SHORT FILM: Drama of ELL & MATH tests "Immersion"

[Ryan Goble]

There are a lot of posts all over the Ning about the Media that Matters Film Festival (see sample links below). In the meantime, MC POPPER  Patty Ball (@poochiesan24) tweeted about this great short film that dramatizes the challenges ESL/ELL students face when taking some standardized mathematics tests.

Awesome for a staff development session or to explore student learning issues with kids through drama...

See also:

      • Ann Murphy - "MediaThatMatters Film Festival"
      • Lavie Raven - Media That Matters: Tools for Change
      • Cynthia Scalone - "Media That Matters!"
      • Arshi Saeed - "Media That Matters and Social Justice"

and SHORT FILM & VISUAL POETRY MOTHERLOAD OF RESOURCE!

[Lori Falchi]

"Immersion" is a fantastic educational tool. I have used this short film with educators in many different places, and it always sparks productive conversations. I highly recommend it because it helps you to see the testing situation facing many young emergent bilinguals from a perspective that gets close to what they experience. It also shows the protagonist's family as loving and supportive, which is a real change from many media representations.

It is really unbelievable what people say sometimes; today someone found a prezi that I made with a bit of Spanish in the title and commented "el moucho grande habinaro sauce"--that sounds rather absurd. On second glance it reminds me of Jane Hill's work around speaking "Mock Spanish" as "a site for the indexical reproduction of racism in American English." With all of those deficit discourses circulating, I find it helpful to share powerful resources like this one.
Lori