Jade Band Learners Create Documentaries
At the end of October, Jade Band embarked on a historical research unit in Literacy Block. In this rich unit the learners completed in-depth research on historical periods and trends — with a focus on comparative analysis and the understanding of patterns rather than the acquisition of facts. For many of the learners, their substantial research was in the form of print sources, online sources, and interviews. The kids also got to practice the archival detective-work that professional historians conduct when they spent the day at the archives of the Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas. They were able to use this resource to study primary sources — sources they've requested in advance — on a wide range of historical topics. Throughout the unit, the learners gained further experience applying close-reading skills to primary source documents and had the opportunity to grow their knowledge of history and geography. The historical and political content of the research also helped surface opportunities for deep critical thinking.
This reading and research work culminated in the learners being challenged to create a documentary connecting a historical topic to a present-day situation. The learners wrote scripts for the documentaries in teams of two and their topics were varied and fascinating.
One pair focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how it relates to the larger theme of nationalism. The opening chapters of the script focused on the history and current status of this thorny conflict, and contained strong evidence of the researchers’ ability to synthesize large swaths of challenging information and distill it into a vivid, balanced, and mature piece of informational writing. The final video was a hugely impressive and powerful 12-minute documentary, which wove together a vast amount of research, archival maps, in-person interviews, and photographs.
Another pair researched the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and its continued relevance for the labor rights movement. This ambitious partnership ultimately produced one of the most informative and emotionally powerful (not to mention lengthy) documentaries in the class. The documentary included extensive background research, photos, material from oral-history interviews found in an online archive, and even an in-person interview with an emeritus professor of labor law at UT Austin, whom one of the learners reached out to via email.
Still another partnership attempted to draw comparisons between the American Revolution and the current Hong Kong protests. These two learners spent an exceptionally large amount of time and effort on their script, which unfortunately then caused the final 9-minute-long documentary to be incomplete and lack many visual elements. This, of course, offered some disappointment but was also a learning opportunity about time-management and nonetheless, the script itself was outstanding and showcased the rigorous intellectual work of making the comparison.
Finally, another partnership looked at historical fashion trends that caused health problems for women and connected these trends to ongoing oppressive beauty standards women are expected to live up to today. Their voiceover narration contained impressive writing and the outstanding video documentary was based on substantial research from texts, online sources, and interviews, and even wove in historical photos the pair unearthed in the archives of the Briscoe Center for American History.
