Meet Romel Nusdorfer
Romel is an American Lit and AP Language and Composition instructor at Ánimo Inglewood Charter High School. An instructor of 14 years, she understands that, given the necessary support, patience, and opportunity, every student can meet the demands of content area standards. Supported by THE MJ PROJECT, she has developed a multimedia-based unit that allows students to demonstrate their understanding of argumentation through the medium of digital media. The unit is high interest for all student groups, especially English learners and students with special needs, which significantly impacts classroom engagement.
A little about the Visual Essay Project…
Now in its third year, The MJ Project’s Visual Essay program continued at Animo Inglewood this spring even as learning transitioned online.
Student groups were asked to document life during the coronavirus through their (collective) eyes and experiences or take the writing piece they were most proud of and turn it into a visual essay. The objective was for students to construct a visual essay presenting their ideas through the means of digital media including voice over and filmed video footage and b-roll, as well as sourced videos, graphics, images, sound, and music.
Students utilized visual (video, images, transitions, graphics, etc.) and audio (music, sound, voice over) elements to execute the project with access to whatever editing software they preferred such as iMovie or Adobe Spark. Students also had access to WeVideo, movie editing software that is fairly simple to use.
To ensure accountability for all group members, individuals within a pair took on roles as Writer/Speaker, constructing and presenting their portion of the essay on film, or Director/Editor, finding visual and sound representations of their partner’s portion of the argument, filming and editing together the footage and visual/sound aids into a cohesive video. A few students with Individualized Education Plans and some English Language Learners chose the alternative visual assessment– a digital book (with a more user friendly software platform) constructed using sourced video clips, images, music, sounds, and graphics to be weaved into their slide presentation.
This year’s award-winning videos from Romel Nusdorfer’s English class cover a wide range of topics related to the COVID pandemic, from a legal analysis of the US response to a personal reflection on remote learning.
We hope you enjoy their incredible work!