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Nurturing students’ creativity and critical thinking through a theme-based co-curricular activity – “Mini-Oscar”Presented by Mr. Phillip Weber and Mr. Li H

ei Sing of Catholic Ming Yuen Secondary School

Ming Yuen

MINI OSCAR

Mr. Li

Mr. W

ebber

21-5-2004

Teachers’ Beliefs

-Creativity and critical thinking are for everyone

-Depicting imaginary events / characters through a camera angle can stimulate students’ creativity and critical thinking

Students’ interest in movies

Informal curriculum:

Inter-Class Role Play Competition (before 2003)

Mini-Oscar Competition

(2003-2004)

Formal curriculum:task-based modules

-School theme for 2003-2004: A Touching Moment

Students from each class (including split classes) were asked to produce a movie for the Mini-Oscar Competition in linewith the school theme

-School theme for 2003-2004: A Touching Moment

Students from each class (including split classes) were asked to produce a movie for the Mini-Oscar Competition in linewith the school theme

To Prepare for Mini-Oscar Competition for S4-S7 (Nov 03)

Integration of movies into modules in class

Brainstorming activities

Forming ofa movie committee for doing coordination work

To prepare for Mini-Oscar Competition for S1-S3 (May04)

Making use of movies produced by S4-S7 for stimulation and discussion

Brainstorming activities

Forming ofa movie committee for doing coordination work

Development of Creativity

Student autonomy

-Type of movies

-Script Writing

-Production

Teachers as facilitators

Script Writing – A Touching Moment

-discuss different possibilities for depicting characters

-include original and different ideas

Students had to:

A variety of movies have been produced which differ in:

-content & theme

-how students portray different issues /characters concerned

-linguistic demands on students

Students produced different types of movies dealing with a variety of issues / themes

Examples of social issues explored by students

Racial discriminationViolence & bullying at schoolsPoverty

SARS

Examples of themes developed by students

Friendship

Love

Honesty Vs Dishonesty

Growing up

Production of the movie & I.T. Support

- make use of multiple intelligences

-find ways to solve all kinds of practical problems

Students had to:

Making Decisions & Judgement

The final product - movies

-write the script after much discussion

-pretend to be in different human plights

-depict the characters / events through a camera angle showing ethical judgement/views

Students had to:

explore personal dilemmas and choices in life

portray social issues and expresspersonal views on them

In the movies, students:

Divergent Thinking – to explore different possibilities & alternatives

Convergent Thinking – to make decisions / judgement based on discussions and constraints

In the process, teachers encouraged students to use….

-School theme for 2004-2005: Caring

-School theme for 2004-2005: Caring

Informal curriculum Movies produced by students

in 2003-2004 will be used as resources for discussion

Movies produced for Mini-Oscar Competition

in 2004-2005

Formal curriculumClass discussionPre-writing task

Film review

Class discussion – Dilemmas / Choices depicted in the movies produced by students

If you were ………in the movies, how would you

choose/what decision would you make/how would you

react?

1. Raised awareness of social issues / viewing issues from a new angle

2. Expressing creative thoughts and inner feelings through movies

Impact on Learning

3. More whole-person development through the learning experience

4. Weaker students having a sense of achievement

Even weaker students enjoy producing their own movies because….

- there is more than one take

-they have a sense of success and ownership

-they can contribute in different ways

Other reflections

-Student autonomy

-Technical problems

-An atmosphere that fosters creativity & critical thinking

Thank You!