Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Arts Education topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Teachers and vendor present novel-to-miniseries ELA arts-integration at George Brown Elementary
Summary
An after-school vendor and a George Brown Junior Elementary teacher described a year-long project turning a novel into a nine-episode student miniseries to boost engagement and ELA outcomes; board members asked staff to explore expanding the model to other sites with media facilities.
Tony Plana, introduced by the board as a director of an after-school vendor, and George Brown Junior Elementary teacher Matt Rogers told the San Bernardino City Unified School District board on Jan. 20 about an arts-integrated English Language Arts project that transforms a novel into a student-produced miniseries.
Plana described the model as a nine-episode, roughly 10-minute-per-episode production filmed over three weeks; students participate both on camera and behind the scenes in sound, camera and production roles. "We're doing basically nine episodes of 10 minutes each, and they shoot it over a 3 week period," Plana said. Teacher Matt Rogers said the work increases student engagement and classroom participation: "The fact that they love what they're doing gets them here. It gets them in the classroom." He added the project deepens comprehension by asking students to inhabit characters and explore motivations.
Board members asked whether schools with media-production facilities (Arroyo Valley, Cajon) could host similar projects. Plana confirmed the program runs successfully at Cajon, is effective with IB students there and said he would return with updates at a March meeting and present work at Del Vallejo and other sites.
Superintendent and trustees praised the student work and asked staff to coordinate with other campuses and explore grant support or district-level expansion of the approach.
