Orr Middle School students use pop culture in lessons

Digital Arts Alliance shows kids how to make their own movies

Orr Middle School students are incorporating pop culture into their reading curriculum and are thriving as a result.

The Digital Arts Alliance came to Orr Middle School, 1562 E. Katie Ave., from Oct. 22 to Nov. 2 to teach the students there how to create a movie from start to finish.

Two English and reading teachers at the school, Ernest Ashby and Danielle Duterte, incorporated the special project into their curriculum in hopes that the different technology and writing experiences would have a positive effect on their students.

"Anything that gets their interest is going to make them work harder," Ashby said.

In Ashby's class, students were given the topic of Las Vegas Beyond the Strip to work with, so the sixth-grade teacher received projects about the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, Mount Charleston, the renaissance festival, the Las Vegas art scene and Area 51.

"They soon found out that was a mistake," Ashby said of the Area 51 project. "It was really hard to find stuff that could be published and to put into their movie."

Students in Duterte's seventh-grade class worked on projects dealing with youth violence. Some of the projects dealt with gang violence, drugs, domestic abuse and video game violence.

"I get to experience new things and I get to use new technology," said Kelsey Dewitt, a seventh-grader. "I've been learning to record voices."

Students began their movie projects by writing a narrative in their English classes, for which they had to research and find supporting material to work into their scripts.

After the writing was finished, Orr students had to recite the narratives out loud to make sure rhythm, grammar and the required time length were all present in the material.

Students then had to choose pre-existing photographs or take new ones to run alongside their piece, which were then merged with their spoken words via Adobe Premiere, the video editing software the students learned to use throughout the project.

"It's a really involved process," Ashby said.

"It helps us get our reading better and helps us get ready for public speaking," seventh-grader Dallas Fue said.

"It's really fun to do," seventh-grader Josh Escobar said. "We're (studying) illegal drugs for our project."

Tyler Reynolds-Rothstein, a contractor from the Media Arts Alliance, said the residency helps kids with 21st century skills by incorporating technology into English and reading lessons.

"They're using some pretty advanced software," Reynolds-Rothstein said. "It keeps them engaged."

"It encourages them to not be shy about expressing themselves," said Micah Porter, a contractor from Media Arts.

"A lot of the students, I wasn't sure how they'd do with this project, and they're the ones excelling," Duterte said. "It's a different way for them to get their ideas across."

Ashby said that each first quarter, the students have to write a narrative anyway, so this project fits nicely with Orr's curriculum.

The teacher said his favorite part of the project was to see his students come together and work as a team so early on in the school year, because usually it takes them longer to warm up to the idea of working in a group.

"I think they grew a lot with this," Ashby said.

Ashby said he hopes the school continues to offer special projects like this in the future.

"I would really like to keep a copy of one of the projects and present it to classes next fall, so we can keep building on this," he said.

Students in the classes will receive a DVD of their work and a chance for it to be viewed by family and friends during an upcoming Orr reading night.

"We're actually harder on their writing this time around because we have visitors coming in," Ashby said.

The project was made possible by a sponsorship from the Hispanic Heritage Council through the Pierson Foundation.