LAVA PROJECT AT KCPSS - Media Literarcy

This post seeks to address the effectiveness of a unique literary assessment that has been introduced in my practicum school, Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School. In a bid to make learning fun, authentic, relevant and meaningful and to change the traditional way of approaching literature, the literature department decided to embark on this media literacy programme, which was intended to allow students to make connections to the world outside the classroom.

This programme is rolled out at the Secondary 2 level. It is a level-wide video competition aimed at providing students with an authentic context to use and appreciate the language. The main learning objective of this programme was to ensure that students can learn how to express themselves creatively and communicate effectively via the context of an actual film production, from the pre-planning to post-editing stage. A vendor comes to school to teach the students the practical film making skills during their IT lessons whilst the literature teachers conduct media literacy theory lessons during Literature lessons.

They have based this literature assessment in accordance with Newmann and Wehlage, the 5 standards of authentic instruction; which includes, higher-order thinking, depth of knowledge, connectedness to the world, substantive conversation and social support for student achievement. However, the general agreement among the literature teachers in my school is that even though we might have been able to bring the 'real world' into the classroom and to teach our students to media literate in today's 21st century world, there are certain gaps in the curriculum and the classroom process of rolling out this assessment.

This project stretches over two terms, with the students submitting a 3-5 minute short film as their final product. The other deliverables of this project includes an initial synopsis of the film idea, a research folio on the movie's plot line and characters, the script and a photo-board. The students are now at the last stage of the project, whereby after the submission of the photo board  they would have to complete the video and submit it to the teachers which will be then assessed and the best ones gets selected to compete in a inter class competition. During the literature festival week in July, these videos will be screened for all to see and students will have to vote the best video, script, actor, actress, camera man, editor etc.

This alternative form of assessment is indeed a great idea as it has well thought out project focus, and a platform for students to showcase their talents and be assessed y the teachers and peers alike. However,  as with all good ideas this LAVA project definitely has its set of drawbacks. We have had complaints from students and parents alike regarding the tedious nature of this project as they are essentially being taught all of the tricks to produce and direct a film over the span of three months alone, at the end of which they have to deliver a end product that tests their application of their media literacy skills and understanding.

Often the general bout of complaints that come in revolves around issues of un -involved/ free-loading team members, not having the adequate resources such as camera, tripod to film the movie satisfactorily among st others. Concerned parents also do give feedback that this project is too time-consuming causing students to get stressed about this LAVA Project, which eventually erodes the initial interest element of the task and leaves them with the thinking that they just can't wait to get over this project. Also, teachers and students alike are running against time even to get the deliverable s all in order, so as to monitor their understanding and to address any major misconceptions along the way. And since only the winners of the level competition gets recognized at the end, the students feel cheated when the final product which required lots of effort on their part does not get its due recognition at the end. To cap it all of, this major project which covers a considerable part of the curriculum only has a percentage of 5% of the formative assessment portion of the students final marks. Once parents, or students find out about this percentage they automatically feel that they need not give a 100% of their effort to the project, causing the other team members to suffer.

This project also requires teamwork , with able group members whom are able to carry their weight as the task allocation is quite distinct from each other, which cannot be substituted by the other, in the event one decides to be the freeloader of the group. The roles that they have been given includes, director, cameraman, editor, scriptwriter, producer. They would all have to double up as the actors and act out their final product as well. Despite the fact that the school as a media lab, this is made available to the upper secondary students whom are currently pursuing their media studies programme as an o level subject.

Despite having much literary value and worth as a teaching idea,the tedious nature of this project deters students from enjoying the project and in some extreme cases causing resentment between team maters, teachers, parents and Literature as a discipline itself.

I sincerely believe in the idea of teaching subjects in a relevant manner, that could serve as an additional skill set that they have accumulated during their stay at KCPSS. It also serves as an outlet for creative expression as the students are seen to come up with imaginative ideas indeed. I think the greater problem here is the attitude towards creativity, and the thought that it can be assessed within such complex and rigid forms of rubrics and assessment. Whilst,  I agree that we should impose standards for any assessment  the learning value of the subject should not be lost in the drive to attain the assessment marks alone. Also, students have to realize that any creative task requires hard work and perseverance to showcase your true talent to the world. On the other hand, teachers should also realize the limitations of our students, in being able to comprehend what is expected of them, their ability to manage time, and work effectively in a group. It is also difficult to expect students to remain engaged through a project idea that stretches over such a long period of time. Interesting activities must be put in place to motivate them along the way as well. Teachers should be flexible to understand what might hinder the process of completion of the task at hand and encourage groups to get out of that rut as well.

At their level, lots of hand holding is also required in terms of assistance in comprehending concepts such as mise-en-scene, camera angles, framing, editing, photo boarding and etc before it is expected from them as a final product. Also such literary projects must constantly be reviewed to ensure close monitoring on the group's contribution among others.

These are just ways that we can seek to make this project more viable and engaging for the students and teachers alike.