4th Grade PSA: Super Battery Fairy
Super Battery Fairy, a PSA about recycling rechargeable batteries
Class 402 Makes a PSA (a process-based documentary)
Whenever possible, creating a video, documentary, slide show, or presentation of some kind that outlines students' production and decision-making process is a great way to boost the media education value of a project like this.
The following uses clips from the final discussion students had before filming and editing. Mr. Marsano and I brought the class together for reflections like this throughout the process to re-focus the class on the basics: what's a PSA?, what's the problem?, who's our audience?, what's our tone?, what facts can we share? what do we want our audience to do?... The narration in this video was pulled from our notes during a previous class discussion.
The research and scripting process can be followed on Mr. Marsano's Honors Class Blog. Mr. Marsano and I used their class blog during group writing workshops where we gathered scripting ideas, and discussed what a PSA is, and what makes a good one:
from the blog... "A PSA makes your audience want to DO something that is good for the public. We have no more than 30 seconds to make them want to do something."
After researching issues related to the disposal of rechargeable batteries, students wrote a script with Mr. Marsano keeping them focused on the problem, and what the students wanted their audience to do about it. To "hook" their audience, students decided to take a serious tone with elements of humor. The video production was completed collaboratively by students gathering still images through internet searches and pasting the urls on their class blog, then shooting under the tutelage of myself, Mr. Marsano, and friend of The Media Spot, John Taylor. Mr. Taylor and I assembled the shots in iMovie, and worked with small groups of students to record narration and polish it up. Pay close attention at the beginning of the movie for music created by 5th graders working with music teacher Pablo Conrad -- custom-composed to fit the serious and "eerie" tone Mr. Marsano's class was going for.
Acknowledgements and Credits
Special thanks to Nicole Daunic for the construction of Super Battery Fairy's helmet, and Brooklyn's Chris Leo & Vague Angels for the use of the songs Fightin' for the Last Pic (Instrumental) from the album "Truth Loved", and Holiday Guitar from the album Let's Duke It Out At Killkenny Katz'. All images used were gathered using Creative Commons search, and appear courtesy of D'Arcy Norman, simessa, http://jumk.de/mein-pse, and WikiMedia Commons according to the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
Additionally the producers claim educational fair use of all media incorporated in this production based on the transformative process of media selection that the students engaged in during production of this PSA, outlined by the Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Media Literacy Education. Educators create teachable moments around key concepts of media literacy and authorial intention, through the use of the pool of images and music available on the Internet -- enabling students to make critical decisions about what media enhance their messages. This transforms those media from their original purpose, into essential teaching tools in this process.