Media Literacy

Documentary Unit

Final Assessment

The Task: Create an approximately 5 minute documentary about an aspect of your life or of life in Simsbury in general. You may work alone or with a partner.

Using Photo Story 3 available to you in the LibraryMediaCenter, create a short documentary that includes visual, audio, and text tracks. (Refer to your documentary term packet). The visual track can contain still images.

Decide what mode of documentary you want to use—expository, interactive, or observational (again refer to your packet).

Be sure to be intentional about what kinds of images, shots, angles, and artifacts you use in your visual track (again, the packet is your resource).

You will be assessed by the following criteria:

I. Planning: (50 points)

  • Being prepared for in-class work in the LMC
  • Effort in the in-class work in the LMC
  • Creation of a storyboard for planning

II. The Documentary: (100 points)

  • Will be assessed by the rubric on the next page.

III. Reflection: To be completed individually even if you have a partner—(50 points)

  • Explain why you made the choices you did for visual, text, and auditory tracks. Deconstruct your own documentary, explaining what effect your choices had on the overall documentary. Be as specific as possible about what techniques you used and their overall effect.
  • Discuss the mode of documentary you used. Where do you see bias in your documentary? In what parts are the lines between truth and fiction blurred or crossed? How did the mode you used expose or hide your bias?
  • What was your experience in making the documentary? Describe the process and what you learned about the subject of your documentary while you created it.

Documentary Rubric

A / B / C/D / F
Concept and Purpose / The video has a clear and interesting purpose and is creatively produced. / The video's purpose is mostly clear, but the video is interesting and somewhat creative. / The video's purpose is somewhat unclear, and the video is not very interesting or creative. / The video has no apparent purpose and shows very little creativity.
Content / Information is accurate and well-written. Subject knowledge is excellent. / Most of the information is accurate and well-written. Subject knowledge is very good. / The information is somewhat accurate and there are some grammatical and spelling errors. Subject knowledge is fair at best. / Much of the information is inaccurate and not well-written. Subject knowledge is poor.
Continuity / The documentary is extremely easy to follow and understand throughout the presentation. The flow of the video makes sense. / The documentary is easy to follow and understand throughout the presentation. The flow of the video makes sense for the majority of the documentary. / The documentary is hard to follow and understand throughout the presentation. The flow of the video makes sense somewhat for about half of the documentary. / The documentary is hard to follow. The flow of the video makes sense somewhat for the less than half of the documentary.
Visual Interest Level / Outstanding visual interest. Excellent blend of pictures, facts, and voice-overs enhance the entire production. / Good visual interest. Fine blend of pictures, facts, and voice-overs enhance the entire production. / Average visual interest. Intermittent blend of pictures, facts, and voice-overs that enhance the entire production. / Poor visual interest. Little or no blending of pictures, facts, and voice-overs to enhance the entire production.
Overall Presentation / Video flowed logically and smoothly from one scene to the next. Information and organization is complete and engaging. / For the most part, the video flowed logically and smoothly from one scene to the next. Information and organization is complete and interesting. / Video seemed out of sequence or confusing in some places. Information and organization is adequate and somewhat interesting. / The video lacked purpose, with little information and organization