Publishing Schedule

This blog is dedicated primarily to social studies resources for California and especially Central Valley teachers and students.  I may veer sometimes when I go to other locations in my travels.  Social studies encompasses many subject areas, but the main four are:  history, geography, economics, and civic education.  To cover all the areas, I'll try to post almost every day, alternating between topics.

Color Guard at the Civic Leaning Summit

• Monday:  Valleycations - Geography or History
• Tuesday:  Book Review with Emphasis on Application to Common Core Standards for Social Studies or Language Arts Classes
• Wednesday:  Economics, Instructional Strategies or Lesson Plans
• Thursday:  History

• Friday:  Civic Education or Common Core
• Holidays and Weekends:  Blogging Break or My Surprise

Thai Dancers in San Francisco - Union Park

Creating Documentaries for Social Studies Teachers and Students

by Sara Sutton

Sara Sutton retired this year as the Supervisor of the Impact Center at Tulare County Office of Education.  She created most of the documentaries for the new Tulare County History of Agriculture Museum.

Introduction

Whether you are a student doing a History Day project, or an adult child interviewing your parent about their life, learning to make a video is more than showing the world your raw footage, even though we see those all the time on You Tube.  Quality video production even goes beyond cutting and pasting pictures into an automated video program. Since all the tools we need to make a professional video are at our disposal, all that is left is learning the art of putting it all together.

Choosing the Interviewees

• Resources for interviews can be found from community groups who are given a few months to find their best representatives.  It is better to have subjects that a group can recommend  rather than individuals you do not know, but who recommend themselves.

Capturing the Story

• Interviewees are given the subject and several weeks time to think about their personal experiences relating to it.
• The interviewee is asked to share his or her own personal thoughts and memories. Letting them choose their own subject and timing works best. Let them be aware they can stop and "do over" any part they wish. For the most part let the camera roll uninterrupted. You never know what gems are coming.
• Only if they become stuck are they asked questions to stimulate more memories. Asking yes or no questions yields unusable yes or no answers, and sounds like a therapy session which it very often is. Not asking questions is what makes the interview honest and real.
• Be prepared to relax and listen. They will sense this.
• Positive feedback from the interviewer between segments or stories is encouraging and keeps the material flowing. Be careful not to talk over their speech but if you do, stop as soon as is politely possible, and ask them to repeat for a clean take.

Compiling the Story

• If you have several interviewees log them all and then after studying your notes choose your predominant and pertinent themes.
• My personal style has been to edit by themes. Statements and experiences of the same aspect or subject are grouped together in the editing timeline. This reinforces the subject with several witnesses speaking about the same topic or aspect of the topic, building credibility and retention for the audience. The viewer has an active experience of piecing together the reality of the history and forming their own experience with it.
• While editing, become personally involved enough to know your material well.  Be aware of and calculate the emotional responses it evokes.
• Word your narrative so subsequent statements by the interviewees reinforce your points.
• Use narrative sparingly and avoid the temptation to tell the story yourself instead of letting viewers draw their conclusions from experiences related by the interviewees.
• I choose short and interesting introductory statements to place as attention grabbers at the beginning of the video. I let these tell viewers what the video is about. Engaging music helps the viewer anticipate an entertaining experience. I choose some deeper thoughts and summary type statements by interviewees for the closer accompanied by music that is sometimes the same as at the beginning.

Technical Issues While Shooting the Footage

• Home or studio interviews are conducted with technical details such as audio, video and lighting properly addressed. (Beware of filming in front of windows, etc.)
• In a studio they sometimes can be more open. They may feel their opinions and thoughts are valued by being spot-lighted there. They are removed from daily distractions and become more philosophical. They are not having to represent their homes and lifestyle but only their thoughts and memories. Great care is taken to create an informal, friendly atmosphere. People respond positively to unconditional acceptance.
• I usually don't have the interviewee speak toward the camera. Instead they face a person is sitting off camera slightly to the side who is positive and highly attentive and responsive, giving direct eye contact without giving any audible feedback.
• A pleasant backdrop or green screen gives you flexibility with visuals. People respond differently in a studio than they might in their home.

Technical Issues While Creating the Video

• Process all your footage into the computer.
• Watch the entire raw footage, stopping and starting while you log it by time code and type notes on the content of the interview. These records will save you lots of time later. An alternative is to have someone writing notes during the interview but this is not so helpful if they can't read and note the time code off a monitor at the same
• Good editing techniques keep the viewer focused on the content of the video instead of distracted by unnecessary action. Don't use crazy transitions which contrast and detract from emotion and sincerity.time.
• Text titles are important for names and profiles but shouldn't be constantly on screen.
• I always add low volume background music. Pay careful attention to the mood it evokes. Subjects or segments may have a theme. The music should not distract and should not include lyrics. Moderate tones without punctuating instrumentation work best.
• When I need to cover history that is not covered by the interviewees I place short narratives and images at intervals between segments. I may use this opportunity to segue to new areas of dialogue.

Legal Issues and Protocols

•  Have a release form ready for them to sign.  Show lots of gratitude and thanks for the interview.

Other resources:

http://www.nhd.org/CategoryDocumentary.htm

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Good-Documentary-Film

http://www.slideshare.net/acarvin/documentary-making-101 

Central Valley History: A Glimpse of Woodlake High School in the 1960s

A beautiful place to live, the western one third of Tulare County consists of farming towns and communities, and the eastern section is National Forests.  From north to south the communities are:  Woodlake, Lemon Cove, Three Rivers, Exeter, Lindsay, Porterville (about 45,000 pop.), and Springville.  

A foothill community in Tulare County, California, Woodlake was and still is a small ranching and orange farming community.   Construction started on the high school building pictured below in 1964.  What was a typical day in Woodlake High School in the 1960s?   

Woodlake High School 2013

Sally and another retired Woodlake teacher, Frank Ainley, discussed the "good old days" of teaching high school in Woodlake.  They both taught from the 1960s until a few years ago.  "Remember intercoms interrupting every class?"  Frank Ainley remembered one specific intercom request during class.  "I need to see you," Loverin bellowed over the loudspeaker.

"I can't come right NOW!  I'm right in the middle of class," Frank answered the intercom voice as the entire high school listened.

"That's ok. If you're a good teacher, your kids will keep doing what they are supposed to do while you're gone," the principal responded again disrupting every class in the school.  When Ainley returned to the classroom about 25 minutes later, students had completed their assignments and were quiet.  No one was missing.

Both Frank and Sally talked about the kids doing projects, and keeping the teachers organized so that the projects ran smoothly.  Students could drive in those days during the school day to run errands, if they had a license.  So if the students needed something for the project, the teacher would just ask one of them to go get it at the store, and come back to class with it.  Frank stated, "If they had to travel for sports or field trips, the kids drove, if they had parents written permission, of course." 

Principal Loverin expected teachers and students worked together to complete service assignments.  When he hired Sally a few days before the school year started, Loverin told her off-handedly, "We have an opening inservice for all the teachers the first day back to school. There will be about 60 people for breakfast and lunch."  The implication was clear.

According to Sally and Frank, administrators made the assignments, then trusted the teachers to somehow accomplish them.  Both former teachers remembered going into the Loverin's office upset about some issue, and coming out apologizing for taking up his time, and thanking him for the new assignment he just gave them.  Yet both claimed teacher morale was at a high.

One day early in his career Frank asked Loverin, "When are you coming in to do an evaluation of me?"

The principal answered, "If I didn't think you couldn't do the job, I wouldn't have hired you."  He didn't have an evaluation that year.  He didn't have very many evaluations.  

Frank talked about discipline in the school.  The vice principal,  a BIG guy, Herman Ziegler, disciplined with a big stick.  Sally and Frank commented that both the principal and the VP were BIG.  Apparently that characteristic  got the job done in Woodlake.  Frank and Sally both said the kids loved the principal and the vice-principal, Herman Ziegler, and most got good jobs after they graduated.  

Judging from a different era, Loverin and Ziegler broke current laws, and would be removed from their schools.  Frank and Sally saw them differently.  Sally repeated an oft-said comment teachers said about Loverin, "He could have sold icicles  to Eskimos and made a profit.  The teachers loved him.  He took care of them."  Both teachers remember the 1960s with fondness and pride.

Sally became a counselor in the high school and brought national recognition to Woodlake High School a few years ago because she raised so much money for scholarships, and enabled students to attend college.   Both Frank and Sally have been retired for about five years.  Frank quit teaching in his mid-seventies.  Today he ranches and is still active in the community.   Sally retired in her early 60s and volunteers in the school and community.