7th GRADE DRAMA

Semester Project Overview

In 7th grade, students work together to produce their own Smart Train travel series --  North of Golden. This year they chose to visit Santa Rosa. In teams, they design their episodes, select destinations to visit and review, write voiceover scripts, conduct interviews, and capture their footage. Along the way, they explore screenwriting, hosting, and cinematography. At the end of the project, they celebrated with an in-class viewing party and written reflections. 

Episode Team Organization

To get started, students were divided into four episode teams. Together they brainstormed what Santa Rosa locations they would visit, determined their budget, and identified potential interviews. They also began developing their filming and interviewing skills. Below is a faculty "speed" interview and a few B-roll shots they captured around campus to practice.

Production

After planning, budeting, and scheduling students set off on their Smart Train adventures to Santa Rosa. With their cameras, they captured some of the area's local businesses, organizations, parks, and people. The footage they took was then woven together to create their episode.

Writing Voiceover

Once their footage was stitched together, they identified transitional and montage beats within their episode. For these beats, they wrote informative voiceover to help tell the story of their trip. Below are a few examples of their writing.

North of Golden Episodes

Below, please enjoy their travel series, North of Golden, espisodes one through four.

Student Reflection Snapshots

I am most proud of my ability to work in a team. A skill I'm taking with me after this project is how to improve a speech and how to record a video well.

What I am most proud of in drama this year is our navigation skills we learned from our Smart Train travel show. We had to navigate the train stop and the bus stop and the town in general. 

From this project I learned so much about how to make good videos and when to add transitions. I am going to take this skill to my math class because we have to make a video for a project and these skills will help me make that video.

I am most proud of my interview with Gina Huntsinger, the director of the Charles M. Shultz museum. A skill I'm taking away from this is how to interview someone effectively and come up with questions on the spot.

I'm most proud of my group's interview that we put together because we put alot of work into it. A skill I'm taking with me after this project is how to take b-roll shots.