For those familar with the American Girl franchise, two Norwalkers are bringing history to life with a full scale mutlimedia history edutainment project. From the Advocate:
Bringing history to life for children is what the film’s producers hope to do. The film is only one aspect of a larger project they designed to create new ways of teaching history and civics to middle school students.
Funded by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Young American Heroes project will include an interactive Web site and a graphic novel.
Rowayton resident Tim Smith wrote the script for the Douglass film, and he and co-executive producer and director Chris Campbell of South Norwalk teamed to produce the pilot.
Smith said he had the idea to profile young people who did extraordinary things during American history. He entered the concept in a national competition by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to find new ways of teaching American history. Out of more than 80 entries, seven were awarded grants.
Smith said his dream is to create a franchise similar to American Girl, which has books, dolls and accessories based on the lives of girls who lived at important times during American history.”There are a lot of exciting components behind this,” Smith said.
Using the project’s Web site, students will be able to create their own films and their own comics using stills from the film that Smith and Campbell are producing. Original photos and documents - including letters written by Douglass, now in possession of Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - will be scanned and be available on the site.
An important part of the project is involving teachers and students in the production. Smith and Campbell have organized curriculum focus groups with teachers, and many have been offering suggestions - even about changes in the script.
“The most important thing is every kid and every teacher has their own learning and teaching style,” Campbell said. “We’re trying to teach that kids are not powerless.”
Next month, the project’s curriculum will be piloted by three Connecticut schools, including Scofield Magnet Middle School in Stamford. The Frederick Douglass film will be shown on CPTV in September and on public television stations nationwide next February to coincide with Black History Month.
The crew shot scenes in Mystic and Essex last week, with actor Jamie Hector of HBO’s “The Wire” portraying the grown-up Douglass, a former slave who fought for emancipation. Filming will take place this week in South Norwalk, which is also where the project is based, at the Palace Production Center.
Yesterday the film crew turned a Spanish classroom at Roton into a social studies classroom, papering the walls with posters of famous people in history.
source: Advocate, Making film draws kids to school, By Lisa Chamoff, May 11, 2008
