Students will create documentary videos in groups of 2-3 about a social injustice they researched. They will go through the process of planning their documentary, including creating a storyboard. Students will film interviews and footage, and edit their videos. Finally, they will present their documentaries and provide feedback on each other's work. The goal is for students to demonstrate their understanding of an injustice through video while developing filmmaking skills.

1. Lesson #3 Documentary Video
Description:
As documentaries have become increasingly popular, they have also become more significant
voices in the media. Students in many fields — not only film and video students but students in
sociology, political science, international affairs and law — now aspire to make
documentaries.They intend to build these documentaries into websites, use them in campaigns,
exhibit them at film festivals and attach them to research projects
Prerequisites:
Students will need to have some experience using a video editing tool as well as a camera to
capture their point of view. For some students this can be as simple as a cell phone or an ipad,
for others it may be a larger video camera with many different settings and capabilities.
Estimated Time:
2 hours
Purpose: Small Group, Classroom Instruction
Grades: 6-12
Content Areas: English/Language Arts, Social Studies, Other
Speaking and Listening: Knowledge and Ideas Reading: Literacy in History/Social Studies
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.4
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.8
INSTRUCTIONAL GOALS
● Given an opportunity to research multiple injustices in the world, a group of students
will create a 2-3 minute video demonstrating their collective understanding of an
injustice.
● Students will draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection,
and research.

2. ● After viewing other video projects in the class, the student will critique the work of
his/her classmates, identifying the craftsmanship of the film and information gained
from the viewing.
OBJECTIVES
● Students will plan and create a documentary film of their choice of topic.
● Use of technology, such as, iMovie, Adobe Premiere, Windows Movie Maker,
Goanimate, Common Craft will be integrated in lesson.
VARIABILITY
This lesson is collaborative and allows for many opportunities of adaptation for students that
have special needs or educational differences. Modifications such as film distribution for
independent viewing, cameras that are attached too easily manipulated tripods, and less
rigorous video editing software is available.
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS
The teacher will be constantly in contact with the students in the class as they work on their
projects by roaming the classroom and doing desk checks to make sure that the students are on
task throughout the duration of the project.
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS
The teacher will use the attached rubric to assess the overall project that the student's
created.They will be assessed on a variety of different categories to ensure that they were able
to create an effective Documentary.
OPENING
To begin the lesson, the teacher introduces the students to a short video about Documentary
Filmmaking (https://youtu.be/dT7Sv-25lMI). The video exposes students to questions
documentarians must answer in the process of making a film; it should give students an
awareness of the nature and magnitude of the task of making a documentary film.
The students are told to join groups of 2-3 students based on their common interests in a Social
injustice that they studied in the previous lesson. Once in a group, the teacher assigns each
group to make a list of issues its members need to research before moving forward with their
planned documentary projects.

3. DURING
1. Students are reminded about the storyboard lesson they did previously. In order to grow and
expand on that project the teacher will show an example video on storyboarding
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux_Em1lVsjI)
2. In groups, students start planning their films, scene by scene. Students must hand in a rough
storyboard of their documentary (at least 2 Storyboard Templates).
3. At this point, students must have in class group time to storyboard, plan filming
times/locations, etc.
4. The students begin to film and edit once the storyboard has been approved by the teacher.
CLOSING
Critique:
The students watch each other's films and take notes on the feedback form. When the film for
each group has ended, the teachers asks the students for input about the project. If there are no
volunteers, the teacher may need to prompt the students with questions about the effectiveness
of the film or the strength of the film.
MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES
Here are the links to the two videos that need to be shown in the lesson as well as the critique
form:
Documentary filmmamking- https://youtu.be/dT7Sv-25lMI
Storyboarding- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux_Em1lVsjI
Student Name:_______________________________ Date:______________________
Name of
Filmmaker(s):___________________________________________________________
Title of Film:____________________________________________________________

4. 1. As you viewed the film, what emotions/feelings struck you? Why?
2. List particular camera shots, techniques, angles, etc. that you found effective in the film.
3. What did you learn or take away from the film?
4. What changes would you make to the film? Why?
Documentary Rubric
Members_____________________________________________________________________
Topic___________________________________
Grade___________________________________
Technical Grade:

5. Length of Video (min)
1pt. (0-1, 7-8min) 2pt. (0-1, 5-6 min) 3pt. (1-2, 3-4 min) 4 pt. (2-3 min)
Interviews:
1(1 person) 2(2 people) 3(3 people) 4(4 people) 5(5 or more people)
Appropriate use of language and imagery:
1 2 3 4 5
Class time Participation (how well did your group use provided class time):
1 2 3 4 5
Storyboard (was the storyboard followed and easy to understand:
1 2 3 4 5
Use of music in the video:
1 2 3 4 5
Factual information and presenting the Issue:
Effective in explaining the Social Injustice that they researched, using facts and evidence:
1 2 3 4 5
Topic presentation and Clarity (did the group convey a clear message to the audience):
1 2 3 4 5
Did the group offer a solution in their video for what can be done to help with the injustice:
1 2 3 4 5