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"The question lots of kids have about school is, 'how is this going to help me in the future?' Well, here it is."
That's how sophomore Ryan Williams describes the project he and his classmates recently completed in Kris DeBruine's video production class at Ferndale's Windward High School. The class produced a 12-minute "virtual tour" DVD of Pioneer Park, a historical site in Ferndale.
The Ferndale Heritage Society had suggested the project to Windward students for several reasons, according to Society president Serena Leibrant. "We needed a promotion piece and also something we could show to people who can't navigate the parts of the park that aren't handicapped-accessible," she says. "And because our mission is to educate, it made sense to have students get involved in their community and learn their own history." Teacher Kris DeBruine began by dividing the class into five groups of five. Each team was assigned to cover two houses in the park, with responsibility for conducting research, writing a script, sketching a storyboard and shooting both stills and video. They also created the DVD sleeve and label. Ryan-who wrote some of the DVD's script and narrated all of it-says, "It was a lot of work and sometimes it was stressful because we had deadlines. But after all was said and done, it was worth it, because it seems more applicable to real life." At the end of the five-week project, the students invited Ferndale Heritage Society board members and other interested community folks to a premiere viewing at the school. "It's awesome," says Serena, who is already thinking of other possible student projects. In her second year of teaching, Kris credits the tools she and her school coach developed for helping her organize the project and for keeping students on task. These tools include a job description form that the small groups used to determine individual roles, a research form, and a grading rubric. You can access them-and other tools Kris used-at www.windwardhigh.org/kdebruine/video/projects/pioneerparkintro.html.
Kris says logistics can be challenging when you are trying to get groups of students out into the community. However, she plans to offer a major project every semester-ones that develop real-world skills-because she believes assignments like this add authenticity to her students' work. "I could see in the way the students handled themselves that they were taking the project more seriously," she concludes.
That's good news for students like freshman Jake Mallahan, who says, "I like this kind of learning because I like to get my hands on stuff and experiment. It works better for me than learning out of a textbook."
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