Foulks Ranch Students Win Top Honors at California Student Media Festival

Ask Kimmera where she got the idea for her award winning public service announcement, Spread Happiness. Not Rumors., and she'll tell you it started with a song she was writing. 

Sophie and her team were given a language arts assignment: research the history of the idiom "Rainings cats and dogs" and tell its story in writing. Her research turned up several interesting details, and her film, Meet the Idioms: Raining Cats and Dogs, brought that history to life. 

Kimmera and Sophie, two 6th grade students at Foulks Ranch and members of our Foulks Ranch Film Academy, were notified last week their productions were selected as winning entries in the California Student Media Festival, our nation's oldest student media festival! 

These students are invited to attend the awards ceremony at the historic Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California on June 15.

As their teacher, it would be an understatement to say I am proud of their ideas and work on these projects. 

My students inspire me. And they awe me time and time again by taking something they learn in school and transforming it into something I could never have imagined.

I marvel at the skills and critical thinking that goes into making a film. For documentaries, there's the research and reading and comprehending of the subject and refining of the focus. Following that comes the drafting of a script and the countless revision meetings that take place between students and teacher, looking for the sections that need development, finding the details that are too specific or vague, and constantly asking if what is written is both interesting and on topic. And after all that, the film work begins. Shooting the stand up, finding archival film or pictures, identifying the copyright of third party materials and determining whether they are able to be used, the voiceover and editing of the audio, the timing of imagery to voiceover, the double and triple checking of audio to avoid spikes and dips. Several hours go into making a short 2 or 3 minute film. 

And it amazes me to think how there is no standardized test yet created that can measure the amount of learning that goes into a project like this. 

But to me it seems the time is right to embrace project based learning opportunities such as filmmaking with the advent of the Common Core Standards. Not that there will be standardized questions or essays on filmmaking. Rather, the depth of knowledge it takes to produce a film would be a solid preparation for students when they begin taking the new Common Core tests which will be rolled out in the 2014-15 school year.

Two weeks ago my students piloted the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) test. This computerized test will soon replace the current California Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR). The new test was very different from our current ones. The questions and answers were more nuanced with multiple correct answers that could be chosen. Many of the questions required written responses with a minimum of two or three details to support the student's response. Students and teachers and parents are in for a bit of a surprise. The bar is being set higher for education. And it's going to require some very different thinking and actions by all of us.

Just last week Elk Grove School Superintendent Dr. Steve Ladd sent an email to all EGUSD employees describing the shift to the Common Core Standards as "one of the largest changes in public education in more than two decades." 

He noted there will be a period of adjustment as we re-tool instruction. There will be new standardized tests, new teaching curricula to implement, new standards which might result in a "gap" in student performance. 

But I would predict that gap won't last long if we as teachers embrace innovative ways to teach concepts and subjects deeply.

Take filmmaking. It's like a giant educational hat rack upon which can be hung innumerable lessons. Dependent clauses? Commas? Citing a source? Determining the credibility of a website? When to use a purposeful fragment? Yes, all those things and a LOT more can be taught within the context of a film.  

For the first time in a long while, I feel empowered by my district to do what I do best. "While we have not left the world of accountability," Dr. Ladd noted in his email, "our focus must remain on what we do best-strong teaching and learning."

I appreciate Dr. Ladd's supportive comments in his email. Change can lead to tension. Change can be difficult. But change can also be a very good thing, too. When I reflect on our achievement gap at my school and at the subgroups of kids who are consistently underperforming, I sometimes wonder how are we as educators addressing these kids' needs? What are we doing differently to insure their success? Are we truly being innovative or heaping on more of the same?

Sure, there is a time and place for worksheets and rote practice of skills. But that can't be the end. I would argue project based learning is one way to draw these kids-and all kids-in, to engage them in meaningful and relevant activities. If kids don't care about their learning, why would they care about finishing a worksheet let alone remembering what it was all about?