Middlebury Magazine

  • Recent Stories
  • Menu
    • Features
    • Pursuits
    • Q&A
    • Editor’s Note
    • Old Chapel
    • Road Taken
    • Review
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • How Did You Get Here Series
    • About
    • Advertising
    • Contact
    • Support
    • Writers’ Guidelines
  • Search

Dispatches

The Art of Discovery

How a middle school documentary about climate change, as well as four other short films, tells a story larger than any of the individual parts.

By Jessie Raymond '90
July 16, 2020
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • Email icon

Behind every product is a process.

The product, in this instance, is a group of compelling short documentaries—made by Vermont middle and high school students—that premiered online in late June under the title Five Youth Films for Change. (These wildly impressive films can be found on this YouTube channel.)

The process behind these films took place in a course titled “What’s the Story?”  Each year, in this free, for-credit program, students from across the state of Vermont work with adult mentors in small cohorts—or “social action teams”—to research, write, and produce films on topics they’ve developed over the course of the fall semester. This year’s documentaries address such issues as Vermont’s changing winter climate (the above image comes from this film) and the value of studying and preserving Abenaki culture.

“What’s the Story” was launched in 2013 by a team of teachers who had studied at the Bread Loaf School of English and were looking to provide an engaging out-of-classroom learning experience that met Vermont curriculum standards. It is sponsored by the Bread Loaf Teacher Network and led by educators Tim O’Leary, MA English ’07,  and Bill Rich, MA English ’99, who also work with schools and teachers who are interested in bringing the concept of storytelling through media into their classrooms.

O’Leary and Rich’s passion for “What’s the Story?”—and their delight in what students accomplish when they’re “treated like the leaders they are capable of becoming”—comes through in their conversation. A Zoom call with the two—even one that takes place in the early morning hours, just after sunrise so that O’Leary’s spouse can watch their young children before she leaves for work—is a riveting affair.

Rich and O’Leary delight in talking about the program’s model, which involves students from different schools working remotely most of the time. They believe it may provide insights for classroom teachers who, due to the pandemic, are facing the possibility of at least some degree of distance learning for the upcoming school year.

“Perhaps people are more ripe for adopting this program right now, since they’ve been pushed into the deep end of the pool of doing remote learning,” Rich says. “What we’re really interested in is teaching people how to do this blended learning thing well. We know quite a bit about how to shift the curriculum so it really works within this realm.”

Between the effects of the pandemic and the rise of social movements such as Black Lives Matter, Rich says, “there’s been a confluence of  social awakening, and many more people are trying to figure out things like ‘How do we make current events not just be current events but a way for us to study history and make sense of it?’”

In a normal year, students have opportunities not only to share their films online but also to present their topics in person; that part isn’t possible this year. Still, besides some minor technology issues—not all students, for instance, had sufficient broadband access in their corners of the state to upload video files to the cloud—O’Leary said changes due to the pandemic did not greatly affect the students’ schedules; luckily, most filming had already wrapped up by March. If anything, he says, the program offered students some continuity at a time when they were losing the structure of in-person classes.

The films, O’Leary says, are important; they showcase the students’ learning and give them something to be proud of. They also offer a way for students to promote social issues they feel strongly about.

But he emphasizes that the process is just as valuable; through the challenges of making the films, he says, students learn “to really understand their own abilities and increased strategies around what we call transferable skills—communication, collaboration, self-direction.”

And even after the films are finished, the learning continues. Rich says, “Students come away amazed at how many sides there are to the issues they investigate.” In fact, he says, it’s not uncommon for some to come back to the program for a second year to “really dig into” the previous year’s topic.

Perhaps most important, students discover that their voices matter. By making these films and presenting what they’ve learned to the public, O’Leary says, “students come to understand that they can speak to things they want to see changed in the world, small or big, and that whatever they’re working on now is hopefully just the beginning.”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Stories

Features

View Finder

For years, photographer John Huddleston has been walking the woods near his home in Weybridge, Vermont, capturing the transitory nature of the forest with his camera. An excerpt from his latest book of photography At Home in the Northern Forest.

By John Huddleston
Photography by John Huddleston
March 12, 2021

The Man Who Saw in Technicolor

Two years after his death, remembering Jason Spindler up close.

By Ellen Halle '13
Illustration by Vanessa Lovegrove
January 29, 2021

What’s The Deal?

The story behind the critically acclaimed podcast, hosted by Middlebury Institute professor Jeffrey Lewis, that tells you everything you need to know about the Iranian nuclear deal.

By Rhianna Tyson Kreger
Photo illustration by Paul Dahm
December 16, 2020

Hunger Fight

How two Middlebury alumni are building on the local food economy to help hungry Vermonters.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photographs courtesy ShiftMeals
December 3, 2020

Dispatches

More Than Unwelcome in America

Reflections on what it feels like to be Asian in the United States.

By Bochu Ding '21
Photograph by Getty Images
March 26, 2021

One for the History Books

Working at Middlebury for nearly 50 years, Bob Preseau had experienced just about everything that can happen on a residential campus. A retirement party on Zoom, however, was a first.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by John Dykes
March 25, 2021

Whiskey*, with a Twist

What does it mean to create a line of craft spirits that hews tightly to sustainability practices? Will Drucker '08.5 thought he'd try and find out.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph courtesy Split Spirits
February 26, 2021

May I Have a Word?

During the pandemic, as the arts have struggled to stay relevant in a virtual world, one artistic director came up with a brilliant idea to showcase local talent.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
February 12, 2021

Otter Nonsense

Who had giant mutant otters on their 2020 Bingo card?

By Matt Jennings
Photograph by Daniel Houghton '04
December 17, 2020

Marble Works

How recycled stone from a College building has a second life in the local arts world.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Todd Balfour
December 16, 2020

Home Schooled

With COVID restrictions temporarily halting normal campus activities such as in-person lectures, a pair of faculty members devised a digital alternative that should have a shelf life for years to come.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Illustration by Harry Campbell
November 5, 2020

Home, Heart

A student-designed affordable home wins major architectural award

By Stephen Diehl
Photographs by Lindsay Selin Photography
October 8, 2020

Catching Up with Elise Morris

Our colleagues in Athletic Communications talk to the women's soccer player about one of higher education's most pressing issues: sexual assault prevention and awareness on college campuses.

By Ali Paquette
Photography by Ali Paquette
October 7, 2020
View All

Pursuits

In the Line of Fire

What it's like to be a firefighter in California, when each emergency is more extreme than the last.

By John Devine
Illustration by Stuart Biers
February 12, 2021

Q&A

On the World Stage

Only a sophomore, Nordic skier Sophia Laukli makes her World Cup debut for the U.S. National team. We catch up with her to talk about the experience.

By Matt Jennings
Photograph by NordicFocus, GMBH
February 12, 2021

Editor’s Note

A Brilliant Fogg

Saying goodbye to a dear colleague and friend.

By Matt Jennings
Illustration by Jody Hewgill
February 25, 2020

Old Chapel

The Magnitude of Systemic Racism

Acknowledging a national scourge and examining the work that must be done at Middlebury— individually and collectively—to combat it.

By Laurie L. Patton
Illustration by Montse Bernal
June 9, 2020

Road Taken

What to Wear Now

Through accrued life experiences, a writer discovers that a common question has become a statement of identity.

By Samantha Hubbard Shanley ’99
Illustration by Naomi Clarke
March 11, 2021

Quotation

A summer immersed in a language can do wonders, as veterans of Middlebury College’s famous language-learning program can attest. The lockdown is clearly going to amount to the equivalent of about two summers, and there are mini-Middleburys happening in millions of houses worldwide.”

—John McWhorter, writing “The Coronavirus Generation Will Use Language Differently” in the Atlantic.

Podcasts

Alone Together, Ep. 9 with Jessica St. Clair ’98 and Dan O’Brien ’96

Dan O'Brien ’96, a playwright and poet, and Jessica St. Clair ’98, a comedian and writer, join President Patton for our final check in with the community during COVID-19 self-isolation. Dan and Jessica are a true power couple in the arts that met in a Middlebury improv group. They discuss Dan's magazine essay "Life Shrinks: Lessons from Chemo Quarantine," how reopening the country feels a lot like remission, and how their art is evolving to reflect the pandemic.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 15, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 8 with Dick Clay, Covid-19 Survivor

In this episode, Dick Clay, a student at the Bread Loaf School of English, shares his story of recovering from COVID-19. Dick discusses when the seriousness of the virus hit him, the "wilderness path to recovery," and how he will process this experience through writing.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 8, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 7 with Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, Essential Workers

In this episode, we hear from Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, who have been working with custodial services to keep our Vermont campus safe and clean. Jodie and Jacque share what campus has been like since the students left: what it's like to schedule hourly sanitation of buildings, how every day feels like an empty Saturday morning, and that the infamous Middlebury squirrels have lost a bit of weight.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Photography by Bob Handelman
June 1, 2020

Review

Editors’ Picks for March and April

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
March 23, 2021

How Did You Get Here?

Megan Job

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Leif Taranta

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Mikayla Haefele

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Videos

In the Blink of an Eye

Gone in less than a minute—the middle of June 2019 to the middle of June 2020, as viewed from the rooftop of the Mittelman Observatory.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Video by Jonathan Kemp/Mittelman Observatory
June 10, 2020

All the Feels

Current students, alumni of all ages, parents, faculty, and staff come together to sing Middlebury's alma mater "Walls of Ivy."

By Chris Spencer
May 26, 2020

A (Virtual) Visit with Kenshin Cho ’20

Laurie Patton chats with the political science major and SGA treasurer, who has been unable to return to his native Tokyo.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
April 18, 2020
Middlebury College
  • Alumni
  • Newsroom
  • Contact Us
  • icon-instagram

The views presented are not necessarily those of the editors or the official policies of the College.

© 2021 Middlebury College Publications.