{"id":327531,"date":"2026-02-26T15:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T11:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/?p=327531"},"modified":"2026-02-25T13:52:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T09:52:45","slug":"grade-8-english-documentaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/2026\/02\/26\/grade-8-english-documentaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Grade 8 English Documentaries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Grade 8 students studied cartoons, infographics, and documentaries this term as media to communicate a point of view and data. For the past 2 weeks, they have been applying their learning by making their own documentaries on issues they want to explore and present. Their task was as follows:<\/p>\n<p><b>Goal: create<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a short documentary that clearly <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">communicates<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a message about an issue or topic and <\/span><b>uses<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> an infographic within the documentary to help inform and influence the audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Role: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You are a young documentary filmmaker and visual communicator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Audience: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">students aged 12\u201314 who want clear, engaging, and trustworthy information.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Situation: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ABIS is hosting a student documentary showcase. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Short documentaries will be shown to educate and raise awareness about important topics during school assemblies in Term 4 to support Service as Action. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To help the audience understand key information quickly, each documentary may include at least one infographic (extension).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Product: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You will <\/span><b>create<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a short documentary (4-8 minutes) that:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">presents a clear message (purpose)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">shows a clear point of view<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>uses<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at least 3 documentary techniques, such as:<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">interviews<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">voice-over \/ narration<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">visuals<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">labels<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">music or sound<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">archival footage<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">EXTENSION: includes at least one infographic that:<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">presents key facts, data, or ideas using 2-3 multimodal texts<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is easy to understand<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">supports the documentary\u2019s message<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">shows awareness of audience impact, using emotional and\/or factual appeal as well as specific camera shots and angles<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Success Criteria: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Your documentary will be successful if:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the message is clear and purposeful<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the infographic is relevant, accurate, and easy to read<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">documentary techniques are used intentionally<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the documentary influences how the audience thinks or feels<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">spoken and written language is clear and appropriate<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">it has a credit roll which cites sources of information<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-25-at-1.37.04-PM-scaled.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-327543 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-25-at-1.37.04-PM-300x113.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"113\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/113;\" \/><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-25-at-1.31.30-PM-scaled.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-327540 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-25-at-1.31.30-PM-300x151.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"113\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 225px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 225\/113;\" \/> \u00a0<\/a>I am very impressed and proud of the number of students who searched for primary sources that ranged from our head of school to therapists and ex-students living in other countries to interview for their documentaries.<\/p>\n<p>Now that their work is complete, they get to watch each other&#8217;s documentaries and assess them using the assessment criteria. Doing this is good practice to ensure students understand what and how they will be assessed. They can compare their peers&#8217; assessment to their personal self-assessment of their documentary.<\/p>\n<p>As seen below, the students chose a range of topics\/issues to explore and comment on in their documentaries.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-25-at-1.28.41-PM-scaled.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-327538 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-25-at-1.28.41-PM-300x175.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"175\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/175;\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-25-at-1.29.11-PM-scaled.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-327539 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-25-at-1.29.11-PM-300x82.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"82\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/82;\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-25-at-1.32.53-PM-scaled.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-327542 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-25-at-1.32.53-PM-300x228.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"228\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/228;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grade 8 students studied cartoons, infographics, and documentaries this term as media to communicate a point of view and data. For the past 2 weeks, they have been applying their learning by making their own documentaries on issues they want to explore and present. Their task was as follows: Goal: create a short documentary that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1186,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","wds_primary_category":31,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,31,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-myp","category-grade-8","category-grades"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abisoman.com\/broadcaster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}