This is the website that we will be using throughout the class to guide students in the process of creating their 3 minute documentaries:
You can download a useful PDF for in-class use.
www.indivisible.org/pdf/docWork_Eng.pdf
This project can be a semster long or can be shortened to a 5 week process. Within the project students will develop an undertanding of:
-photo compostion
-depth of field
-digital camera basics
-insight in imagery
-the interview process
-narrative writing
-how to use iPhoto
The lessons attached to this are only examples for the interview process. This lesson plan is adapted from Lisa Morehouse a former teacher at Balboa High School. She has mentored and inspired us with the Oral Histories process. The photography part of these lessons are an evolution of the project for Downtown High School.
Use this website to guide your students through the technical use for their
interviews:
http://soundportraits.org/education/how_to_record/Week Two/Day Two: The Importance of Open Questions
Warm-up/Do-now: As a class, review the difference between open and closed questions. Model with the students the process of interviewing the
Intro: Today, the students will be comparing raw transcripts with their final, published narrative in Voices from the Storm. The idea is to give students an idea of how open questions help produce good oral history and documentary. It also shows how some things in an interview will end up being edited out because they are unnecessary.
Steps: As a class, read the excerpt from the raw transcript of Renee Martin’s interview for Voices from the Storm (Handout 1). Next, have the students read the narrative excerpt from Voices From the Storm (Handout 2). Reconvene as a class to talk about the differences between the transcript and narrative. What did they notice was left out in the final edit? Why do you think those parts were omitted? Would they have included anything that wasn’t in the final edit? Why? Did the interviewer ask any closed questions? How could those questions have been framed better? How did the open questions help make a better finished result?
Homework: Assign each student a chapter from Surviving Justice and ask them to identify the central issues that the narrator addresses. You may want to provide them with a worksheet like Worksheet 1.
Week Three/Day One: Identifying issues and choosing a topic
Warm-up/Do-now: At the beginning of class, ask the students to share the major issues in the testimony they read for homework. Have students who read different narratives give a brief summary of their reading to the class, so that all the students get a taste for the different stories.
Steps: Combine the list of topics the students came up with some of the ones your class has already been studying. Ask them to consider which topic they find most interesting and to brainstorm people who they think might make good interviewees. They should put their thoughts down on Worksheet 2. You might also want to hand out the Oral History Checklist at this point. This will help them keep track of their progress throughout the remainder of the project.
Homework: Complete Worksheet 2.
Week Three/ Day Two: Preparing for the interview
Warm-up/Do-now: During the first ten minutes of class, students should discuss in groups or as a class who they have come up with as potential interviewees and choose one person to interview.
Steps: Students should start completing the Interview Prep Sheet. During this process they will decide on a good time and place to conduct the interview, and list twenty open questions they will ask their interviewee about the chosen subject. You should help students arrange for recording materials and help them sort out the logistics of the interview.
Homework: Over the weekend and into the next week, students should conduct their preliminary interviews. Ask students to also bring in a picture or an image that they like.
TAKING PICTURES:
Warm-up/Do-now: Ask students to answer the questions about the picture or the image that they brought with them.
Ask: Why do you like this photo? Does this picture tell a story? What kind of emotions does it provoke?
Steps: Students will share with their classmates the image/picture. In groups of 3 have each student share with each other their thoughts and opinions about the pictures/images. Then have each group choose one person to share out to the entire class one of the images from their group that they felt was the strongest photograph/image and why. This process will be important when they begin to choose the photograhs for their final 3 minute documentary. Students will critic the photographs from the final ones and post them in front of the class. Students will be asked to discuss and share their opinions about the final images/ photgraphs that were choosen for this first session in a whole class setting. Remind students that they will repeating this process again with pictures that they shoot on their own and it is importan thet their feedback is constructive.
Ask: Why/What do you like this photo? Does this picture tell a story? What kind of emotions does it provoke? What makes this a strong photograph? How does it capture the viewer's attention?
Homework: Students should capture at least 30 images on their digital camera focussing on the person that they are interviewing and the issue of the interview. They can screen them on the projector in class. They do not need to print the images.
