Project Topic: Analyzing Current Issues of National Significance via C-SPAN’s StudentCam Competition

Instruction Time Frame:

• OPTION 1 (Multiple days or several weeks of class instruction): If an educator decides to be an active faculty advisor for StudentCam, multiple days of class instruction will be required. Educators will have to decide if they have the materials necessary for students to create their documentaries during class time, or if they will have students report on their progress and provide the necessary guidance.

• OPTION 2 (One or a few days of class instruction): If an educator decides not to be an active faculty advisor and chooses to have students work independently on StudentCam as a class assignment or simply wants to introduce students to the competition, only one or a few days of class instruction will be required. It is recommended that teachers provide a project calendar to students to keep them on track if this option is selected.

Objectives: The student will be able to,

1. identify C-SPAN’s StudentCam competition and understand the requirements/goals of StudentCam.
2. identify and critically analyze current issues of national significance.
3. understand the difference between a documentary and a movie.
4. demonstrate the use of multiple viewpoints in a documentary and distinguish the difference between objective and bias reporting.
5. create a five to eight minute documentary, which synthesizes their analysis of an issue of national significance.

Required Materials and Equipment:

1. Computer(s) with internet access
2. Newspapers, magazines and/or other print resources for research on issues of national significance
3. LCD projector (recommended to show examples)
4. A handheld video camera
5. Telephone access to set up interviews
6. Video editing software or a video camera with editing capability
7. Video recording device if students decide to tape a C-SPAN program off of TV to use in their documentary
8. Completed online entry form (obtained off www.studentcam.org)

Anticipatory Set:

• Ask students to brainstorm a list of issues of national significance, first individually and then as a class.
• When introducing StudentCam to your students, have students break into groups of three or four. Distribute a newspaper to each group and have them look through the print resource and identify some issues of national significance. Have students record on the board their group’s issues. Were these issues the same as the ones previously identified by students?
• Before introducing StudentCam to your students, obtain a video camera and record multiple students and/or school personnel answering the following questions: “What do you think is the most important issue of national significance? Why?”

• Review each group’s findings from the Anticipatory Set above. Show the video of their fellow peers and/or school personnel explaining which issue they think is most important and see if their answers correspond to their groups’ findings.
• Have students share which issue they think is most important and why.
• Ask students if they have ever seen a documentary. If so, which one(s)? Show about five minutes of a documentary based on your school’s requirements. After watching the documentary clip, ask students to define what a video documentary is and how it is different from a movie.
• Explain that students have the opportunity to win money for outlining their issue in a five to eight minute documentary.
• Introduce your students to C-SPAN’s StudentCam competition (NOTE: If your students are not familiar with C-SPAN, you may want to extend the lesson to explain C-SPAN, its mission, and how C-SPAN is different from other cable television networks). Choose a few winning documentaries from StudentCam 2008 to show via a LCD projector, or if you have access to multiple computers, have students stream the documentaries you want them to see.
• Discuss various elements of each documentary and what the students did well and how the documentary could be improved.
• Explain the layout of StudentCam’s website, www.studentcam.org and review the sections titled, FAQ’s, Rules, Prizes and Making a Documentary.
• Assign homework (see Closure)

• Explain if students will have time in class to work on StudentCam or if they will be expected to do the project outside of class.
• For homework, have students think about a possible topic for their documentary. Require students to create a list of potential resources and possible interviewees. Have students search C-SPAN’s website for video that pertains to their topic. (Students must have C-SPAN video in their documentary to be considered for a prize.)
• Click here to view a sample rubric created by one of C-SPAN's 2008 Summer Fellows, Allison Hunt, a high school Human Geography teacher at duPont Manual High School in Louisville, KY. (Please note: this is not how C-SPAN judges individual StudentCam documentaries.)

• Researching an issue of national significance
• Contacting and interviewing interviewees
• Writing documentary script or outlining a documentary’s storyboard
• Filming and editing the documentary

• C-SPAN awards 75 winners.
• Individual instructors can choose to make the competition a class assignment and grade accordingly using a rubric, or the competition can be assigned as extra credit.

• Students can research the history of their issue and how their issue has changed over time.
• Students can complete an issue paper prior to filming their documentary. The issue paper should be a five to seven page paper that explores different aspects of their selected issue. The paper should include proper citations. As a result of the paper the students will develop in depth knowledge of their topic prior to beginning the project which will likely result in better documentaries.

• Technology
• English
• Social Studies
• Media Literacy
• Debate

POLITICAL PARTICIPATION:
III. How does the government established by the Constitution embody the purposes, values, and principles of American democracy?

E. How does the American political system provide for choice and opportunities for participation?

2. Public opinion and behavior of the electorate. Students should be able to evaluate, take, and defend positions about the role of public opinion in American politics.
4. Political parties, campaigns, and elections. Students should be able to evaluate, take, and defend positions about the roles of political parties, campaigns, and elections in American politics.

PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT:
II. What are the foundations of the American Political System?

C. What is American political culture?

1. American national identity and political culture. Students should be able to explain the importance of shared political and civic beliefs and values to the maintenance of constitutional democracy in an increasingly diverse American society.
2. Character of American political conflict. Students should be able to describe the character of American political conflict and explain factors that usually tend to prevent it or lower its intensity.

D. What values and principles are basic to American constitutional democracy?

4. Conflicts among values and principles in American political and social life. Students should be able to evaluate, take, and defend positions on issues in which fundamental values and principles and may be in conflict.
5. Disparities between ideals and reality in American political and social life. Students should be able to evaluate, take and defend positions about issues concerning the disparities between American ideals and realities.

ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards (2007)
(from www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students_2007.htm)

1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts

National Standards for English Language Arts (from www.ncte.org/about/over/standards/110846.htm):

1. Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.

2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.

12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).