Film Adaptations - bringing text to life

Back in the day (er, when I was in high school) a "chill day" was when the teacher would pop in the video of the book you were reading and you would get to just sit back and relax. Substitute teachers were almost always relegated to the world of "movie monitor" when they would come in to sub, as there were no constructive activities planned around the "time killing" movie. But those days are no more!

I am so excited about the incorporation of film as text in the classrooms - from viewing to creating, this is truly a wonderful way to allow all students to access the text while still working on literacy and comprehension skills. There are many different opportunities to create skill-based assessments with rigorous objectives using film adaptations, iMovie, ComicLife and a variety of other methods.

An idea I had for using both iMovie and film adaptations would be to assign small groups to particular scenes in a book - ones that are prolific scenes in the film adaptation. Small groups would be tasked with creating a storyboard and script for the scene they have been assigned showing how they would turn the words into a movie. If there are cameras available, students would be asked to then videotape the scene as they have written it and edit the movie in iMovie. Groups would be assigned sequential plot points in order to create the entire story - the teacher would edit the different groups' videos together to create one film adaptation created by the class. Students would view the film and critique the different representations of character, point of view, honesty of the plot, creative interpretation, etc. Once this has been completed, students will watch the Hollywood film adaptation of the book and compare their scripts to the Hollywood version.

One other really exciting idea I would love to use in my classroom would be to create Digital Stories using VoiceThread or iMovie. When Liz Boeser was in earlier this semester, I was engaged with all of the different skills students would work on in creating perfect still photos. For this exercise, I would have students create a summer of the book (or maybe just a chapter) we have read and make a seven slide summary of the book (of course the number of slides could be any number - the less slides, the greater the challenge!). Students would need to identify the key plot points of the story, the main characters in each plot point, and the message each character is sending at that point in the book. For each key plot point (8 total), students will create a storyboard for the photo they will be taking. The photo should include people to represent each character involved and props to help communicate the message. Students will then create dialogue for each of the characters in order to communicate the main points being conveyed by the photo. When all of the storyboards have been completed the students will create their photos, upload them to VoiceThread, and then add the dialogue to the photos (in dramatic fashion). Voila! Seven Slide Summaries! Students would share their VTs with one another and critique the chosen key points, representation of characters, chosen photo setting/set up/design, etc.

Musical Genius - no lie.

If there is one good thing that has happened in my lifetime, it is Ani Difranco. She is - - well, so much. Musical genius - lyrics that are captivating and intelligent, that reach right into your soul and slap it around a bit; guitar skill - a master of rhythm, picking, and brilliant progressions; a feminist icon - a women with so much to say that is just so darn right about so many darn things. Ani received her fame only through sheer determination and commitment - and now her music and work has changed the lives of millions of people.

Above is the song "Your Next Bold Move" first was recorded on her 2001 record "Reckoning." The song embodies most of what I love about Ani - the compelling, relevant lyrics to the appeal to individual reflection and action. She moves from the political to the personal poignantly and her simple guitar walks you through the honesty of her lyrics.

Below is "Two Little Girls" which is a song that shows a different aspect of Ani's musical talent. This is about as narrative as Ani gets, although she does often write about personal emotions and experiences. She demonstrates her staccato guitar playing method and showcases her brilliance when arranging an entire band to play her songs.

I have seen Ani in concert somewhere in the vicinity of 10 times, in a variety of venues, at a many different points in her career. One thing that has always stayed the same - at some point in the concert I am brought to tears as a result of her musical genius.

Documentaries

One of my all-time favorite documentaries is "Born into Brothels". This movie won several Academy Awards and is most renowned for its method of giving children the cameras to shoot their own lives. At the core of this movie are some children who live in the red light district of Calcutta, where their mothers are prostitutes. In the filmmaker's own words, the movie was created for people who want to be inspired "to feel, to notice, to challenge, to take action." The movie certainly accomplishes all of these things through the multiple techniques of photography, video, music, interviews, and voiceovers. At the core of the movie is an investigation of some very difficult and complex issues, none of which can be answerable in a film but are given a new light when looked at through the eyes of the children battling these issues. The movie, through the use of the children's perspectives and multiple media, certainly accomplishes the mission of portraying the honesty of the lives of these children and the systemic oppression they are facing. Children telling of their own reality while not fully understanding the weight of this reality is what really makes this movie real and compelling.

Activity for using Documentary:
I am currently taking another course in the CI department focused on English Language Learners with Limited Formal Education. The activity of creating a documentary about their communities, their immigration to the US, or their experiences learning would be so powerful to use with these students in a content area classroom. This activity would allow for ELL students to develop social and academic skills while expanding on speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in relation to language development. In a documentary creation lesson, students will need to be very intentional about preplanning who they are going to talk to, what are the core components of the story they want to tell, and, most importantly, WHAT THE STORY IS that they want to tell. The structure and scaffolding of this assignment will allow students to use higher order thinking skills as they critique and analyze the important pieces of the story, searching for the right footage in order to communicate a clear message.

Oh, the News.

Minute-by-minute analysis
(N) - News; (W) - Weather; (S) - Sports; (E) - Entertainment
2 minutes - Foreclosure Scare (N)
3.5 minutes - Sequence of 5 different stories (N)
3 minutes - Commercials
2.2 minutes - Mild Weather exclusive from dog park (W/E)
3 minutes - Commercials
4 minutes - Weather Forecast (W)
4.5 minutes - Sports (S)
3.25 minutes - Commercials
1 minute - Santas for Seniors (E)
30 seconds - Forecast reminder (W)
30 seconds - Wrap up

Out of the 29ish minutes of the broadcast, 5.5 minutes were committed to the news of the day, 7 minutes were dedicated to the weather, 4.5 minutes were all about sports, and 1 minute was dedicated to entertainment (make that 3.2 if you count the awkward dog park weather report as entertainment). A whopping 9 minutes was taken up by commercials. Wow.

Overall, I would say that Kare 11 has the best local news although I am not sure I exactly know why I think that. While I watched this news, I was also watching the Channel 5 news trying to compare the two offerings (I cannot handle Fox9 news). Kare11 seemed to be less flashy and just delivering the news for what it was worth. The two channels had almost identical programming, just delivering the news stories in a different order. Kare11 did have the awkward 4 minute Entertainment/Weather report about how mild the weather had been lately, with reporter Jana Shordahl, but was pretty straightforward. It was nice to learn, however, that I have no need to schedule an entire 30 minutes to watch the news at 6pm on any given night as the news was over in the first 6 minutes. There wasn't much fancy editing happening on the 6 o'clock news and I didn't feel as though there was much sneaky rhetoric taking place to influence the viewers - or maybe it is just because I had already read all of the news stories earlier that day.

That being said, I receive about 97% of my news from online sources. From Kare11 to CNN to Feminist News, I am slightly addicted to checking news sources every 2 hours or so. I am fascinated by reading the same news story from a variety of sources, seeing which sites highlight which stories, and finding out which local news sites jump on which local news stories first. Additionally, it is interesting to contrast what different news sources find as the important voices and angles within the same story. At the core of my information addiction is Minnesota Public Radio. If I listen to the radio, it is on MPR. If I stream online news, it is MPR. It could be that MPR is the one source I truly trust to find news that is important to the varied demographics of Minneapolis. It also could be that the massive corporations that own every other news source (or so it seems) are unreliable for reporting valid, unbiased news.

Clear Channel has been at the core of much criticism in the radio/music world. With the status as the largest owner of "full power AM, FM and shortwave radio stations and 12 radio channels on XM satellite radio" and also "the largest pure-play radio station owner and operator", Clear Channel possesses a lot of power over what millions of people are listening to. The power in this is absolutely staggering. From choosing what songs can and can't be played, to forming cultural identities via music playlists, news choices, and radio personalities, Clear Channel can directly inform a large amount of a person's thoughts, beliefs, and even identity.

Activity for critical analysis of news:
Students will identify three different media outlets for the area in which they live. These media sources must be based in the local area - three local tv stations, radio stations, etc. Students will identify who they believe the "core audience" of that media source to be and then back up this identification with specific examples of news choices, music choices, personality choices, language choices, etc. Ultimately, students will analyze how different outlets disseminate information based on the audience they are intending to reach. Additionally, students will be asked to critique the pros and cons of media outlets having target audiences. It would be incredibly interesting to have students interview members of the target audience to find out the reasons members of that audience do or do not choose to identify with a certain media source.

Advertising Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf4QmIIOQEA (unable to embed)

"Dex Knows" commercials are based on the very simple fact that people want to know where to go for the things they want. Starting as a simple phonebook, Dex has now become as accessible as Twitter and Facebook, developing apps for the most prominent data phones. The intended audience in this commercial seems to be the stereotypically busy middle-class white family. This commercial makes Dex seem relevant to everyone in the family, kids and adults. The copies of the Dex character give information to different members of the family that seem more relevant based on stereotypical gender roles - letting the mom know there is a "laser light show" and telling the dad the bowling center is only "two miles away." By using the copies, Dex was able to make the point that you can find the same information in the Dex directory, whether it be in the phone book, online, or now via an "app" on your phone. Analyzing other Dex commercials reveal a very white, middle-class target audience. Dex, himself, is a man who represents the stereotypical white, middle-age, business man - wearing khaki dress pants, a button up shirt, and a tie. Overall, Dex seems to be targeting a very limited audience that has a high-level of access to the internet and has become hooked on the immediate gratification of finding exactly the information they need, when they need it.

My Created Spoof Ad:
After all of this analysis, I started to think how funny it would be if at the bottom of every commercial on TV there was a running banner that explained the bias, influenced, and implied assumptions in the ad. As a result, I thought of the What I Really Meant (WIRM) detector that a person could just point at the television or a person and the screen would reveal the "what I really meant" factor behind any message. Below is my ad: