Yo

With support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and Sid W. Richardson Foundation

  

| mo I call it a film essay. It is one of the most useful teaching devices I have ever developed.

Every teacher faces the same problem, whether the stud
returning to a college classroom: how to encourage the student t
cally; and re-express it in structured, personalized form. Many

      
  

e six-year-old first-graders or 60-year-olds_
ely engage information; tackle analyte | *
Se) e classrooms gravitate toward short-term
Parroting on exams and outright plagiarism in paper-writing. Is it possible to standardize a technique which,
| without relying on a teacher's charisma or a student's honesty and dedication to an i ealistic conception of edu- |
cation, encourages students to risk failure and accumulate personally useful knowledge and skills? 0

   

1 will illustrate this film essay technique with an example from my own classroom:
1.a medical anthropology class, I use a film in which trephination-a form of surgery involving removal of |
a piece of bone from the skull-is done in a contemporary society under technologically rimitive conditions.
While the class watches the film, they also have before them--on a side wall via overhead projector--one or two |
questions about the film. For example: i otis :

   

 

called trephination. For what reason(s) was it done among the |

" e people described in the film? Could you use th

Describe the etic) technique « / ong the |
In e evidence in this film to understand why trephi- |
nation was done thousands of years ago? | vu :

| Immediately after the film the students write their essays. They have been watching the film intently (no |
| whispering, napping, courting or gossiping), actively observing to 1
_ assigned material for that week, or having completed the study we 1g, or ha
ing attended the lectures. In some cases, the answers depend upon applying some analytical approach which |

) have been trying to get them to practice. In all cases, the students are required to incorporate specific details |

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dy guid > accompanying the week's reading, or hav- —

from the film; to write in coherent, relevant, grammatically correct sentences; and when appropriate, to take a |
stand and develop an idea, much as if they were participating in a debate. * a

 

 

 

  

_ The essays are short and easy to grade; I have students wri

| essays a : | least ten per semester. I use a 10-point |
_ Brading scheme, distributing copies of the following grading criteria at the beginning of the semester and simply |
| marking the appropriate category (A,B,C,D,E,F,G) in the margins of their essays: a ee ;
To earn points: : |

| CATEGORY

 

TE

| but none are taken away.

 

| _ A +1: Your essay has no misspelled words. If three words or fewer are misspelled, no point is given,

   

— B_ +1: You write in complete, grammatically correct sentences.

: e | C +4: You define the issue (e.g., what is trephination, what is a rumor, what is a revitalization move-
ment?) |

D +4: You discuss the issue succinctly, unambiguously, and without padding. Be clear; use relevant
examples; do not go off on tangents; speak directly to the issue.

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AG) Program in Community College Education, The University of Texas at Austin, EDB 34