Using Video to Inspire Critical Analysis

The video above was created by a former 8th grade student in response to the Karl Fisch video, Did You Know? My original intent in showing the video was to engage students in a conversation around global technological change and what it means for them as learners.

Interestingly enough, student responses to the video ranged from awe to outright outrage.  Many were particularly dismayed by the statistics in the movie regarding student achievement in America versus other nations.  This sparked an interesting dialogue around the reliability of statistics in the video and eventually morphed into a full blown, inquiry based project where students were instructed to work collaboratively and research “facts” in the video. complete an analysis, or use the information to dig deeper about topics of their interest.

Students were given a choice in how they chose to represent their findings; the only real requirement was that they presented their findings to the class and lead a discussion.  I ended up with a variety of projects; some kids simply went with word documents enhanced with pictures and hyperlinks; others chose videos and podcasts.

The end result was more valuable than I had ever intended when showing the original video.  Students vigorously defended their arguments, questioned each other intensely, and walked away a new lens under which to examine information.  What more could a teacher ask for??Open MA_VideoRubric(Expository).doc