Media and the Middle Schooler

Question: Why should middle-schoolers be trained to use camcorders to express themselves?

Answer/Quote: “Middle schoolers are children of the media. If after school in the evenings, on weekends, their caretaker happens to be a televisions set wired to a VCR [or DVD player], the children bring new expressions to school….” P. 30.

Quote: “We need to help our students become media literate because many of them exercise their imaginations in the field now, and will continue to do so in the future. Middle school is a fine time to put a camcorder in their hands and let them begin to film, then to edit their film, and show it to an audience. We taped our plays, our skits, our oral reports, and special days whenever we could. Those tapes [CD’s DVD’s] became a record of our good times and allowed sixth graders to become accomplished film-makers.” P. 30.

Comment: Although most of the examples given by the author are designed to keep a record of “good times,” you also need to show students how to plan their recordings, the use of story boards, as well as how to edit their visual recordings and how to record the sound. Not as easy as it sounds. They also need to be shown how to plan and use slide shows and to plan and incorporate PowerPoint presentations [“Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them and tell them what you told them.”] RayS.

Title: “Children of the Media.” Elizabeth D Nelms. English Journal (September 1992), 20.