Guided writing through visual passages from silent movies

“I believe in a visual language that should be as strong as the written word.”
David LaChapelle

Writing skill is the skill of a productive student under the macro skills that include listening, reading, and speaking. A creative way to hone the capability of this written form of communication is to employ a conceptualized contemporary guided writing approach applicable to native or non-native speakers. In this strategy, the exploration of worthy filmic passages where the understanding of ideas and the manipulation of grammatical structures and appropriate writing mechanics through images and sequence of actions are processed methodologically.

Movies today come in many forms due to the start of technological inventions. As a result, the ideas embedded in the films are numerous and the rigorous scrutiny of this information requires extensive understanding for intensive teachers to choose and provide valuable details for the active participation of students. Among these, silent films produced by independent film crews that are thriving on the website today can be a promising springboard that relies predominantly on visualization skills, as learners have to rely on images and action sequences.

In order to offer these instructional operations, there are five imperative guidelines that teachers have to consider in the process. These include selecting suitable authentic material that can be supported by technological tools, reflecting on micro-skills that can be achieved in line with intended outcomes, formulating comprehension questions for the prior knowledge rewriting task, performing of the final writing task using the film images and sequence of actions, and pre-broadcasting of clarified instructions to ease time and prepare for students’ writing commitment.

Writing Guide #1

Provides opportunities for teachers to select appropriate material for writing instruction by considering questions similar to these. Does this lesson reflect the coverage of the English program? Does this film fit the cultural background of my students? Does he respond to the formal comprehension questions on the first writing task? Will I be able to build questions according to the basic levels of understanding from their images and sequenced actions? Is it aligned with the writing procedures stipulated in the final writing assignment? Do you have all the elements to be answered? Will I be able to instill the grammatical structures that I want to measure? Will this material adequately produce the production of microskills in writing? Are the general instructions built in the writing classroom enough? Could this material exhibit manipulation of instructional technology tools?

Writing Guide No. 2

It contains reflections of the micro-skills that will be developed from the silent movie clip. Students are expected to adequately perform the objectives listed within this commitment. Use proper capitalization, spelling, and punctuation. Use the appropriate tenses, gender and case to express ideas. Put the words in the correct order. Write ideas through the appropriate use of vocabularies. Apply subverb agreement. Vividly reconstruct ideas in written form using their own acquired terminologies. Sequence ideas logically. Summarize the idea of ​​the film through acceptable constructed titles. Correctly indents paragraphs and provides favorable responses to comprehension questions.

Writing Guide No. 3

This involves the initial writing instructions containing digital instruction applications. To facilitate time, the teacher gives the URL of the silent short film as homework. Students Google the site to be directed to the YouTube movie, Wings. Students have a two-minute preview of the silent film to answer the comprehension questions under Guideline No. 4 to gain the necessary background information. The written output will serve as the main writing activity. In addition, students review the questions in Guide No. 5, to gather information relevant to the deliberation in the classroom for the completion of the final writing activity.

Writing Guide No. 4

The following comprehension questions will be used to gain background information and film appreciation as components of the main writing task: What is the title of the short film? How many minutes is the short silent video? Who is the actor in the movie? What is the nationality of the artist? Who directed the movie? When did it occur? Where did it occur? What character is represented in the story? What kind of ending is the story? What symbolism can you see that alludes to the message conveyed? Does this story happen in reality? Justify how it happens in reality. Create a short paragraph from these questions.

Writing Guide No. 5

Narrative Content Writing Instructions are the instructions for students to follow in the post-writing activity, such as looking at the pictures and actions sequencing all the events according to how they occur in the film without including the technical elements, using words descriptive statements to describe the character, using the appropriate tenses to explain all of the character’s ongoing actions, answering the following questions to build a second paragraph: Why was this movie produced? What message do you want to convey to public viewers? Does society sanction this kind of behavior? What problems does this behavior bring to the lives of individuals and to society as a whole?
Also, provide a conceptual heading to summarize the overall thematic thinking and combine responses into short narrative paragraph forms.

The written outputs

When the writing of Guide No.4 is facilitated by the teacher and written seriously by the student, we expect a written production through comprehension questions similar to this example.

at
By Fahad Abdullah Al Hamshi

The short film is a three minute and 12 second video of a young Indian man played by Naresh Bhagavathi and is directed by Vaisakh Anandavally Raveendran, which tells the story of a drug addict. This was produced in March 2013, in India. This film ends with a tragedy. The strong symbolism found here is the dove, or its wings because when people are under the influence of illegal drugs they always think they can fly. This story is happening in our midst today because there are many people who are hooked on drugs which creates problems for the government.

Furthermore, we expect a viably written narrative through moving images and sequenced events similar to this one, when the procedures are practically instructed and properly followed according to Writing Guide No.5.

The temporary state of pleasure
By Abdullah Mohammed Al Harbi

In the early morning of a quiet urban area, a lost young man wakes up to find that he has slept all night on the roof of a high-rise building. Suddenly, his blurred attention catches the very presence of a cooing dove. He tries to chase it away but the bird remains in front of him. He quickly picks up a piece of concrete and throws it at the unsuspecting bird. Frightened, the creature quickly flies away. He watches him intently walk away. Mesmerized by the movement, a strange idea occurs in his mind. Obviously exhausted, he stares at his trembling right hand as he slowly sets the motion to a flutter. He turns to his left hand which lazily makes a similar move. Little by little he stands up and continues with the same gestures. He jumps like a winged creature that approaches the edge of the skyscraper’s roof. He gazes down from his tremendously high distance at the abysmal city street and then gapes at the rising sun. His face shows security and pleasure. Like a bird that quickly spreads its wings and shakes its head ready to travel, he takes a fatal impulse. This film was produced to warn the public about the deadly effects of using dangerous drugs that are condemned by all governments because they destroy human lives and society as a whole.

The realization of these writing activities is based on the knowledge of the language previously instructed and acquired by the students. These writing activities are recommended for advanced students who possess the ability to transfer ideas through appropriate word transformations and sentence manipulation. However, in order to properly sequence ideas, it is important for the teacher to use guiding questions for active student participation.

To add, by employing the guiding questions to coin their content through events and images, students are expected to appropriately manipulate their visualization skills to restore students’ visual intelligence while using the appropriate languages ​​to express their perceptions towards the abstract. ideas

It is noted in writing activity one that students are tasked with carrying out their skills at the comprehension levels of the questions. While the second writing activity strives to answer some micro-skills as mentioned in the reflection guide that they are expected to do, such as proper capitalization, spelling, punctuation, verb tenses, gender and word order , vocabularies and subverb agreement. .

In addition, students are expected to workable reconstruction of ideas in written form using their own acquired terminologies, sequencing ideas plausibly, summarizing the idea of ​​the film through acceptable constructed titles, and correct paragraph indentation when using the approach. guided writing.