Wylie 4th Graders and DHS Film Students Create Stop-Motion Movie Magic in Extended Learning Opportunity

How It Started

At an all-District professional development day during the 2023-24 school year, Wylie Special Education teacher Sarah Sugg and DHS IB Film teacher Barry Mergler were chatting about innovative ways to connect students at different buildings. They came up with an idea for Sugg’s students to work with Mergler’s film class to create some kind of short movie. 

At the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, high school students were surveyed about collaborative project ideas. The movie idea was pitched, and a group of senior film students expressed interest. Because of the number of interested high schoolers, Sugg decided to expand this fun extended learning opportunity to include more students! Fourth grade teacher Jessica Elkin jumped on board and researched ways for the project to tie into fourth grade English Language Arts (ELA) standards and possibly include a social justice component. Instructional Coach Beau Kimmey helped coordinate transportation between DHS and Wylie, and it was lights, camera, action!

How It’s Going

The groups have had six hour-long meetings since February. The first day began with meet-and-greet, assigning group roles and norms, and generating ideas for stories. Across the next several meetings, fourth graders were studying the elements of fiction in both reading and writing. Students learned to identify elements of fiction such as introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution, using graphic organizers (story arcs) as a guide for their reading and writing. The groups used these same graphic organizers from class to plan their fiction stop-motion films. In addition to the ELA elements, students reviewed social justice themes from the “Being A Reader” curriculum in class as possible elements to incorporate. 

Once the stories were planned, students got busy using clay, construction paper, toys from home, toothpicks, and much more, to create characters, scenes, and backgrounds.  With the help of the high school students, the fourth graders used a stop-motion app on their DCS iPads to film their stories.

“My teaching bucket was filled seeing the kids bring content from our curriculum to life,” exclaims Elkins. “It was amazing to see our direct teaching lessons become a hands-on experience, and then morph into so much more.” 

DHS/Wylie group meeting days ranged from celebrations to frustrations and back again as students applied their learning, using cooperation and teamwork, problem solving, and trial and error. Between meetings, the fourth grade students worked independently, eagerly awaiting the return of the DHS students for their expert advice and experience. One group said "We just work so much better with our high schoolers because they keep us moving!” Another group finished filming on their own, then waited for their DHS partners to help them add sound. 

The last collaborative filming day was May 2nd, and the students are planning a sharing presentation at the high school. Groups are also completing a second story arc to detail how the story "actually" happened in the film. This will allow the classes to discuss editing, revising, and changing plans to meet the needs of the project. 

“Overall, it was a great partnership enjoyed by everyone involved,” says Elkins. “This collaboration has been such a wonderful opportunity to bridge creativity between our fourth graders and current seniors.”

“This type of collaborative project is something I've thought about and have wanted to do for most of my career in Dexter,” says Mergler. “I'm hopeful this is something we can continue next year.”

Student Voices

"All of the hard work and dedication we put into the project really paid off and made something great!" - Brynlee and Parker

"When you work hard, good things happen." - Sam

"It was definitely different than most of the stuff you learn in school and that was cool." - Charlotte

"I liked working with the high schoolers." - Addie T. 

Enjoy this slideshow illustrating the creative process!