Teaching Filmmaking

Dr. Limoncelli sets out to design a summer filmmakersworkshop for high school students. She constructs the curriculumwith the idea that learning to make their own visual stories willhelp students with their critical and creative thinking skills as wellas creating a process that would help them to develop a more positiveself-image. This study tells the story of the filmmakers workshopfocusing on four of the students who took part in the class from thepoint of view of their teacher/researcher who follows them on theirjourney. This study has all the details of a how to guide forEnglish or Language Arts teachers who want to support the filmmakingendeavors of their students. The students in this story learn toanalyze films and then engage in discussions about character narrativestructure and how themes are developed. They brainstorm storyideas using writing exercises and then develop their own ideasfor film. They learn how tell their own story using techniques ofnarrative imagery. To read this journal-based study is to experience thethoughts hopes and struggles of the students and the teacheras they share the process of learning.