“Quiet on the set ... and, action!” These words could be heard as you walk into Portland Adventist Academy’s world history class. To make history come alive, students were grouped together in news teams to report on historical events. Each team was given a certain number of stories to report on to cover the lessons for the week.
After dividing up the stories amongst the team, reporters began their investigative work making sure to answer the “who, what, when, where, why and how” questions that make for good reporting.
“I enjoyed the research process with my fellow students. The acting part was the best part,” said Emmanuel Sanchez.
Aline Gonzalez enjoyed the collaborative part of learning the project allowed. “The groups were able to socialize and have fun while we learned,” she said.
After the research is done, students turn to writing, editing and producing their newscasts. Two lead anchors host the news while correspondents report from the field about the relevant news stories. To make the reporting more interesting students use green screen technology to place themselves in the story.
“I enjoyed acting with different people. I am in drama class, and it was fun to use those skills in history class,” remarked Tylea Hughes.
Janelle Clouse liked the technical side of the project. “I had fun using Photoshop and editing our work,” she said.
Even the setbacks and challenges were seen as positive parts of the learning process. “It was interesting to see how much work it was to film without messing up, and [it's] rewarding to see it turn out so well,” said Davante Ramos.
“I liked going through the trial and error process of recording and editing,” recalled Justin Perry.
Isaac Lian said, “I enjoyed watching the behind the scenes of how the videos were developed.” The best part was watching students work together to create something they will not be forgetting any time soon.
Kenzie Hall and Francis Saliba anchor a portion of the history news program.
Colin Philip and Isaac Loan anchor a history newscast.
Justin Perry, Enoch Trevizo and Dane Petersen work together to film a newscast.
Karina Ciobanu in front of the green screen used for recording.
