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Seventh Grade Stop Motion Animation Movies Integrate History and 21st Century Learning

Source/Author: Amy Brill, Seventh Grade English Teacher

December 16, 2016

Middle School News

“Tell me and I forget; teach me and I remember; Involve me and I learn.” The last part of this quote by Benjamin Franklin depicts exactly the type of 21st Century Learning Shorecrest seventh graders have put into practice over the last eight weeks. The Monday screening of “Womanly Men Who Change the World,” an original stop-motion animation movie, marked the culmination of a long-term interdisciplinary project involving English, art and technology with a historical focus this year.

The project, in its fifth year at Shorecrest, has become an eagerly anticipated tradition for seventh grade students. In English class the students spent four weeks developing characters and writing plots, then perfecting them into original movie scripts. While developing the scripts, they created models of their characters in art class using recycled bags, paint and fabric. Once the characters and sets were complete, English and tech classes merged for two weeks to film movies using stop-motion animation on iPads. Final touches were made in iMovie.

The Shorecrest teachers’ approach is popular not only with students, but also with fellow educators. The teaching team including Amy Brill (English), Cindy Williams (Art) and Chris Scoby (Technology) presented their project at last year’s Florida Council of Independent Schools conference and have won an FCIS grant for their work.

Students had a new challenge this year -- create characters who go back in history and change a major event. Students had to research a time in history that interested them and incorporate it into their script. They included everything from Rosa Parks and Abraham Lincoln to Malala Yousafzai and the Suffragettes. “The ideas and scripts floored me this year,” says Middle School English teacher Amy Brill. “We learned so much from these students, not just about the historical events but also about character development within that context.”

This year marked the second annual Film Festival for the final products. The teaching team, with input from student viewers, chose first, second and third place winners. The first place movie, “Womanly Men Who Change the World,” by seventh graders Isabella D and Anna J debuted at the Monday, December 12, assembly for the entire Middle School.