The Teacher As Film Editor: Student Accomodations

Transcript:

Melissa Milner 0:09

As I mentioned in my last minisode I recently finished rereading A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away: My 50 Years Editing Hollywood Hits by film editor Paul Hirsch. It's a fascinating book about his career as an editor of some of the most beloved movies. He shares mostly anecdotes about his experiences working with different directors to successfully edit these movies. Recently rereading Hirsch's book led me to another book that goes into a lot more detail about the craft of editing. It's called In the Blink of an Eye, a Perspective on Film Editing by Walter Murch. When I was at the hospital while my father was not well in 2021, I brought this book and a pack of post its and I devoured it. There were so many parallels to the work we do in education. Walter Murch is an editor, sound designer, director and screenwriter. Among the many films he edited or mixed, or the conversation, American Graffiti, Apocalypse Now, the Godfather Part Two and Three, Ghost, The English Patient, and The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Melissa Milner 1:19

So the focus of this minisode is to share parallels about student accommodations and the multi tiered system of support. It's about Murch and his approach to editing, which he says is not so much the "putting together" as it is the "discovery of a path." Murch writes, "The more film there is to work with of course, the greater the number of pathways that can be considered, and the possibilities compound upon each other, and consequently, demand more time for evaluation." Murch is referring here specifically to editing Apocalypse Now. Murch writes, "For every splice in the finished film, there were probably 15 shadow splices, splices made, considered and then undone or lifted from the film. But even allowing for that the remaining 11 hours and 58 minutes of each working day were spent in activities that in their various ways, serve to clear and illuminate the path ahead of us. screenings, discussions, rewinding, re screenings, meetings, scheduling, filing trims, note taking bookkeeping and lots of plain deliberative thought, a vast amount of preparation really, to arrive at the innocuously brief moment of decisive action, the cut the moment of transition from one shot to the next, something that appropriately enough, should look almost self evidently simple and effortless. If it is even noticed at all."

Melissa Milner 2:59

Someone visiting our classroom might not see the vast amount of preparation that went into meeting all students' needs. We spend hours with our students. And we're always observing, reflecting, gathering information to see if they are happy, progressing in the standards, feeling confident, advocating for themselves when needed. All of this information, or as Murch writes, "vast preparation" allows us to design our lessons and know what to keep and what to cut. We meet with our team to analyze data, look for learning trends, plan curriculum, and keep track of our pacing. This is all similar to what merch talks about with all the vast preparation thought and teamwork that allows him to know how to go forward in editing a movie, discovering a path, not just putting the film together. In teaching the path is most likely different for different students. And different each year when you have a new class. Each new class is raw footage to analyze and discover the path to their best learning. We cut out what is not serving our students growth and find a path to help them when they struggle, the more we can provide that help in the classroom, the better.

Melissa Milner 4:15

So first, I'm going to talk about the multi tiered system of support. And I'm obviously, if you're a teacher listening to this, you already know about this, but people from all walks of life listen to this podcast. So I really just want to give a quick overview for those listening who aren't teachers or educators. Tier one is the core instruction and the universal behavior support that we do for the whole class. Tier Two is targeted supplemental instruction and intervention. And tier three is the intense individualized instruction and intervention. Classroom teachers must examine all the raw footage and see the big picture and their role in moving the students forward through their learning year with the in-class support each student needs. When students struggle, it should not be the first step to test them, or to assume the reading specialist or someone else will catch these students up. The observation and preparation work is important in order to know your students, what they need, then plan, with the help of others if needed, what to do in the classroom to allow all students to succeed. Individualized reading and remedial math instruction outside the classroom is important, but should only be for students who truly qualify for it.

Melissa Milner 5:37

So what is the path for teaching diverse learners in the general education classroom? Professional development will always be my first answer. Continually learning as a teacher is vital and professional reading, and individual or grade level team, professional and student goals are vital. In addition, clear paths for general education teachers are the curriculum and of course the state standards. Another path that I know all school districts in Massachusetts have is the District Curriculum Accommodation Plan, also known as DCAP. Every school district in Massachusetts developed a d cap, which is an invaluable tool to know how to support all the diverse learners in your classroom. So what is the DCAP? So I'm going to read straight from our DCAP.

Melissa Milner 6:26

A school district shall adopt and implement a curriculum accommodation plan to assist principals in ensuring that all efforts have been made to meet the students needs in regular education. The plan shall be designed to assist the regular classroom teacher in analyzing and accommodating diverse learning styles of all children in the regular classroom, and in providing appropriate services and support within the regular education programming. The purpose of the DCAP is to assist general education teachers in analyzing, assessing and accommodating diverse learners within the classroom. The DCAP also helps to identify services, support, and instructional delivery options available within general education settings. The DCAP documents instructional interventions available for learners. It outlines resources available to teaching staff in the areas of student support, teacher mentoring, curriculum differentiation, professional development, and coaching. And the DCAP provides a list of accommodations as a resource to meet the needs of a variety of learners.

Melissa Milner 7:39

I assume most of my listeners already know what a DCAP is, but I am going to share this again for people listening that might not know. "While, the DCAP lists best practices, sample strategies and other actions from which the teachers and collaborating staff may select for appropriate accommodations for individual students, in no way does the DCAP limit the accommodations that staff may choose to implement in order to meet a student's needs. Building based multi tiered system of support teams, Student Support Teams and data teams meet on a regular basis and provide general education teachers the opportunity to collaboratively work together to find accommodations and interventions to meet the needs of students."

Melissa Milner 8:26

And lastly, the overview of the accommodations. There are accommodations for setting which is location for presentation how the teacher shares the information, timing, any consideration of time within the learning and response how the student can respond back to show understanding. So for setting examples would be small group, preferential seating, quiet location, etc. For presentation accommodations, examples would be visuals provided for verbal information, preview and repeat, providing models and exemplars timing accommodations, such as time of day length of time given extended time for assignments, chunking into smaller parts, planning for time with student etc. And then the response accommodations are the use of graphic organizers, alternative writing utensils, access to keyboarding, the limited number of repeat question types, etc.

Melissa Milner 9:31

Again, most educators know this next piece. "Accommodations do not change the instructional level or content, delivery of instruction or performance criteria. These latter changes are called modifications or specifically designed instruction. And those are only appropriate for students on an Individualized Education Program, also known as an IEP.

Melissa Milner 9:58

Clearly, the multi a tiered system of support, and the DCAP, with its list of accommodations is the path for general education teachers to provide as much support as possible...Tier Two support as possible in the classroom, and only have students that truly need it be pulled out. I'm going to be continuing to share parallels to Walter Murch's editing work and his book In the Blink of an Eye. Thank you for listening.

Melissa Milner 10:31

For my blog, transcripts of this episode, and links to any resources mentioned, visit my website at www.theteacheras.com. You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @melissabmilner and I hope you check out The Teacher As... Facebook page for episode updates. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap.