So, after working hard with his students, and getting them to engage in George Orwell's 1984, the

school board wanted to understand why Mr. Clifton thought these students were really as good as he graded them. A class full of delinquent, uninterested students is suddenly getting B's? And they somehow understood 1984, a novel deemed difficult by other teacher's standards? It seemed unreal.... Donovan Clifton defends the use of new media in a classroom! Characters: EVELYN Marsh: Senior English teacher. VIRGIL Commingsrang: Superintendent FRANK Davidson: Principle of the Eddison Miller Senior High DONOVAN Clifton: English teacher LINDA Nichols: Parent Teacher Association member MARGOT Gentry: Head of Special Education, Eddison Miller Central School District. Setting: VIRGILs office. Full bookshelves line all the walls, making the room seem smaller than it is. In the center of the room is a round conference table that VIRGIL often uses as a desk. Around the table sit EVELYN, VIRGIL, FRANK, DONOVAN, LINDA, and MARGOT. EVELYN: It's hard for me to believe that a classroom full of delinquent children, who've never scored above C's and D's in English classes before, are suddenly B students. DONOVAN: Maybe that's because no one ever took the time to see if they were actually being taught, actually being driven to learn. EVELYN: And you did? DONOVAN: Yeah, I did. Think about it. What were the problems teachers were having trying to get these kids to read literature? FRANK: They didnt seem to care about what was being taught. These students wouldnt read Romeo and Juliet, much less 1984. They said they couldnt relate. DONOVAN: Simply put, the first challenge to getting students to relate to the literature is to get them to read it. Fellow English teacher Carol Jago writes, Too many students are doing everything but reading. Teachers arent getting students interested, so they arent reading. Simply handing a book to a kid and saying, Here, read this isnt working. I made these students part of 1984 so they read it. VIRGIL: Part of the book? MARGOT: It makes sense. These kids generally dont have any noted learning disabilities, or need for I.E.Ps, yet parents are demanding them because the students arent performing well. Maybe they just need motivation. Donovan: Exactly! Now, motivation and catching their attention can lead to effective study. And, to do that, I used everyday tools these students know about. Using the Internet to get students to read is an amazing thing, because it might not seem like learning. Its a very indirect way of instruction. DONOVAN shuffles some papers. DONOVAN: Here. According to Shahrina Nordin, et al, A line of studies indicated that utilizing the right combination of multimedia elements has influenced the way students learn, increased their performance and affected the learning environments. EVELYN: That doesnt necessarily mean its a positive effect. LINDA: Maybe not, but when my son Frank came home with a B+ on a paper that he wouldnt normally do, I was surprised. I mean, he wrote a 3-page book review, and after I read it, it was actually

good! I didnt think he could write like that. DONOVAN: And thats the pointgetting these students involved by catching their attention makes them want to do the work. Again, Nordin writes, The integration of different mediacan increase students interest during the teaching and learning process; hence improving students performances in their studies. And thats what happened here. Using these multimedia has grabbed students attention and kept it, like Trevor Owen writes it will. EVELYN: I heard that you used a substitute teacher and a mirror to front load 1984. You sat in the English office and watched the classroom from a webcam. Is that really effective teaching, Mr. Clifton? VIRGIL, FRANK, and LINDA eye each other awkwardly. DONOVAN: Well, yes. I put them in the view of a telescreen. These students acted the way students do around a substitute, and I called them out on it via telephone. They watched the Sonnys Blues movie, got 1984 from the sub, and read it because he told them the answer to the question of howd I know what they were doing was in the novel. If you ask me, thats effective use of multimedia AND new media to frontload a book your students dont want to read. I got them to open the book, and they became enthralled. Even with teaching Sonnys Blues, I taught the students how to use Audacity so they could record their voices instead of write papers. Shannon Cuffs writes, One of the many ways to introduce students to critical literacy is through media education. Sonnys Blues is definitely critical of how African Americans lived in the late 50s, and getting these students, who are mostly white kids in a suburb who havent been exposed to drugs, to connect with a black convict who is also a heroin addict isnt easy. So, I used music. And they connected through Sonnys personal troubles and his music. Just like the students connected to Winston by being observed through a telescreen. MARGOT: Now, Im with you on the fact that these students arent stupid, nor do they have any learning disabilities, and its a shame some of these students were lumped into remedial or even special education classes. But what about the students who genuinely are disabled? Will your approach help them? DONOVAN: Its hardly my approach; its merely an approach I subscribe to. I think, yes. Nordin cites an interesting fact, stating that students remember 20% of what they see, 30% of what they hear, 50% if there is a combination of those they see and hear, and 80% if they see and hear simultaneously. Think about that. Simply letting a student use all of his or her senses will improve that students retention. And, I did that. Using indirect instruction with new media elements, I made students experience 1984 using all of their retention senses, and they grasped the novel more positively. And through that, their writing improved, because they were actually interested. VIRGIL: How will this help students on the standardized tests? DONOVAN: Ive been thinking about this. First and foremost, there are practice tests on the Internet that I will have my students do, in class, around the end of the month, so I can be there to answer questions. I think their writing has improved, and will continue to improve. As far as analyzing literature, that has improved greatly. Just read the book reviews they wrote, or the interviews they conducted. Engaging the students by using new and multimedia has helped me teach them how to analyze literature, as well as improve writing about literature. And as for learning, Im forcing them to be slightly uncomfortable, yet in a way they can solve themselves. Thats Vytogskys Zone of Proximal Development, and its made them better at English. And its made them better by merely engaging them. Here, VIRGIL asks DONOVAN to leave while the Board of Education reviews the discussion that was had. Although it was brief, it was impactful. The Board calls DONOVAN in.

VIRGIL: The Board has decided, almost unanimouslyEVELYN sighs. VIRGIL:--to allow you to continue to teach the class using the means youve been using. We understand that this may result in a few failures, but we also understand that in order to improve the quality of the education we provide, we must think outside the box. DONOVAN: Thank you.