Delivery
An interview from the movie
The Media Technology unit was delivered to all 19 Year 7 classes in 2009. Time is always an issue for teachers trying to deliver a Technology programme within limited hours, especially for those working within a Technology rotation cycle in which they might teach a class for one cycle during the year. With only three weeks to deliver the unit, Peter simplified things so that students were still being exposed to the knowledge and skills of film-making. Students worked as a class to make the film and experienced the different components it involves such as filming, directing, acting, working the clapper board, and editing.
Throughout the unit, Peter uses the same language students have had, or will have, in other Technology cycles, so that the Technology process is reinforced throughout the year. "They've talked about mocking-up in other classes, so I'll ask them 'how we would mock-up or create this shot? What would the film look like?' So we're addressing those aspects as we go along. I'll say: 'You're doing the same sort of thing that you do in Food or Plastics but our product is the film that we're making'. So they start to understand that transfer, how it relates to other subjects they're doing in the Technology process."
Peter also taught the class to use 'tools' they would encounter in other Technology classes, such as a Gantt chart for use in planning.
Due to the relatively short time period available, the class plunged straight into work on their project. Peter gave the students a brief - to work as a class to make a film based on The Bully Asleep, a poem by John Walsh. In lesson one, the students examined the poem, devised some scene images, discussed the characters and roles and, in groups of four, started writing scripts for scenes about Billy's life.
In the second lesson the class looked at storyboarding and how to set out a three-column script. Peter explained what a treatment is and the students broke it up into various shot components. Each student then developed their own treatment, in the form of a three-column script, based on the character Billy.
A scene from the filmed segment of 'The Bully Asleep' poem
During lesson three, the students filmed the story about Billy based on the three-column script. They worked on editing this in the following lesson. They then filmed the poem and edited that during the fifth lesson.
In lessons six to nine, the students worked in smaller groups to develop vignettes that portrayed different kinds of bullying. They also prepared interviews of the main characters and worked in the TV studio rehearsing for their broadcast on TV5.
During the final lesson, the students evaluated and assessed their work, one part being consideration of "I can apply technological skills to develop an outcome". The teacher-assessment criteria included "Demonstrates understanding of technological practice in developing a solution".
