Film Crew Reflection: City of Ember

First session of the film crew:
I feel that everyone contributed very well to the discussion today. For trying a new version of literature circles, everyone seemed very comfortable in performing their roles and trying to make everyone’s jobs connect together. While there were specific tasks assigned, everyone in the group felt very comfortable collaborating or sharing additions and opinions with one another as we each shared what we had done. Several of us had mentioned that we were so connected to the story the first time reading through that we forgot about our jobs (the sign of a good book!) and had to go back through for a second read. Grant stated in class that this is a form of socio-dramatic play, I think we all got quite into it!

Second session of the film crew:
Today went even more smoothly than the first session. I liked how we switched the jobs up from the first time of meeting and were able to try on new roles. I especially enjoyed how people interpreted their new roles differently than the previous person had. We discussed in our group today about how the film crew is a terrific outlet for kids who are more visual, and also a great way to focus on multiple intelligences. We were able to come up with several suggestions about the way this form of literature circles would go smoothly in a classroom. Some of the things we thought of were to be very specific about breaking the book up into smaller chunks for kids to read. We also thought it would be good to continue to switch the roles throughout the book for the students to try on different roles and prevent boredom. The questions we felt were most effective to ask students were those that were transparent and put them into the story. Also, while we were listening to some of the themes that had emerged throughout the book, we talked about the analytical thinking that would be required by students.

Final Reflection:
Overall, I think this is a phenomenal (and FUN!)way to get students to look at reading a book in a different light. With so much emphasis on visual things in their worlds, (video games, TV, graphic novels, etc.) it puts a different spin on literature and allows them to incorporate things they might be interested in, such as film, art, or music. As far as assessment, I think the most effective form of assessment at least initially would be to have the students fill out the crew role sheets with the work they shared with their groups. Along with this, I think having the students self-assess and write a reflection on how they felt their groups went would hold them accountable to their group members as well as themselves. I love the idea of creating movie trailers as a way to allow students to still use the film crew idea but conserve on valuable classroom time.