Overview

Goal: Tell a story that demonstrates something that you want others to know. See how our stories shape and reflect our lives and how assimilation can send a molded, ubiquitous message.

Description: As a sophomore project, students were asked to synthesize materials and lessons gained from both social studies and English. While reading Sherman Alexie’s Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian, students were asked to analyze the power of oral communication via storytelling. The stories involved students remembering aspects of their lives that made them who they are today: stories that make them unique. Students did write their stories, but the final product involved the oral presentation of the stories.

As a final exhibition, we wanted to include the historical aspect of assimilation. This can be seen via the final installation involving all students’ videos playing simultaneously. In this way, we are able to visually see how assimilation plays out; though students are individually telling unique and personal stories, they are all playing at once washing out individual messages to create a large, ubiquitous, assimilated message/image.

Subject: Humanities

Grade Level: 9th, High School

Materials

• Overview
• Activity: Individual Importance
• Example: Colbert Story
• Critique Form
• Rubric
• Student Review Rubric

Mastery Assessment

• Creation of story and script that reflect a personal experience of one's life.
• Use of proper oral storytelling (eye contact, posture, word choice, etc.).
• Proper video editing and submittal of green screen movie.