Storytelling through the making of documentaries
Michelle Zheng
Diocesan Girls' School
Hong Kong SAR, China
Teaching students how to make documentaries is a powerful tool that can be used to showcase their views and opinions on the world around them. In this paper, the author draws on her experience as an English language teacher conducting a documentary-making exercise in a Secondary 2 classroom. Through this activity, several lessons were created which provided a very valuable learning experience for students, e.g.
They were exposed to the basic raw technical skills required for making a documentary.
They could share their knowledge and express themselves openly in digital form using the English language.
Through engaging in the process, they could conceptualize their own ideas, postulate suitable methods and presentation styles, learn to compromise and overcome difficulties producing a product to 'sell' their stories.
They were allowed to take ownership of their own project and manage their responsibilities.
In this process, students can not only learn the technical skills needed to create more documentaries, but also have to think more deeply about social issues and translate abstract concepts into digital form to increase the relevance of these issues.