Stories around the World in Film

Rationale

The opportunity to attend a seminar on Stories around the World in Film at the Yale National Teachers' Institute provided the resources, expertise, and collegiality I needed to research African storytelling through films produced in Africa. My goal was to successfully create a comprehensive unit which would change the way film has customarily been used in most classrooms and offer it as an exciting new pedagogy. My excitement for the subjects of African storytelling and film, plus the knowledge that much help would be available, led my pursuit and hard work. The end result is an innovative unit on oral traditions in African film which my colleagues will find easy to incorporate into any middle school classroom, depending on their teaching style, teaching goals, and course content.

Perhaps it is essential to picture my classroom in one's mind. Alameda Middle School is a Title One, 100% free breakfast, free lunch school, located in a multicultural, multigenerational barrio within walking distance of one of the richest art scenes in the world. The school's population is 90% Hispanic, both native and immigrant, 4% Native American, and 6% Anglo. I started teaching at Alameda in 1990, and I am very dedicated to this population. It did not take me long to realize that my students' realm of existence is very much limited to an approximate 100 mile radius of Santa Fe and that they are generally content with the most cursory knowledge of other cultures. My fellow teachers lament this fact and address it in various ways, none of which seems to light a spark in our students. New Mexico Language Arts Content Standard Three states that the students will use literature and the media to develop an understanding of society and the self. My knowledge of film media and foreign film, in particular, were poor. I used film in my classroom primarily as a reward at the end of a unit, such as when we read Hamlet this year. Do the studying and written work, and then we'll see the movie. Bill Walsh argues in his "Brief history of Media Education" that, until recently, "Education completely ignored all forms of media other than the printed word (and even some of the printed forms, for example, newspapers). Then, after dismissing most non-print media, education came to see popular forms such as films as interest-catching tools or follow-up rewards for students."¹

Given the resources of the Yale seminar on Stories around the World in Film, I felt most confident to comprise a unit which I knew would be very unique not only to Santa Fe but also to most school districts across the country. Middle school students would master African storytelling traditions through the realism of film with the desired result of holding these traditions in their memories. A wonderful friend of mine imparted the following message over lunch at the Santa Fe Opera last month. "Claudia, we expose our children to the best, most sound theories and discoveries in all other disciplines. . .We do not limit those theories and discoveries to use the masters either. We discuss and explore contemporary findings. Why, therefore, would we not expose children to contemporary film masters as well? Ultimately, in our quest to develop critical thinking skills in our children we take what is known, what is excellent, and we use this standard to question the veracity of a new theory, a new interpretation, a new way of thinking. This last bit of questioning in the end is an individual pursuit. Human expression is individual. Artist and audience meet at personal relevance and resonance."² Exactly.