i Movie Haunts

We begin our fall activities in 8th grade by reading various works from famous American authors such as Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe. Our local outdoor drama produces a rendition of Sleepy Hollow, so we schedule an out of school feild trip to view the preformance. After these prequil activites we head to our school computer lab to begin creating "Haunts of Tecumseh Middle School". The students become the author, director and sometimes even the lead character in their own urban legend. The setting is somewhere on the campus of our school. Since I teach in an inclusive setting, one teacher stays in the lab while the other teacher is free to take students outside for filming on the grounds.

Students use iMovie and GarageBand to create and edit thier films. The fiming/creating/editing process takes two weeks.

Students are responsible for coordinating with others in the classroom for the various roles, staging scenes and props. They, all 30 of them, must also coordinate the use of the four videocameras we have to use in order that all get an equal chance. This teaches them responsibility, care for others and also how to set goals.

I provide scene sheets and rubrics to the students and then half way through they schedule a one on one review with me to give them pointers and approve the progress made in the project.

At the end we have a film festival and watch all of the movies. Students provide positive and constructive feedback to one another about their films.