Clairemont Academy of Digital Media Production

Overview: Students visited the Midway Museum and separated into small groups that were each hosted by one of the Midway Museum Docents (volunteers).  The docents gave the students personal tours and began a process through which students gained an understanding of their life experience and their motivation for volunteering.  Students created a graphic novel detailing this narrative, ultimately presenting the volunteers with these graphic novels at a culminating event aboard the Midway.

Project Initiation: Our students began their Heroes of the Midway project by meeting their assigned volunteers, who gave them a personal tour of the Midway, spotlighting features of the museum with which the volunteers were more familiar or the areas of the museum with which they had a hand in creating. All three of the above mentioned As were addressed in this way, as students were introduced to a meaningful setting that they were allowed to explore through an adult relationship. While the central project that students worked on was the graphic novel about the lives of their assigned volunteers, all students contributed to a documentary film about the Midway.

Project Exploration and Development: Students learned a plethora of video production skills in addition to literature and writing-based knowledge. Students studied narrative forms and adapted a standard plotline to suit their documentation of their volunteers' lives; for example, instead of focusing on a "conflict" or a "rising action" that is a common component of a standard narrative plotline, they instead thought of the rising action as a central "motivation" or "inspiration" that led their volunteers to participate in the Midway tours and exhibit creation and rehabilitation. Likewise, the "climax" of a standard plotline was replaced with "peak experiences" that defined the lives of their assigned volunteers. Needless to say, the process of inventing and refining a graphic novel that told the story of their volunteers' lives was a dynamic process that was intertwined between their CCTE and English classes.

Project Revision and Exhibition: The resolution typical in a standard plotline was replaced with students' reflections of their experiences learning about the Midway and interacting with their volunteers. While it is certainly a valued endeavor to organize a booth and have students present at the CCTE Showcase, the central culminating event of this project will take place aboard the Midway when students, parents, volunteers, teachers, and Midway project staff will all convene to witness the student groups present their volunteers with printed graphic novels to celebrate their lives and experience. Students have worked vigorously composing and revising their graphic novels prior to this event.

Teachers and Subjects: Jeremy Zauderer - English; Daren Sparks - Digital Media

Industry Sector: Arts, Media & Entertainment