Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

News of the day comes to life in the East Junior High School, Aurora, Illinois (Miss Leota Archer, teacher). Watch a filmstrip teach by ELIZABETH L. BLOSS COME into a classroom where students are growing in understanding and appreciation of world affairs. It is Monday. By morning airmail special delivery, a filmstrip has arrived.* Before long a lively discussion is in progress. .'\11 eyes are focused on the projected picture on the screen. This very picture has just appeared in the nation's leading newspapers. It accompanied a news-story of international business relationships. Now in a classroom group of alert young citizens and future leaders, this same government problem is being thoughtfully considered. The projector is turned off. What happens now? On the front blackboard is a list of words. Words that were being used so fluently during the discussion. At the top of the list is written: Dictionary Assignment. A class member now changes this caption to: Words to Keep in Our Vocabulary — Use Them! It is evident that these students acquaint themselves witli unfamiliar words and have reason for putting them to use. Next the group organizes for the week. Suggestions are made as to news interests they wish to pursue further. The list of suggestions is given to the •One of the VEC Neus Filmstrips (Visual Education Consultants. Inc., 2066 Helena St., .Madison -1, Wisconsin). Research C^ommittee. The Picture Committee receives help on selection of news pictures to post on their photoboard. Time is given to the Bulletin Board Committee to make reference to certain correlative news clippings from magazines and local newspapers — to the Map C;ommittee to pinhead for observation the countries and cities in the week's top news— to the Current News Committee to chart the frames they expect to be choice news in their Weekly Readers. Here these children are working in committees, but with one teacherguided goal: the goal of being intelligently informed on all current news. Most astounding of all, perhaps, is to ol)serve that this goal is being attained through the power of a filmstrip. One thinks, how can this be? .Are filmstrips really of such dynamic value? Aren't most of them pretty unexciting? .And yet what about this class we just visited? Did not the enthusiastic participation prove these youngsters read far beyond the comics and sport pages of daily newspapers? These students exercise a more careful selection of both radio and television programs. They claim an active and intelligent place in a family chat on news of the day — local, national, and international. Thanks in part to a filmstrip. The manual accompanying the news filmstrip, vocabulary exercises, quizzes and semester exams give this filmstrip an additional value. Written in the vocabulary of your own students, the manual is well organized. Junior and senior high students use the entire news-story. News-frames for the intermediate and primary grades are designated as such. So, you see, the filmstrip can be of dynamic value in providing experiences through which the news of the day comes to life and awakens an active interest in the mind of each individual student. I do not attempt to suggest how all teachers should teach. Learning is promoted through many approaches and techniques. This I can say: filmstrips have unlimited instructional powers. This article has given you a quick glance at the powers of a VEC News Filmstrip. Other teachers will cite other examples of the powers of the filmstrip. What would be your answer if .someone asked you what specific filmstrip powers you have discovered? Miss Bloss is Director of Audio-Visual Education, Aurora Public Schools, East Side, Aurora, Illinois. February, 1955 73