Dottie Barrow

ITEC 7230
Planning a Video Production

Purpose: The purpose of this video is to promote the “March Madness Reading
Tournament”. The video is intended to motivate and inform students about this
reading program with the hope of encouraging middle school age boys to read more
and enjoy reading.
The following standards will be addressed:

Standard ELA6RC1, ELA7RC1, and ELA8RC1 – The student reads a minimum of

25 grade-level appropriate books or book equivalents (approximately 1,000,000
words) per year from a variety of subject disciplines. The student reads both
informational and fictional texts in a variety of genres and modes of discourse,
including technical texts related to various subject areas.

Information Literacy Standard 5 : Appreciates and enjoys literature and other

creative expressions of information, as described by the following indicators:
1. is a competent and self-motivated reader

Learner Analysis:
Age – Sixth, seventh and eighth grade boys (54 total)

Cultural Background – mostly Caucasian, upper middle class

Educational Level – most students are above grade level in academic ability. There is
an entrance test to get into the school so students who test below grade level would
not generally be accepted. Occasionally below grade level students are offered
admission at a lower grade.

Specific Entry Skills – There are no specific entry skills other than the ability to read
which 100% of the students meet. There are no restrictions on the type or level of
material that the students read. A survey was taken of 54 middle school age boys at
Frederica Academy. All of the students have an interest in reading. However, 92%
read less than 30 minutes per day. The most popular type of pleasure reading material
is magazines (85% preferred). The most common reason given by the students for not
reading was that they did not have enough time.

Learning Styles – Most of the students have a higher preference for visual as opposed
to auditory reception. Thus, a video introducing the reading tournament and
motivating the students would meet more learning style preferences. This video will
meet the information processing preferences of abstract sequential learners where
reading and listening to presentations are preferred strategies. Physiological factors
were considered for this lesson. This is a reading competition just for boys. Boys tend
to be more competitive than girls and respond better to competitive games.
Objectives:
Given the presentation of the “March Madness Reading Tournament” in the form of a
video, middle school age (6th, 7th, and 8th grade) male students will log their minutes
of reading for one month and compete against each other on teams for the most
minutes read.

Theory of Instruction:
The Social-Psychological Perspective of learning is incorporated in the video
production. Small group (team) collaboration is used with reward based on group
achievement. By rewarding the reading accomplishments of the students, it is hopeful
that their behavior (reading) will be shaped and students will begin to read more.

Content Outline:
Introduction – studies of middle school age boys reading habits show that there is a
reading gap between boys and girls with girls reading more than boys. Some of the
reasons as to why boys do not read that researchers have looked at are that they do
not see enough men read, there are not enough materials to read that interest them,
they think reading is boring and they don’t have enough time to read.

Rules of the tournament –

1. Must be in middle school
2. Must be a male
3. Must log minutes of reading daily
4. Log must be initialed by an adult

Explanation of the tournament – The March Madness Reading Tournament will take
place at the same time as “March Madness” college basketball playoffs. Students will
be placed on teams and record their minutes of reading. The minutes of all of the
players on a team will be added together (including the coaches). At the point of
“sweet sixteen” the minutes read will be assessed. The team in the lead will get an
additional 30 minutes added to their score. This will be done again at “elite eight”,
“final four” and “finals”. Each time, the team in the lead will get an additional 30
minutes added to their score. The team in the lead at the end of the final game will be
the winning team. Prizes will be awarded.

Motivational talks from the coaches – each of the coaches will be given a chance to
talk to the boys and share their love of reading, the types of material/genres that they
enjoy reading and motivate them in any way. They will also challenge the other teams
and coaches.

Plan for Audience Participation:

Students will read and log their minutes of reading while competing in a reading
tournament.

Motivation (Keller’s ARCS Model)

Attention – the activity will be interesting because it involves a competition. The
video will include segments of the schools male coaches sharing about the types of
material that they enjoy reading. These coaches are looked up to by the students
(especially males). There is also some humor as the coaches challenge the other
teams.

Relevance – it will serve as a motivational tool prior to a reading competition. This

reading competition will take place the same time as March Madness. The
assessments will take place at strategic points in the actual basketball tournament
(sweet sixteen, elite eight, etc.).

Confidence – the students should expect to be successful as everyone has an equal

chance in the competition. If they read anything, they earn time for the team. They are
all capable of helping out the team if they make the effort to read.

Satisfaction – Students will be intrinsically rewarded as they read with fellow

students and feel a sense of accomplishment as they attempt to please their coach and
teammates during the competition. They will also be extrinsically rewarded if they
win the competition because they will receive an award.