Assignment/Activity Title — C-Span

Year — 10

Portfolio Competency — Critical Thinking

Skill(s) —Writing, Media, Creative, Research, Group Dynamics

The main objective of this assignment was to teach students how to use video as an effective tool for
communication and persuasion. Students created a documentary following the prompt “explore the issue you most want
the president and new Congress to address in 2021.” Freddy, David, and I focused on the polarization of climate change
and how it hinders policy making. The first step was researching the topic. This step was essential because in order to
present an insightful documentary, students had to obtain a supreme level of understanding of their topic. The second step
was outlining. During this step, students were charged with combining statistics, quotes, and ideas that they had
researched into a coherent summary of the ideas to be presented. The third step was question writing/conducting
interviews. Students had to work on this step constantly and it required responsiveness and proactivity. This was another
goal of the project, to teach students how to take ownership and be the first one to reach out when organizing an event. In
order to conduct a successful interview, students had to research a fitting candidate, write questions, and conduct the
interview. For my group, this meant extensive research into potential interviewee background and work. For example, we
found one interviewee via a research paper she had co-written about climate change and its relationship with politics. We
were then able to draft questions based off of her work. This ultimately led to an effective interview in which we were
able to develop our understanding of certain topics. We could also use those informational video segments throughout the
documentary. The next step was script writing. This step was where students integrated research into voice over text and
combined it with interviewee quotes to convey an intuitive and original narrative about the topic. Finally, students began
the video production process. This entailed voice over recording, interview and c-span clip integration, and b-roll.
Through this process, we came across another goal of the project, that organization is key to creating a convincing
presentation. Early on, our group took the outline step lightly, and in the production phase, we struggled with the
organization of our ideas. For example, we had trouble deciding whether or not to include many of the smaller factoids
that we had researched. Ultimately this disagreement slowed our production process, which took time away from other
necessary steps in the editing process such as properly integrating interviews.
This project required writing, media, creative thinking, research, and group dynamic skills. Scriptwriting and
outlining were essential to this assignment, therefore writing was a vital skill. Media was another important skill in this
project as the final product was a documentary. Students needed to use media skills to edit video that would inform and
fascinate viewers at the same time. Media went in tandem with creative thinking, notably when students had to
incorporate c-span clips into their documentaries. My group did this well by using an older c-span clip as a hook to draw
the viewer in, and help them gain a better understanding of the history of our topic. Arguably the most crucial skill to the
project was research. Proficient research is an absolute necessity when creating an informative documentary. Students had
to offer a fresh perspective on the issues they were presenting. Gaining this perspective required meticulous research and
critical thinking. Finally, this project required group dynamic, and communication skills. Fortunately, I was close friends
with my group mates and we knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, we knew David is an excellent
film maker and has extensive film-making software. Therefore, we put him in charge of organizing the production aspect
of the documentary. Above all however, this project required critical thinking. The very nature of the prompt encouraged
students to scrutinize the current political climate, and even encouraged them to analyze the actions taken by the executive
and legislative branches of our government. This requires an elevated level of critical thinking. David, Freddy, and I
arrived at our topic only after examining the climate related actions taken by President Trump such as resigning from the
Paris climate accord and the failure of climate legislation such as the Green New Deal. Criticizing the actions of
government officials requires a considerable amount of critical thinking. That is why this project falls under the critical
thinking competency.
One of my most significant takeaways from this project is that almost all political issues, regardless of
importance, are partisan. One of our interviewees explained that American partisanship is rooted in the founding ideals of
this country. She elaborated that climate change did not start as a partisan issue. She explained that climate change policy
making has a lot of overlap with business regulation, which is an issue that traces back to the established ideals of
Conservative vs. Liberal. This changed my perspective on the issue. Prior to conducting extensive research or interviews,
I blamed Republicans for opposing climate policy because of lobbying, ignorance, and wanting to fit in with the rest of
the party. Although this is true, I now understand that many Republicans have trouble supporting climate policy because
they are Conservatives, who believe that business regulation has a negative effect on the economy. Although my belief
that Republicans are on the wrong side of climate policy remains, I understand their perspective. This type of
understanding is fundamental when trying to facilitate change at the federal level.
Student Signature (Print here: William Ashford ) Date 6/4/21

G Mayo 6/14/21
Teacher Signature Date