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The Newark Community Video Project by Jeffrey Hare, Principal Summary This year long unit engages middle school students in the production of a community video documenting place based learning. A digital video camera will be used in conjunction with digital video editing software and other tools to produce a video that includes edited video clips with vocal and musical sound tracks, title screens, and transitions. Students begin by completing a “Project Team Survey”. This gives staff information to create project teams based on personal compatibility and interests. Project teams then record their membership, place based learning topic of choice, and interest in various roles within the production process (cameraman, researcher, soundman, etc.). The real work begins with the “Research Plan”. This requires thinking up focus questions first, then coming up with methods and resources for research. The “Research Results” form records the answers to the focus questions. Both of these forms are working documents, successively revised and added to over the course of the production. They are key assessments, allowing the staff to monitor and adjust, facilitating step-by-step progress until production is complete. Video work begins right from the start. Capturing the planning, learning, and production process are important too. And on site video taping should not wait for a “finished” Research Plan or Research Results. Aspects of the production inform each other. Editing the source video means choosing important video clips and sequencing them. The fact is, most video taken ends up on the cutting room floor. Once video is sequenced, musical background and narration are added. Title screens and transitions round out the final production. Rationale Place based learning means learning about ones local heritage and environment, past and present. It also means doing it hands on, outside the walls of the school, using the resources and community itself in the process. Together, student engagement and authentic learning are assured. This unit in particular engages students in a network of teaming, choice, research, video production, and public presentation. There is opportunity for student participation in a variety of roles, at a variety of levels, and variety of skills. Multiple intelligences, learning styles, teamwork, and interdisciplinary work are all integrated in the process. Most importantly, this project provides a learning opportunity for students in a form students themselves have asked for. At a VRP sponsored student leadership conference, Helen Beattie facilitated a process in which students expressed their own “Essentials of Learning” (see attached). These “Essentials” were used to motivate students to take part in this project. Integration of these “Essentials” in a rich place based learning project fulfill the purpose of this unit. Grand Culminating Activity for The Newark Community Video Project Description: This year long project will culminate in the premiere of the Newark Community Video, created by 5th–8th grade students at the Newark Street School. Teams of students will create video segments based on place based connections to topics of their own choice. After completing research, video segments will be scripted, then filmed. Use of Adobe Premeire software will allow for complete editing of the product including voice and musical soundtracks, title, and transition screens. The video segments will be assessed using a 3 part rubric that rates progress on 3 standards: 1.18 Information Technology, 4.6 Understanding Place, and 5.15 Design & Production. 3.10 Teamwork and 6.6 Being an Historian are also standards being assessed. Local History Focus Areas: • Newark and the Northern Forest: Ecology & Geological History • Newark Schoolhouses: Past & Present • Farming in Newark: Past & Present • The History of Burke Mountain: Geological & As A Ski Resort • We Like to Dance…What Did They Do For Fun? • Snowboarding: A Vermont Entrepreneurial Experience • The Comic & the Tragic: Skits About Newark’s Past & Present • Newark Cemeteries: Conversing With The Deceased, Respectfully Speaking • Kids and Their Pets: From Work Animals In The Past & The Services They Perform Today Unit Rubric l Video Project Resources
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