slap in the face (of maybe I’ll keep out that last part)?
I don’t seek answers to these questions; I just wish to explore them and perhaps find a ray of hope within a situation that often seems hopeless.
For my project, I was thinking of doing a 20/20 style inquiry about the way the government keeps the public misinformed about women's rights as well as other general misconceptions about women's rights and feminism. I think I want to go around to random places and interview people on the street and ask them a specific kind of question that will reveal how much (or how little) the public knows about issues that affect women. Some examples might be: For every dollar a man makes, how much does a woman make? What is EC? Why do you think the FDA won't approve it for over the counter use but they have approved Orlistat, a diet supplement for women that causes fecal incontinence and oily discharge? How do you think conscience clause laws affect women at the pharmacy? Do you think they affect men in the same way? Who should protect women from violence? And how?
Those are some the questions I'm thinking about. I don't want to lead people to certain answers, but I want to ask them what they think about certain things and some of the questions I posed there. I'm interested to find out how much the public really knows about women's rights and to draw attention to the so called progress of previous years. I think it's a little broad so far, but if I can find a way to narrow it down I think it would be a really worthwhile inquiry. I think the 20/20 genre is the best way to go and this would be a really great mode to use in the classroom when students have an overarching question about something. I could throw in facts like 20/20 does and they always interview regular people. I saw John Stossel put a wig on and ride a bike to see if drivers moved over for women, so I'm ready to do some serious interviewing. :)
Alicia Morath
I was lost for an idea for a while and seem to lack these major passions that others in the class have. While I have a passion for teaching and a special interest in early childhood education, I struggled with how I'd put a video together in the short time period we have. I first thought of early entrants to kdg and are they really ready? It would be hard for me to interview anyone for my dv to be authentic, let alone find some young kids. Then over the weekend I had another idea. I am getting married in about 18 days or so and have frequently become frustrated with the costs. I am trying to bargain shop and get all the good deals, but that is not always possible. I needed a veil that matched my dress and tried to borrow 2, which didn't work and attempted to make my own (also did not work, nor do I have the time anymore), so I was forced to break down and buy one that matched perfectly and cost $179. I wanted to throw-up as I handed the cashier my money. Although mentally I could now check that off my list and I felt a little releif, it created another pain. Then I find out, that the skirt thing that I need for under my dress, which is made out of the SAME material as the veil, but uses about 1000 times more of it, only costs $50. Then, last night I was doing some more wedding stuff and flipping through the tv to find a show called "Platinum Weddings" followed by "Bridezillas". I thought these were funny in a sad way and then had the idea to maybe to a reality/wedding tv show about one brides dreams being crushed by the reality of the wedding industry. Any thoughts? This obviously does not tie into my classroom or curriculum, but I will be teaching either 1st or 4th grade next year and would not be doing an inquiry video with them.
Final Project Outline
For my final inquiry project, I have several ideas that I have been working on. I am not sure which direction I would like to move, however, I have been compiling information and data. For this inquiry, I will be making an I-Movie on one of three subjects. The movie will be in a loose documentary form of genre and I would encourage students to conduct their own project of this type. I believe that if students complete one of these projects, it will serve as a research type element to the classroom and they will learn by doing. Rather than compile data and information in the traditional sense, students will be using DV to capture their data and interview real life sources for their data.
Idea 1:
An investigation into racism in today’s world:
In this video, I plan to interview people of various ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic status (based on their own perception and validation) and will ask them questions such as: Do you have any cultural traditions that you celebrate with your family? Can you describe a time when you or your family struggled to make ends meet? Do you feel that racism is a problem in today’s world? Through asking these questions, I am hoping to find various perceptions and find out what people from various backgrounds think about these issues. This issue is one that will be important to my students as there is a highly diverse population that I will be dealing with. This question of diversity and racism should be important to most students and serve to educate those who are not aware of it. For this project, I would give students a list of questions (we would come up with them in class) to ask people and I would give them a check list of various types of people to interview. I would hope that this would be a meaningful project to them and I would try to tie it in with some literature that we will read in class.
Idea 2:
A deeper look into Christopher Columbus:
For this idea, I would construct a video where I would interview several people of various backgrounds and ask them what they know about Christopher Columbus. So far, I have only gotten standard responses such as “He sailed the ocean blue in 1492…He was the only one who thought the world was round…He was an explorer…He “discovered” America”. In this video, I will include people’s responses to these questions and will also include some of the facts behind Columbus as stated in texts we have read in class. I will also record people’s responses when I tell them a little about Columbus’ exploits. I would conduct this project in class after a mini-unit on Columbus. After students learn more about Columbus, I would be interested to send them out into the world to see what other people (adults) know about him. This would open students eyes to what is taught and what is left out of textbooks and curriculum and might make them more critical of what they read.
Idea 3:
A Genealogy Project:
This project might be the most meaningful to me and be one that I can share with my students. I was planning on creating a digital family tree whereby I interview my family members and ask them about our family history, cultural traditions, own personal experiences etc… The only difficulty I would encounter with this project is that my mother lives in NYC as of two weeks ago and I probably won’t be able to interview her. For my students, this would be an excellent way for them to learn about their own families and find out about the history of their family (such as if anyone in their family fought in WWII as we read the book Night by Elie Weisel…or if anyone was in a concentration camp etc…)
My final project will explore several questions about life and friendship and happiness, but namely one: "What is freedom?" I am going to document and inquire and interview an activity that a few of my friends and I have recently picked up. What I am actually hoping to set up within a classroom is a model for students to use to create their own interpretations of events or activities in their lives that they enjoy. I see students creating their own films that reflect this type of engagement and self-explorations of the concepts of freedom and happiness, etc. I want to use this/these videos to inspire students to think of something they can use to write about, and create their own personal experience (or vignette) stories.
I wanted to use something unique and even surprising, because I want my students to see that it even the simplist, easy-going, daily activities can inspire emotional responses. I'll leave you with my title for my final project, as I do not wish to give too much away. I have already created my introduction for the video, which I don't mind sharing with you in class if you are uncertain about my ideas for this project.
"The Art of Mopedding"
I am not 100% sure how my video will turn out, but my initial pitch for genre is a text/poem interpretation. I would like to take Langston Hughes Poem (perhaps just parts of it) and use it as a critical look at "what it means to be American?" I would like to use "this land is your land" by the counting crows or any other slow/accoustic version even without words in the background. In the video i would try to portray how our history is often one sided, leaving out many perspectives. I still am working out the logistics of it, but i suppose that is my "pitch"
Teri Armstrong
Ok, this class has inspired me to re-arrange my curriculum in ALL sorts of ways! And I'm not just trying to kiss up...
I will probably introduce DV exactlt how Keith did in class- we will make a quick commercial/movie trailor in class. I have already planned to use this for my first two lessons of the year. One envisioned project that I have would actually be an end of year project. I have been teaching Global History for the past two years, and am moving up to 11th U.S. History this upcoming school year, so it is hard for me to determine just yet which topics I will be using this for. But as an end of year project, I will ask the students to pick one important figure in U.S. History (they can choose from any that were discussed during the year) to create a DV. Knowing that most will probably choose the same person, like MLK or FDR, I will not allow duplicate figures to be used in a single class. I know that the U.S. History Regents usually requires that students know about specific historical U.S. figures, so there will be know designated content (ie. the Civil War, the Great Depression). The main idea will be evaluating the chosen figures specific role in a historical event/content. The genre that I will probably use for this specific DV would be either person/character confessional, or the 20/20 E! True Hollywood story. Using these genres will force a student to really understand the importance of their specific figure, as well as detailed facts and relevent events that are related to that figure. It will also force them to seek additional research to make a successful product, and thus, learning more in depth about that person, outside of what we had learned in class. The overall idea that I have is for this to be the final peice of DV work for my class, and therfore, the most elaborate. I have a smart borad in my classroom, so the final product will be viewed by all. I plan that this would be a week-long assignment (5 class days), and that various forms of editing, audio and video effects will be used, as they will have experienced using DV many times at that point.
It took some time, but I think I have an idea for my final project that is both interesting and fulfulling to me and could be of some benefit to my students. I would like to design some type of montage/interview around the poetry video genre that deals with the Holocaust. In tenth grade, I teach Elie Wiesel's Night in conjunction with the global studies department's WWII unit. The students have of course heard of the Holocaust, but beyond memorizing events and dates, it seems like the full impact isn't always felt. I'm thinking of using a poem written by a teacher who teaches Night but doesn't feel qualified to address the gravity of the situation.
This DV project would lead into my research project, the I-Search paper which deals with various types of intolerance, scapegoating, genocide, etc. This project could launch some independent inquiry on the students part to connect with the curriculum.
It took some time, but I think I have an idea for my final project that is both interesting and fulfulling to me and could be of some benefit to my students. I would like to design some type of montage/interview around the poetry video genre that deals with the Holocaust. In tenth grade, I teach Elie Wiesel's Night in conjunction with the global studies department's WWII unit. The students have of course heard of the Holocaust, but beyond memorizing events and dates, it seems like the full impact isn't always felt. I'm thinking of using a poem written by a teacher who teaches Night but doesn't feel qualified to address the gravity of the situation.
This DV project would lead into my research project, the I-Search paper which deals with various types of intolerance, scapegoating, genocide, etc. This project could launch some independent inquiry on the students part to connect with the curriculum.
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