Students Produce Short Movie on Shipwrecks and Traditional Ghost Stories

Things got spooky this year at Grosse-Ile School/CLC on the Magdalen Islands, as Secondary Cycle 2 Students researched and produced a short film about a haunted shipwreck.

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The story was inspired by traditional tales from local history and culture. In preparation, students sought out traditional ghosts stories from community members, and researched sites of historical shipwrecks around the Magdalen Islands. The story they tell in their movie is fictional but inspired by the stories they were told.

The teacher at the helm of this interesting learning project, Julie Boisvert admitted there were several challenges along the way including scheduling with a professional from the Cégep des Îles who helped teach specific movie making techniques. Despite some difficulty in arranging schedules, it was an extremely important factor in the project being steered to success, “Through this partnership they were able to learn about the rigorous work involved in movie making”.

Mme Boisvert said  “Despite any difficulties, students remained dedicated to the project. Students felt great pride in their achievement!”  She notes that with a dynamic project like this one, it is more possible to create and organize projects where each student's strength and talent can be used and brought to light.

The movie project was integrated into their Media class, but included cross curriculum links with Geography, History and Citizenship Education, Français and Arts Education. The students were given a grade for their work and involvement through the various steps and stages of the production of the short film.  Beyond academic outcomes,  Mme Boisvert added that participating in the film project helped students to better appreciate their small and isolated community, that “It is a rich and interesting [place] which is worth sharing with the rest of the world.”

Shipwrecks on the Magdalen Islands

Shipwrecks on the Magdalen Islands

Dorothy Taker

Fall 2012

Throughout the history of the Magdalen Islands there were many shipwrecks and Ms. Dorothy Taker’s  Elementary Cycle 2  class was curious about where the passengers originated from, and how the survivors contributed to the little communities on the Magdalen Islands.  

Nancy Clarke, CLC coordinator saw the research project to answer questions about shipwrecks as an opportunity to engage fathers in the school.  Engagement of fathers is an area that had previously been identified as a need in the community, since most volunteers have typically been female.  

The CLC ordered 4 model ships and arranged for male family members to come in and participate in the assembly.  According to teacher Dorothy Taker, the project was a great success and the ìstudents enjoyed having their fathers/uncles/grandfathers come into their class and help them with a projectî.

The community organization CAMI (Council for Anglophone Magdalen Islanders) provided support in researching the different shipwrecks and the project featured strong links to the curriculum including:

• 

• Social Studies - historical events in own community)
• Broad Areas of Learning - Citizenship and Community Life, Media Literacy 
• Language Arts (reads information based texts, writes information based texts, researches and uses language to communicate and learn) 
• Cross Curricular Competencies - uses information, exercises critical judgment, uses creativity, works well with others

The project culminated with the class reading their information booklets they wrote on different survivors to other students in our school.

To read more about the project, click here.