Chapter 3: Legendary Mockumentaries: Using Drama to Create Short Films

Research units can be a slog. Research units following another standardized test are not for the faint of heart. This project’s goal is to capture students’ zeal for technology in order to teach real-world uses for research, story structure, and the ability to synthesize information in creative ways. Students learned to make purposeful, collaborative choices and created products enjoyable for a viewer other than their teacher (me). By the end of the unit, my students created a collection of three to five-minute short films playing the role of fictional documentarians researching a mythical figure. These legendary mockumentaries built skills important to my classroom and their future, but they did so in an energizing and layered manner.