Historic Continuity - Student
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Historic Continuity (Student Version)
Objective(s):
- Learn how to maintain historical accuracy when telling a story.
- Work with a group to create a short video set in a specific decade.
- Practice storytelling and media creation with attention to detail.
- Use all the storytelling skills learned so far: writing, filming, editing, and acting.
Overview:
In this lesson, you and your team will create a short film set in a specific decade. Each group will get the same story prompt, but your film will need to reflect the fashion, technology, language, and cultural details of your assigned time period. The challenge is to keep it historically accurate, even while telling a creative story.
Expected Lesson Duration:
2-3 days
Common Core Connection:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3.C – Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines.
Lesson Procedure:
1. Introduction Activity
- We’ll begin with an image, sound, or video clip. Your job is to write a quick story about what you think is happening just outside the frame.
2. Warm-Up
- After our daily meme, we’ll review the idea of “continuity” and how it helps make stories believable.
- We’ll watch clips of movie mistakes where continuity is broken (costumes change, props move, characters act out of time).
3. Group Project
- Each group will receive the same story idea. For example: “A babysitter searches for a child who has gone missing.”
Your group will also get assigned a time period, such as:
- The Middle Ages
- The 1920s
- The 1970s
- The early 2000s
Your task is to create a 2–5 minute short film showing that story as if it happened in your time period.
Things to consider:
- What kind of clothes would characters wear?
- What kind of technology existed at the time?
- What type of language/slang would they use?
- What music, vehicles, and buildings would exist?
Historical Continuity = Keeping your story believable for the time it takes place.
4. Presentation & Feedback
- You will watch other groups’ videos and give helpful feedback.
- Pay attention to details. Was the story believable for that time period?
Outcomes:
- Understand different types of continuity: story, action, look, historical.
- Practice working in teams and using storytelling tools.
- Learn how research helps strengthen media storytelling.
- Learn to spot (and avoid) historical mistakes in your own work.
Closure:
- Why does it matter if a movie or story stays accurate to its time period?
- How can our storytelling help preserve or challenge history?
Assessment:
You will be assessed on:
- Accuracy of your time period
- Creativity in storytelling
- Teamwork and collaboration
- How well your group kept continuity
- Participation in discussion and feedback