Education and teamwork debut in Bayside Middle films project

By Irene Bowers

Correspondent

BAYSIDE

Education received top billing at Bayside Middle School when eighth-graders adapted a short story into a movie format.

Students taught by Meghann Scott participated in a quarter-long project, which culminated in "Movie Showcase Night," along with popcorn, drinks and an audience.

Roughly 100 students and family members attended the screening, held Nov. 12 at the school.

Twelve student movies were created during the nine-week grading period, and students overwhelmingly approved the project.

"We learned a whole lot more about the process than from just sitting in class," said Brandi Bishop, 13.

The movie project was based on a short story unit that closely examined "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs.

"Instead of a traditional test on what they learned in this unit, the students had to take all the information and apply it to creating a new product," said Scott, who has been at Bayside Middle for five of her eight years.

This was the first time she has had students use a short story's plot structure to create a contemporary movie. She teaches Advanced English and AVID Advanced English classes.

Forty-three students broke into 12 teams that created story lines, wrote scripts, acted, directed and completed a follow-up assignment. Scripts were required to address setting, characterization, tone, mood, theme, point of view and drama.

Teams were graded on how completely they accomplished the assignment.

In keeping with "The Monkey's Paw," movie plots had to contain three wishes. This included an initial wish that received an unexpected answer, a second wish made in response to the surprising development, and a third wish that undid or responded to the second wish.

"It helped to already have a story base, so we could focus on other things," said Joey Robinson, 13. "We had to put in certain literary elements, and that made you really think about how they applied," said Shomari Rollox, 13. He and Joey were part of a team that created "The Pigeon's Feather."

"It was hard to write a script that sounded real," said Ashley Fontenot, 14, whose team composed and filmed "A Daughter's Pride."

"You had to think about language and if the way the characters talked was appropriate."

Each movie was filmed by students on the school campus during instructional hours, using flip cameras.

"Using technology reinforced what they learned on many fronts," said media specialist Frances Scott, who noted that students also used computer software to edit and add music to their productions. Movies averaged 5 minutes in length.

Tariq Ward, 13, said all the movies were low-budget.

" We had to get creative with how we did backgrounds and props," Tariq said.

Along with developing academic skills, the student teams learned a few lessons on group dynamics, said Ashley Lloyd, 13. "You had to work with people who had different ideas," Ashley said. "If you wanted a good movie, you learned to work together."

Irene Bowers, bowersi@aol.com