From Classroom to Screening Room

Third graders from Claremont Elementary School recently went from the classroom to the screening room to learn the essentials of narrative storytelling at the Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) in Pleasantville.

On December 12, Claremont teachers Stefanie Badame and Christian Aguilar took their classes on a field trip to the nonprofit cultural arts center to take part in a new education program called What’s the Story, a writing-based course comprised of three different units.

“We’re hoping students learn the same tools filmmakers use to tell a story and bring it back to the classroom to use it in their writing,” said Nancy Woolf, educational program volunteer.

For nearly two decades Ossining has been partnering with JBFC to provide literacy education through the power of storytelling. Ms. Woolf has been volunteering at JBFC since 2008.

In the theater, students had the opportunity to view two animated films. The first film, titled “My Life with the Wave” was created by an eleven-year-old boy and took more than a year to make. It featured over 900 hand-drawn pictures, with a run time of just over a minute.

Afterward students were asked to discuss the details of the story using descriptive adjectives to explain what they saw in the short film.

“Speechless, annoyed, breathless, anxious, sloshing,” were a few of the words shared by the enthusiastic elementary school kids.

The second film was a bit longer and focused on sound to help move the narrative forward. Students continued to share examples aloud, this time focusing on how the sound effects helped them understand what was happening in the story.

After the screenings, students enjoyed a popcorn break before splitting up into groups for a storyboarding activity. In groups of eight, each student wrote a single sentence and sketched a corresponding scene to illustrate their words.

“Henry was eight years old and got lost in the enchanted forest,” read William S.

“Henry then found a large lake full of axiotos,” described Karla P.

Karla said axiotos are like “creepy crabs.”

The young writers then shared their collective stories, each with unique settings, characters, and descriptive dialogue.

“The program helps students understand what makes a great story, so if they use one descriptive word in their story instead of “good or happy” then it’s a success,” Ms. Woolf said.

Unit two will continue in January, where students will screen new films and use more descriptive language to write about scenery and the characters they meet along the way.

The third and final unit will focus on documentary filmmaking, allowing students to write their own personal narratives about the things they love and what makes them special.