Guided Writing Through Silent Motion Picture’s Visual Passages

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

Writing skill is a productive student’s ability under the macro skills including listening, reading, and speaking. One creative way to hone one’s ability of this written form of communication is the employment of a conceptualized contemporary guided writing approach applicable to either non-native or native speakers. In this strategy, the exploration of worthy film passages where comprehension of ideas and manipulation of appropriate grammar structures and writing mechanics through images and sequence of actions are methodologically processed.

Films today come in many forms due to the onset of technological inventions. As a result, Ideas embedded in films are numerous that rigorous scrutiny of these information entails intensive teachers’ broad understanding in order to choose and provide worthy details for learners’ active engagement. Among these, the silent films produced by independent movie outfits that thrive in the Website nowadays can be a promising springboards which are dominantly assisted by viewing skills since the learners have to rely on images and sequences of actions.

To be able to offer these instructively operative, there are five imperative guidelines that teachers have to consider in the process. These include selection of a proper authentic material which can be abetted by technological tools, reflection of the micro skills that can be attained aligned to the intended outcomes, formulation of comprehension questions for background knowledge’s p rewriting task, accomplishment of the final writing task using the films’ images and sequence of actions, and prior relay of elucidated instructions to facilitate time-frame and to prepare the students’ writing commitment.

Writing Guide No.1

Provides opportunities for teachers in selecting the appropriate material for the writing instruction by considering the questions similar to these. Does this lesson reflect the coverage of the English program? Does this film cater to the cultural backgrounds of my learners? Does it answer the formulated comprehension questions in the first writing task? Will I be able to construct questions according to the levels of comprehension base from its images and sequenced actions? Is it aligned with the writing procedures stipulated in the final writing task? Does it have all the elements to be answered? Will I be able to inculcate the grammatical structures I want to measure? Will this material fittingly yield the production of micro skills in writing? Does it suffice the constructed general writing classroom instructions? Can this material exhibit the manipulation of technological instructional tools?

Writing Guide No. 2

Contains reflections of the micro skills to be developed out of the silent motion picture clip. The students are expected to appropriately perform the enumerated objectives within this engagement. Use proper capitalization, spelling, and punctuation. Employ proper tenses, gender, and case to express ideas. Put words in correct order. Write ideas through appropriate employment of vocabularies. Apply sub-verb agreement. Vividly reconstruct the ideas in written form using their own acquired terminologies. Sequence the ideas logically. Summarize the film’s idea through acceptable constructed titles. Correctly indent paragraphs, and provide favorable responses to the comprehension questions.

Writing Guide No. 3

This entails the initial writing directions containing digital instruction applications. To facilitate time, the teacher gives the URL of the short silent film as an assignment. The students Google the site to be directed to the YouTube’s film, Wings. The students preview the two- minute silent film to answer the comprehension questions under guideline No. 4 to obtain necessary background information. The written result will serve as a primary writing activity. Furthermore, the students review Guide No. 5 questions, to gather relevant information for classroom deliberation for the completion of the final writing activity.

Writing Guide No. 4

The following comprehension questions will be used in obtaining a background information and acquiring film appreciation as components of the primary writing task: What’s the title of the short movie? How many minutes is the short silent video? Who is the actor in the movie? What’s the performer’s nationality? Who directed the film? When was it produced? Where was it produced? What character is depicted in the story? What kind of ending is the story? What symbolism can you see that alludes to the message relayed? Does this story happen in reality? Justify how it happens in reality. Create a short paragraph out of these questions.

Writing Guide No. 5

Writing the narrative content instructions are the directions for students to follow in the post writing activity such as, observation of the images and actions by sequencing all the events according to how they occur in the film exclusive of the technical elements, using descriptive words to describe the character, using the proper tenses to explain all the character’s ongoing actions, answering the following questions to construct a second paragraph: Why was this film produced? What message does it want to point out to the public viewers? Does the society sanction this kind of behavior? What problems do this behavior brings to individual s’ lives and to the society as a whole?
Additionally, provide a conceptualize title to summarize the over-all thematic thought, and merge answers in brief narrative paragraph forms.

The written outputs

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

Wings
By Fahad Abdullah Al Hamshi

The short film is a three- minute and 12 seconds video of a young Indian man portrayed by Naresh Bhagavathi and is directed by Vaisakh Anandavally Raveendran,which tells a story of a drug addict. This was produced on March 2013, in India. This movie ends with a tragedy. The strong symbolism found here is the pigeon, 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 environment today because there are many people who are hooked with drugs which create problems to the government.

Additionally, we expect a viably written narrative through moving images and sequenced events similar to this, when the procedures are practically instructed and fittingly followed under 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 startlingly wakes up and finds himself to have slept the whole night over of a lofty building’s roof. Suddenly, his fuzzy attention catches the sole presence of a cooing pigeon. He tries to drive it away but the bird remains in front of him. He promptly picks a piece of concrete and flings it to the unwary bird. Frightened, the creature swiftly flies. He steadily watches it hovering away. Mesmerized by the motion, a strange idea occurs in his mind. Evidently drained, he stares at his trembling right hand as it slowly fixes the movement of a flapping wing. He turns to his left hand that slothfully does similar motion. He gradually stands and continues the same gestures. He hops resembling a winged- creature moving closer towards the edge of the skyscraper’s rooftop. He gazes down from his tremendously high distance to the city’s abysmal street then gapes at the rising sun. His face displays security and pleasure. Like a bird rapidly spreading its wings and shaking its head ready to travel, he takes a fatal lift. This film was produced to warn the public about the deadly effects of using dangerous drugs which every government condemns because they shatter human lives, and the whole society, as well.

Performance of this writing activities rely on students’ instructed and prior acquired knowledge of the language. These writing activities are recommended for advanced learners who possess the abilities to transfer ideas through proper word transformations and sentence manipulation. However, to be able to fittingly sequence ideas, it is important that the teacher utilizes guide questions for active students’ engagement.

To add, with the employment of the guide questions in coining its content through events and images, the students are expected to properly manipulate their viewing skills to refurbish the visual intelligence of students while they use the appropriate languages in expressing their perceptions towards abstract ideas.

It is noticed in writing activity one that the students are tasked to carry out their abilities in comprehending levels of questioning. While the second writing activity strives to provide response to some micro skills as mentioned in the reflection guide which are expected to be realized such as proper capitalization, spelling, punctuation, tenses, gender, and order of words, vocabularies, and sub-verb agreement.

Furthermore, viable reconstruction of ideas in written form using their own acquired terminologies, sequence the ideas plausibly, summarize the film’s idea through acceptable constructed titles, and indent the paragraph correctly are expected of the learners when using guided writing approach.