Michael Flaxman, Sam Parisi, and Ed Tomassini
"Do you really think the color you see there makes the mood apparent?”
"What do I need to do to format the sound on this computer?”
"The theme of the story doesn’t seem to come through enough.”
Each of these comments represents a student’s contribution to a video production team as they research, write, shoot, and edit one of many public service announcements being produced for airing on regional cable television. The students are participants in VideoWorks, an innovative, multidisciplinary curriculum at Jamestown High School in Jamestown, NY.
As arts administrators and school instructors, we designed VideoWorks to address the New York State Education Department’s (NYSED) learning standards in English, art, and technology. In a 4,500 square foot production studio, students analyze, critique, and create media on a variety of subjects, in genres including documentary, persuasive production, point-of-view, video portrait, dramatic interpretation, literary adaptation, animation, poetry video, and video installation. In this setting, our teaching team mentors and encourages students to take creative risks as they engage in the complex process of constructing knowledge and making meaning. VideoWorks students discover real-world applications for classroom-based learning: they conduct interviews; write scripts, narration, and dialogue; tell stories; evaluate light, color, and screen composition; and edit their work with interfaced media equipment.
To be a successful mediamaker, each participant needs to self-motivate, contribute ideas and skills, and follow through on commitments. The VideoWorks environment is rich with opportunities that address a wide variety of learning styles. As each learner contributes her or his strongest skills, all acquire new skills through peer-mentoring and expert coaching. VideoWorks is a school/community partnership between Jamestown Schools and the Arts Council for Chautauqua County (ACCC). It is made possible by the Empire State Partnerships (ESP), a collaboration of NYSED and the New York State Council on the Arts.
In 1997, VideoWorks began as a one-semester, 9th-grade alternative to traditional English and technology courses. Our then-unprecedented, interdisciplinary teaching team included a high school English teacher, a technology teacher, and an ACCC media educator. Our classes met for two-and-a-half hours a day (three class periods), five days a week. Real academic successes resulting from the pilot semester led to VideoWorks expanding to two year-long classes. When standardized testing indicated VideoWorks students were doing as well or better than the general 9th-grade population, VideoWorks grew to a two-year, fully-sequenced curriculum with an added art credit. VideoWorks has always had academically diverse classes. Students who were previously on very different learning courses came together. Because the richness of the VideoWorks curriculum appeals to a wide variety of learning styles, our students’ academic achievements have carried over to other classes.
Every student is either fully engaged in real learning activity or moving toward full engagement. As they study English and mediamaking simultaneously, students come to understand the powerful influence that media exerts on their lives. As for the teaching team, we’re surveying the room, coaching, encouraging, and guiding as needed. At the end of each class students can be found planning the media work they’ll do that evening. Students often return to VideoWorks after school to work on class projects or just hang out. Some want to work on personal media projects (music videos, movie scenes, etc.). All are welcome.
Across the core curriculum, the introduction of the state’s new learning standards are driven by the need to answer two fundamental questions: What do students know, and what are they able to do with what they know? Educators have always asked the first question and believed the answer was to be found in test results. ESP encourages us to find ways to authentically answer the second question. Substantive curriculum changes were necessary for students to demonstrate their application of knowledge in situations predictive of success in school and beyond. Enter VideoWorks, a working model for active, learner-centered education. We’ve (re)discovered that learning is “messy.” That’s because our kids are always making something. Because of this, there are always opportunities for immediate application of knowledge. We know from one minute to the next what students are learning, what’s working, what isn’t, and what each student needs to get the most out of our experience together. In addition, the flexibility we’ve built into the curriculum allows for an immediate response to unanticipated learning opportunities. As of this writing we have nearly 100 students in 9th and 10th grade. We’re a growing community of learners.
We’re not trying to produce the next generation of media professionals, although the kids acquire all the necessary tools. Instead, VideoWorks delivers a transferable skill set—the habits of mind and work—that will serve students well in life, academia, and the workplace. Our students have worked as media interns in the community, have attended the New York State Summer School for the Arts Media Arts Program, and some have gone on to pursue media-related careers in college.
The VideoWorks curriculum is based on a synthesis of skills and knowledge. An environment that encourages and rewards this synthesis and the “failures” that are an inevitable part of the process deepens learning. We’ve seen extraordinary individual growth in our students. Those who begin as introverts become leaders. Disengaged students become active learners. Those who have remained quiet for fear of saying something “wrong” begin to speak in public presentations. They become active listeners who are able to embrace alternative points of view.
We, too, adapt and evolve. A recent evolutionary step was the introduction of a looped curriculum that combines two grade levels in one class—high-tech classroom meets the little red schoolhouse. Students don’t have to “wait for the right grade level” to learn something they’re ready for now. Team teaching takes practice and hard work. Philosophies sometimes clash. The learner-centered classroom redefines teaching even further. We are moderators and coaches; but ultimately, it is the learner who constructs knowledge. When we stop trying to “fill an empty vessel,” the learner is free to seek and own understanding.
In 2001, VideoWorks was recognized by the New York State Academy for Teaching and Learning as “an exemplar of the best teaching practices in New York State.”
Michael Flaxman is a member of the Board of Directors for the Arts Council for Chautauqua County. Sam Parisi has worked as an English instructor for the VideoWorks program for three years. Ed Tomassini is the director of the Arts Council for Chautauqua County’s MediaWorks program and media educator for VideoWorks.
