Free TESOL Journal Article: "Taking Digital Stories to Another Level: Making Documentaries"
by Gilda Martinez-Alba
This article first appeared in TESOL Journal, Volume 5, Number 4, pgs. 743–749. TESOL members can access all issues for free here. To become a member of TESOL, please click here, and to purchase articles, please visit Wiley-Blackwell. © TESOL International Association.
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Abstract
Using digital stories to have students tell about themselves, share their culture with the class, and learn from each other can help with establishing rapport, shows respect for different cultures, and can be motivating for students and their language teachers. However, what happens after that? After making their first video, students have some basic background knowledge about making a video; therefore, it would be advantageous to use this new knowledge and build on it by taking video making to the next step to make documentaries. Teachers and students could use the structure of a documentary to build language skills while improving their video editing skills to create interesting short documentaries, which can teach about the course content, history, science, health, citizenship, and so on. This article will cover the steps and structure involved in making a documentary, tips for making it look and sound good, and ideas for free editing software for the computer as well as the phone and iPad.
doi: 10.1002/tesj.169 |
A digital story is usually provided by a first person and the focus is on the process of making it rather than on the product or the film itself. It can be thought of as an emerging documentary form, because it provides facts and perhaps even wants to make people think differently about a topic, whereas, in a documentary, multiple viewpoints bring together a topic, and the product is as important as the process of making it (Sanchez-Laws, 2010). Documentaries are also more structured than digital stories. Renov (1993) stated that there are four aspects to a documentary: to uncover, influence, examine, and explain. Digital stories may include some or all of these areas, but tend to be more personal in nature and are not bound to including these.
Fehn and Schul (2011) researched what aspects of documentaries students submitting to the National History Day contest had, and they found that students found images and made video recordings, edited their films, narrated them, included a soundtrack such as music and sound effects, interviewed experts, and provided citations. They concluded that “new technologies can work powerfully to engage the cognitive and affective skills of teachers and students” (p. 40). They can also be used to develop the language domains of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Another study conducted in an eighth grade history class of students making documentaries showed that students were interested in the process, were motivated, and demonstrated creativity in making the films (Swan & Hofer, 2013). It appears that making documentaries can be a useful method to get students actively learning, and future research will hopefully provide more insight into its uses in the classroom (Fehn & Schul, 2011).
Step One: The Topic
The story is the number one thing to keep in mind when making a documentary. What is the story going to be about? Is it compelling? It has to be something that would be of interest to a certain audience (West, 2010), and that the student making it is passionate about in order for it to unfold into an interesting film. Brainstorming potential topics in class to get students thinking about different ideas would help to get the process started.
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This article first appeared in TESOL Journal, 5, 743–749. For permission to use text from this article, please go to Wiley-Blackwell and click on "Permissions" under "About This Journal."
doi: 10.1002/tesj.169
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TESOL Blogs Interested in writing a blog for TESOL?
Contact Tomiko Breland with your idea or for submission details.
Check out the latest TESOL Blogs:
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Effective teaching begins with effective lesson planning. This easy-to-follow guide discusses the many approaches to lesson planning, addresses both theoretical and practical issues, and provides sample lesson plans and examples.
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Why do students feel that mastering academic English is difficult? This book shows how learning academic language can be achieved by developing a set of skills that can be honed with practice, effective instruction, and motivation.
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| Assistant Professor in Linguistics (TESL/SLAT), California State University, Fresno, California USA
Assessment Director, Center for English as a Second Language, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky USA
English as a Foreign Language Lecturer, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
English Language Learner Teachers, Cesar Chavez Public Charter, Washington, DC USA
Lecturer (Full Time), Foundation Program Department of English, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
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