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Teaching the Documentary Dolores Frazer Ashland Middle School [email protected] .us www.frazerenglish.com www.teachertoteacher.i nfo
Teaching the Documentary
Dolores FrazerAshland Middle [email protected] www.frazerenglish.comwww.teachertoteacher.info
The Power of Story
Everyone loves a great story.
Stories teach us things, move us emotionally, and form the basis for how we understand the world.
But what is the formula for a great story?
Common Core Alignment
• Understand analyze, evaluate, and create texts in various media formats
• Understand, analyze, and evaluate appropriately complex selections of informational text.
• Use technology to produce and publish work for a specific audience and purpose.
Considerations for Mentor Texts
• Interesting topic to explore
• Scaffolding of lessons to teach content
• Differentiation of assessment product
• Access to technology
Unit Topic: World War II
• Bomb by Steve Sheinkin
• Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley
• Maya Lin: A Clear Strong Vision by Freida Lee Mock
The Ken Burns Effect Documentary filmmaker, Ken Burns, talks about the techniques
that make up his signature style.
The Ken Burns Effect: Content Vocabulary
Visual • Photograph • Newsreel • Interview • Live Cinematography
Oral• First Person • Third Person • Sound Effects • Music
The Photograph
Content Vocabulary• Focal point• Foreground/
Background• Framing • Movement (pan
and zoom)
Style • Where is the story? • What is the
emotional impact ?• If the image were
moving, what would you hear, smell, feel?
Teaching Photographic Analysis
1. Observe
2. Explore
3. Make Inferences
4. Inquire Further
“It isn’t what a picture is of, it is what it is about.”
John Szarkowski
Modeling in the Curriculum
Lesson Common Core RI 8.7Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums to present a particular topic or view.
ObjectiveStudents will compare and contrast how George Strock’s photograph “Dead Americans at Buna Beach” and Ernie Pyle’s article “The Death of Captain Wascow” portray the high cost of war.
Essential Questions
• Is there such a thing as a just war?
• What is the journalist’s role when documenting war?
• How do filmmakers use the Ken Burns formula to create documentaries that tell good stories about real people or events.
Learning Activities 1. Define just war.
2. Watch video clips of Pearl Harbor
3. Analyze photo Americans at Buna Beach
4. Discuss animating photographs with Ken Burns effect.
5. Read and respond to Ernie Pyle’s article.
Life Magazine’s Response
“And so here it is. This is the reality that lies behind the names that come to rest at last on monuments in the leafy squares of busy American towns. The camera doesn’t show America and yet here on the beach is America, three parts of a hundred and thirty million parts, three fragments of that life we call American life: three units of freedom. So that it is not just these boys who have fallen here, it is freedom that has fallen. It is our task to cause it to rise again.”
The Interview
Salvatore Guinta’s Story
Content
Style
Point of View
The Comparative Analysis
Salvatore Guinta
Mike Strank Capt. Wascow
Identify two qualities that all of these heroes share and explain why this quality is essential to their heroic actions.
Introduction to Flags of Our Fathers
The Mission
The Men
Two Photographs, One Big Controversy
The Legacy
Assessment
Scoring the Response • Checklist or Rubric • Expectations • Feedback • Reflection
Curriculum Embedded Experiences Mirror PARCC Expectations
Common Core W.2Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
BombWhile reading Bomb, students watch a variety of documentary films to support reading of informational text, and analyze for documentary features
The Saboteurs of Vermok (BBC)
Hitler’s Sunken Secret (NOVA)
Maya Lin: A Clear, Strong Vision
Content • What are the purpose of
memorials and how are they designed and built.
• What was the controversy over the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and why is that a good story?
• Which memorial best exemplifies what a memorial should be and why?
Style
• How does the filmmaker use film techniques to tell Maya Lin’s story?
Differentiating the Project
Choice of Topics
• War correspondents • A Veteran’s Story• The Japanese Internment Camps• Memorials
The Tool: iMovie
Give it to them and they will create
iMovie Basics • Collect photos on camera roll. • Drag and drop onto timeline • Record and add audio • Sync images to soundtrack • Add music
The Documentary
Student Samples Reflections
The Effect of
Fear
More Student Samples
A Sad Chapter in US History
A Forgotten Moment
The Story Tellers of War
Student Feedback
Choice of Topics is Appealing
War Correspondents 27% Japanese Internment 70%Veterans 13%Memorials 30%
