One Difficult Assignment

Prompt: Identify where you think students may fail in an assignment in your syllabus, and how you will use that as a teachable moment by design.

The assignment that comes to mind where I feel that some of my students might struggle is the story option of the film/skit project I have as my final assignment in my syllabus. Essentially, students will select three (or more) moments in a story that they’ve explored in the photo essay. Out of the ten images of the photo essay, what are the strongest scenes that carry the most weight in the story? Instead of capturing these moments in one single image, they present those moments as a scene, giving them more room to present the strong elements of the story. But I begin to see that this might be too tedious of an assignment, especially compared to the other option, where the students can create a product and come up with a commercial for that product. What might be difficult for the students is deciphering what parts of the storyline is the most significant and figuring out how to connect each scene. They also have to figure out how to cut their script in order to make it fit within 10-15 minute video or even formulated for a skit.

The main goal of the story option of the film/skit project to be able to identify the essential aspects, such as twists, clues, or revelations that help move the story forward and complete it. Romeo and Juliet wouldn’t have the conclusion it does without both of the lovers having their reasons for ending their lives. The teachable moment I can add to this assignment is having my students understand the significance of the revelations in stories, and what makes those stories plotlines complete. We can even introduce the idea of what seems to be missing from the plotline. The main idea is to understand what makes a good story, or simply, what makes a believable story, and usually the answer to that is behind the major points that hold the story together.