Project Based Learning in Year 9 English

Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge. The Year 9 English team launched an ambitious PBL program with their students' last term. The project required students to DISCOVER, CREATE and SHARE (Hewes, 2018)* in response to the following guiding question:

To launch of this project, students viewed clips by world renowned animal documentary maker, David Attenborough. After considering the sound and visual techniques that make Attenborough’s work so compelling, students worked in groups to ‘invent’ an exotic animal. Two or more of the student group members acted out their group’s invented animal, while one group member narrated the animal’s behaviour, David Attenborough style! Riotously entertaining as this launch was, its deeper purpose was to introduce students to planning, scripting, and ‘performing’ a live documentary!

To facilitate the students’ discovery of camera shots and angles, and their various effects, students again worked in groups, within which they allocated a director, camera person and ‘talent wrangler.’ Groups were given a small action figurine (a special shout out to Mrs Keogh’s six-year-old son, Joseph, who surrendered his entire collection beloved toy action people for the week) and they used their devices to get examples of a range of camera shot and angle techniques. They then shared these in a Google Slides presentation with annotated explanations of the effect of their captured techniques.

Long shots can be used to show the scene, environment or other characters around them. In this example, it shows that our talent is isolated on a bridge.

 A low angle shot is a camera angle where you are looking up at the talent from a lower ground. It is generally used to make the audience feel more vulnerable or for the subject to portray a sense of power. In this shot our talent looks powerful as he is about to launch off the wall.

A close-up shot in filmmaking is a shot that is normally from the shoulders up. It is one of the standard shots used in films alongside medium and long shots. Close-ups are used to focus on an actor’s facial expression and their emotion. This close up shot shows the sketchy/dodgy intentions of the lego man.

As students worked through the stages of their project, they discovered and developed skills in interviewing, storyboarding, editing and critically analysing. By and large, the Year 9 cohort is to be commended for how they approached this PBL experience and the works they created.

So without further ado, here are the links to some of the 60 second documentaries our Year 9 students created about local legends. Enjoy!

By - Ava Au

By - Willain Ness, Matheus Simonin Leite Nunes and Ethan Aleksandrowicz

By - Sylvia Hemmings and Millicent Kingwill 

By - Winifred Keating, Cameron Northam, Ann Arslan

By - Sienna Gerstenberg, Arisha Cheema and Sophia Hawkins

*Hewes, B 2018, ‘Is there a better year group to teach than Year 8?’ WordPress, 27 May, 2021, https://biancahewes.wordpress.com/2018/09/14/is-there-a-better-year-group-to-teach-than-year-8/.

Madelaine Keogh
Leader of Learning and Wellbeing (Maathai House)
Leader of English