May 2008 — News

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Teachers & Technology: English with an Edge

by Neal Starkman

Teachers & Technology is a regular column featuring teachers who share specific technologies or strategies that have made positive differences in their students.

Andie Brown believes in sedition--well, a form of it, anyway. She purposely gives her students the assignment to challenge the status quo, and they use technology as a means toward that end. The result is truly meaningful education; students learn that what they do may have a powerful impact.

Andie Brown

School: Parkway South High School, Manchester, MO
Grades: 11-12
Subjects: Composition (for advanced college credit); John Grisham and Social Issues; Vonnegut: Science Fiction & Social Commentary
Started teaching: 1978
Formal technology training: several workshops in using iMovie

What I use: In my Vonnegut class, we study contemporary satire. The final assignment is for students in groups of two or three to create a three- to five-minute satiric film. They must focus specifically on at least one aspect of modern American society and comment in such a way that it causes their audience to think deeply about the subject and make them laugh or at least chuckle. I use Mac computers and iMovie.

Once the groups are set and they've identified their subjects, we brainstorm awards categories for our RIDDYS, an acronym for Ridiculing Ignorance & Debunking Degenerate Yankee Schlock. Past categories include Best Film, Best Sound, Most Likely to be Administratively Offensive, and Best Recovery.

The results: The students, instead of limping their way to graduation with acute cases of senioritis, really get into the project. Even students that I wasn't sure had really grasped the concept of satire did great projects. Because students vote on the RIDDYS, an outcome I got but didn't predict was that they were tremendously supportive of one another--even at the bitter end.

I was very nervous about sending students out and about to film. I was even more nervous that an administrator who happened into my room during the film festival wouldn't understand what they were seeing. I think it's probably a good thing that I'm not a teacher who is new in the profession. Being "experienced" or just plain fossilized is definitely a plus in this case.

Figuring out a way to take advantage of something like YouTube was my aha moment. Students today sometimes don't believe that they can make a difference in society. In a pendulum swing that's polar, where my generation tuned out, this generation has plugged in, but the effect is the same. When the students see their small movie projects screened and really get to feel the response of the audience, they seem to deeply understand the place satire has in a free society. They also see that there are many, varied ways to seek change, but that humor and art are two of them.