Journal 6

Journal #6

In an article from the April 2005 issue of Learning and Leading entitled “Filming Compassion”, authors Janet Bremer and Marilyn Clark discuss service learning and show different ways that teachers can incorporate components of service learning into a curriculum. To be honest, I didn’t really understand what they meant exactly by “service learning” so I guess now I’d loosely define it as “an assignment or project that makes students complete by contributing to disadvantaged areas of their communities.” In this case, students were assigned short video ads that the inner city school or daycare center or homeless soup kitchen could use to show how students spend a typical day at school or to show potential donators all of the services provided by the soup kitchen. The students were given a rubric outlining all of the criteria that had to be satisfied to receive a good grade so that it would be ensured that their work would be of value to the school/ centers/ organizations after they were done.

Question 1:

What grade level would such projects be appropriate for?

This kind of activity would probably be most useful in the upper education levels, like grades 9-12. I think it would be easier to arrange transportation to and from the shooting locations if the students were teamed up with each other such that they could get the work done without depending on their parents. I also think that older students could be more mature and could get more out of this kind of project as opposed to younger, more immature grade levels where they might not be at a place where they could really take it seriously or make a quality film for them.

Question 2:

Would supervision be a problem?

Supervision should not be a problem as long as the students have arranged in advance with the organizations/schools that they may come and make the films.