You are the Dream Team!
Crash Zone |
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Lesson Plan:
While various aspects of human relations are the main foci of these activities, viewing any episodes of The Crash Zone in a classroom context will provide opportunities for students to undertake analytical studies of the narrative as well as the technological construction of the series as a video text. 1. Tuning in
1.1 First viewing and response View The Dream Team, ep 1, vol 1, The Crash Zone, ACTF As a whole class, give students a little time to volunteer their immediate responses to this episode. Most of the remaining activities suggested here are to be conducted in small groups so, depending on class size, this initial response may best be done as a general session. You might want to prompt students with questions such as: . Alex says: 'You'd get to play games after school and get paid for it! How cool is that?' Well, how 'cool' would it be for you? Would working for someone like Alex, and a company like 'Catalyst', be your idea of a perfect job? What other 'perfect jobs' can you imagine? . This is the first episode of a new series. Does it make you want to see more episodes of the series? What grabs - or doesn't grab - your interest in the series on the basis of this episode? . Do you think it is worth viewing more episodes of The Crash Zone in class (as distinct from watching them on TV at home)? If you do, why? Encourage students to consider this question seriously and to think about how watching The Crash Zone in class, and doing some school work based on it, might be of some value in their education? Brainstorm these ideas Knowing that it is directed mainly at an audience of young people, what are some of the things that you think might happen in future episodes? What sorts of questions, issues and story-lines do you think will come up in the series? Do the characters hint at some broad story-lines that may emerge? What do you think some of the developing relationships and/or tensions between the major characters might be? To assist in the brainstorm, place some large sheets of butchers' paper
around the room on walls or tables. At the top of each sheet, write one
of the main character's names: Mike, Pi, Bec, Marcello, Ram, Alex, Nigel
and Virgil. Divide each sheet into three columns as follows:
Give students a time to move around the classroom and write at least one thing on each sheet that relates to one of the three questions about the character (this process is similar to whole class brainstorming but involves all students). Provide one or two examples in each category of question as shown. 1.2 Could you be part of a dream team too?
Organise students into groups of about five to 'apply' for this job. They will write an application for the job and make a group presentation (about five minutes long) to the class. Stress the importance of them demonstrating their 'qualifications'- i.e. why should the ACTF think they could provide advice on the issues listed in the imaginary advertisement? For example, on the basis of the above advertisement, they need to be able to tell the ACTF something about:
Prepare the presentation
Students might find these guidelines helpful in preparing their presentations
Obviously, when all groups have made their presentations, and in parallel with The Dream Team episode, you can tell them that they have all got the job! 2. Deciding directions/getting organised
Remind students that their job as a group is to provide critical feedback to ACTF on how well the selected episodes of The Crash Zone deal with issues of young people’s relationships with others eg:
(i) find examples of these issues in an episode; and Prepare to view a clip from The Dream Team Use an OHP or display board to display these questions
Use this clip as a trial run
Students should jot down brief notes to remind themselves later of what happened. After the viewing they can then refer to their notes and make any further comments about specific incidents. Respond to the clip Ask students to share their observations and comments on this clip within their group and then to share their group’s responses with the whole class.When the groups report back to the whole class, encourage students to act out their suggested improvements. For example, if students say that the body language of the kids when they were waiting in reception ‘wasn’t all that realistic’, ask them to act it out in a more realistic way. Discuss with students the need to organise their procedures for recording and sharing their observations and comments, and determining which of these should be part of their feedback to the ACTF and how this should be done. 3. Finding out
Prepare for the review Preferably each group should review a different episode, but many schools are unlikely to have facilities to do this. However, it may be possible to arrange three different viewing rooms or areas so that students can watch episodes from the three different volumes of The Crash Zone simultaneously. If you restrict this activity to three episodes (one from each volume), some episodes will need to be viewed by two or more groups depending on the total number of groups in your class. Outline to students what alternatives will be available to them for reporting their critical responses to the ACTF eg
Encourage students to make their own decisions about which reporting medium they wish to use. For example, a group could decide that, after viewing their episode, they want to audiotape their entire group discussion and then edit it into a series of concise observations and comments. Another group might prefer to have their group discussion before making any decisions about the way they will deliver their report. Remind students that their ultimate purpose is to prepare a concise group report suitable for sending to the ACTF. You may wish to suggest that these reports should contain, at a minimum:
Reports to class When the groups report back to class, encourage students (where appropriate)
to act out their suggested improvements. For example, if students say
that the body language of the kids when they were waiting in reception
'wasn't all that realistic', ask them to act it out in a more realistic
way.
Groups will present their reports to the whole class. Since not all
groups will necessarily have seen all of the episodes being discussed,
it may be necessary for some parts of the presentations to be illustrated
by selected clips. 4. Reflection
4.1 Revisiting predictions With the aid of the butchers’ paper charts developed in Activity
1.1, ask students to revisit the predictions they made about possible
story-lines and character development. Which of these predictions are
borne out by their viewings of later episodes? How ‘predictable’
does The Crash Zone appear to be?
4.2 Thinking ahead As a final reflective piece, ask students to write a short story (this
could be in conventional prose form or perhaps as a comic strip or storyboard
for a video) based on one of the central characters from The
Crash Zone five years later. The story could begin:
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