This is more than a lesson plan...it is the way we do business weekly in SMSVP (South Middle School Video Productions):
Getting Started: To begin this process, you have to brainstorm and prioritize the needs of your students and the school. Once this has been done, it is a matter of viable and perpetual networking. Everyone must have jobs/tasks that they buy in to or have a vested interest in, and they must have some choice in order to achieve this.
For SMSVP it looks like this: Production Team- advertisers/web designers (these students focus on promoting the production, getting the word out, and are in charge of our website [www.smsvp.weebly.com]), master editors (these students focus on putting all other teams' videos into one polished broadcast using iMovie and editing skills)
Other Teams- Each team must have a: -Director (this student will lead the team, and they are responsible for making sure that the team completes and turns in the weekly video) -Editor (this student edits the video produced by the team using iMovie software) -Anchors/Reporters (these students will conduct interviews and report on necessary activities relevant to each team focus) -Recorders/Writers (these student record plans of the team, keep track of team information, and help create scripts for the team)
Current SMSVP Teams: Sports Team A- This team covers the sporting events, teams, and activities at SMS. They conduct interviews, collect footage, and inform the student body on school sports.
Sports Team B- This team covers professional and college sports. They conduct interviews of student preferences and opinions, and collect footage of major sporting events (highlights).
Club Teams A and B- These teams conduct interviews and make commercials for all clubs (Math Club, Risk Club, Running Club, eLeaders, Guitar Club, Academic Team, FCA, Art Club, Pep Club, NJHS, Stuco, etc.)
PBIS Team/Administration Team- This team talks with administrators and counselors, and provides a medium for school wide messages from the top down. Also, this team help promote PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Support).
Humor Team- This team provides the comic relief for the productions, using YouTube, commercials, randomness.
Special Events Team- This team covers school special school activities, such as Fun Friday, Dances, Assemblies.
Music Team- This team covers all things music at SMS (Band, Orchestra, Choir, Guitar Club, Song of the Week).
Camaraderie Team- This team focuses on school unity through new student interviews, guess what teacher game, teacher of the week, student of the week, birthdays, etc.
Current Events Team- This team investigates and informs the student body on major news events and conducts interviews as well.
This Day in History Team- This team provides a connection to the past by informing the school on significant historical events.
Comments
When I started this at the beginning of the year, I was just dealing with a small group of my 7th grade students. My sixth hour class, which was smaller than the other classes, was able to conduct interviews when we had leftover time from World History class. I did all of the editing, and it was very time consuming. At the end of the first semester, the school made use of a 32 minute section of the day to provide remediation and enrichment opportunities for students. I and another teacher decided to use this time to expand the concept of video productions at the school. We now had time and plenty of willing resources (the kids) to make the production much better. We hope to continue to tweak and expand this production through using our high school video productions programs and getting more equipment for the kids to utilize. The kids love to do all the work and the learning. My cosponsor and myself are just their to provide structure and answer questions, while the kids make the production happen.
Cross-Curriculum Ideas
There are infinite possibilities with this lesson/class set up. Each kid has a focus area, and they have a vested interest in making that focus area quality. This could work in most any classroom and with most any curriculum, as long as the necessary adjustments are made to fit the class content (i.e. allow students to pick jobs that mesh with their learning styles and abilities, and they will be able to apply the curriculum/content through video production).
Follow-Up
Round-table discussions. We spend a day after completing a production to go over the positive qualities of that last production, and this also allows us to focus on what we can improve for the next production.
