Lights, camera, reading

Presidential Award for Reading and Technology winner uses filmmaking to teach literacy

By Janel C. Atlas

Teenagers became screenwriters and directors in an innovative hands-on filmmaking program developed by Andrew Schofield, the 2006 winner of IRA’s Presidential Award for Reading and Technology.

“There were immediate reading and writing benefits,” said Schofield, who was at the time an instructor and the coordinator of the districtwide youth literacy program in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. In addition to improving students’ writing and reading abilities, the 12- to 24-month filmmaking program led participants to make a greater commitment to their education, he said.

Thirty-two students involved in the program—most of whom were boys ages 15 to 18 years old—had scored at or below the fourth-grade level in reading comprehension. In addition, 60% of the students in Schofield’s class at the Newton Learning Centre had learning disabilities. The learning centre is one of 125 public schools in the largest school district in British Columbia. Many students also came from backgrounds where violence, stress, and at-risk behaviors were common. The program accommodated 32 students considered alienated from traditional secondary schools.

Developed with Theresa Rogers at the University of British Columbia, the literacy program required students to select narrative pieces of literature that resonated with them. Their choices ranged from Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” to Witi Ihimaera’s Whale Rider, to Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. One student picked three pages from Jose Saramago’s Blindness, while some students wrote their own short stories.

The students wrote scripts, created storyboards, and arranged for locations, cast, and crew. They also shot footage, edited it, and recorded a soundtrack to complete their interpretation of the texts as film.

Working with Macintosh computers and Apple’s iMovie software, Schofield’s students produced nine complete films during the first year—exceeding even Schofield’s expectations, he said.

Even though the students met only once a week, “within the first three or four weeks, the students were participating more, attendance improved, and on-task time improved,” Schofield said. “Their heads were down and they were focused on writing for hours, revising drafts, talking about how to make dialogue work, and which camera angles to use.”

The literacy project culminated with a public screening of the films, which included a video exploring peer pressure among girls, a video of an artist’s portfolio of drawings that accompanied an original mythological story, original poetry set to student-composed music, and a video showcasing snowboarding and skateboarding in an urban environment. Students also designed promotional movie posters and prepared artists’ statements for the event.

One student said of the filmmaking experience, “I began to see myself as a new person, in a new light. Maybe I wasn’t so much of a thug after all, and maybe there was some point to it all.”

Among other positive outcomes, students showed improved self-confidence, self-esteem, and a developing solid work ethic.

Although Schofield has handed the reins over to a new instructor and is currently working as a vice principal, he said he knows the district-wide literacy program is still making an impact. The new instructor is learning how to make films under the tutelage of students, many of whom participated in the initial program. They’re using their newfound confidence and knowledge to teach her the art and craft of storytelling on film.

Janel C. Atlas is a freelance writer in Newark, Delaware, USA.

Lights, camera, reading. (February 2007). Reading Today, 24(4), 44.