The Flip Side

Students live in a digital age where they don't need to make face-to-face contact to interact with each other. It's still, however, important to maintain a human connection with people. By utilizing Flip Cameras to chronicle a service learning project, we can combine the two worlds and offer an amazing experience shared by all.

Summary of plan:
Students will take their flips to a food pantry and serve the homeless for the evening. They will take footage of the event - getting on the bus, arriving, seeing the people, preparing the food, having conversations, etc. They will then edit their work and put it together to tell the story and plight of the homeless and food pantries. We would edit the video and present it as "The Flip-Side" and talk about how these cameras enabled students to be Griots, histographers and tell of their first hand experiences and thoughts about hunger and homelessness in the United States. We would do it to Audra McDonalds song Broken Windows song and present at our Community Sing event and local area community organizations. We would highlight the Flip throughout the video as a tool that allowed the students to chronicle - using their own voice and imagery to tell a compelling narrative.

Activities:
Students will begin their experience of the "Flip Side" by researching homelessness in the United States. In small heterogeneous groups of 3-4 students, they will utilize Internet, magazines and newspapers to gather statistical data and personal accounts of hunger and homelessness. They will present their findings to the class through PowerPoint presentations, posters, pamphlets, or "live" newscasts.
Throughout the research process, we will partner with local representatives to have them come in and present what they do at the food pantry and how it impacts their community.
After the research and presentations, students will participate in the food pantry and collect footage, using the Flip Cameras, to document their experience.
Upon returning to school, students will continue working in their groups to edit their work and chronicle their experience. Their final product will showcase a brief summary of what they learned through their research, feelings about their experience working at the food pantry and interviews with various individuals involved at the pantry.
Once the final product is completed an approved, we will invite the local community to our Community Sing assembly where we highlight the footage the students took. This allows for students to share their experiences with the rest of the school and community and feel a sense of accomplishment and philanthropy.

Assessment:
Students will be assessed on their initial research project as well as the filming, editing and final project.

Differentiated Instruction:
Bilingual students can create their films and commentary in their native language.
Students with special needs will be given specific tasks (filming, finding research, images to shoot, etc.) to complete throughout the project. The project will also be broken down into specific and manageable tasks so as not to seem overwhelming.