The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Because of this common point, they become friends and dance in a circle, The one-toothed monster is a creation of the grade six class at Empire School in Waterloo taught by Mr Terry Hallman It is one of three films the students By Wendy Herman The film opens with a one-toothed monster sit- ting looking out of his cave. It is obvious the monster is very lonely and sad as a tear drops down from his eye. With nothing better to do, he moves out of his cave during his walk he .es away a cat and some ducks and then comes to a girl playing with a ball. She too is afraid of him until she realizes they both have something in common. She too has only one tooth. The plot and film itself sounds rather simple, but that's the way it has to be since the process of its pro- duction is complicated The End. The animated film, which took two min- utesisover, Student spelling '- is it a problem? Grade six students at Empire School were busy shot the films themselves under teacher super- last week in the production of an animated film. vision. The students wrote the script, made the sets and Chronicle Photo . How film -makers are made A newsletter seat to teachers by the Waterloo Board of Education disclosed the results of a test which was con- ducted by teachers in the area at their own choice. It was not a compulsive test. By Wendy Herma- Student spelling, a long time con 'em of parents and teachers got a bit of a boost this pf? week with the re- suits of a recently conducted spelling st. Results indicated though Waterloo students could spell better than those in Toronto. Out of 938 who took the test in grades three to eight, 44 came out with perfect scores while only 12 were without error in Tomato. Four schools in Waterloo: Lincoln Heights, Brighton, Elizabeth Ziegler and Winston Churchill chose to conduct the test. Martin Donat, a teacher at Winston Churchill, was not quick to boast about the results. When asked what thought the reason was for Waterloo County faring bet- . on the test than Toronto, he said, that he couldn't an- swer it fairly since "we don't know which area the stu- dents who took the test in Toronto are from." Mr. Donat indicated that different factors would come to bear in different parts of the city which might have affect- ed the students performance on the test. On the wttoidhowever, the results can be an encourage- Even though the making of the films does touch on most subjects, Mr Woods sees a more important aspect to the project. The students through their work learn an appreciation of films "It is a combination of many subjects." Mr. Woods said "Maybe you could call it communication arts on creative arts, but it touches on a lot of things. There is English with the writing, art when' the stu- dents draw and construct the small sets, math to figure how many frames per sec- ond are needed and what will the film look like with so many frames devoted to a specific subject." Mr. Dave Woods, prin- cipal of the school, could- n't place the project which has been worked on by the students occasionally since January, into any specific subject such as English or art. wrote, organized, prepared 'H think it gives them a the settings for and even chance to get first hand ex- filmed themselves. perience with films." Mr. Mr. Dave Woods, prin- Woods said, "They can now cipal of the school, could- begin to appreciate the n't place the project which time and effort which has been worked on by the goes into such a production. students occasionally since Let's face it, children to- January, into any specific day watch hours and hours subject such as English or of television. This helps art. them appreciate the effort m. .A - -___cr__a2_, _. behind itall.“ The camera was propped on a tripod over the setting and was operated by one person while others helped The shooting of the film was done last week and took about two hours to complete one two minute story The end result of the three movies will be about 10 or 12 minutes of film spliced together for con- tinuous showing, with the title and film credits sep- arating each one. The story itself may appear to' be very simple but it is that way purposefully to keep from further complications of script, set and produc- tion. ment, especially to parents who throw their hands up in despair at their children's spelling. With the changes in the present school system parents are often confused and think spelling no longer is demand- ing the concern it did years ago. This confusion probably develops when a student brings home a piece of creative writing and the parent notices spelling mistakes were not brought to the attention of the student. Bob Ernest. consultant with the English Department at the Board of Education, said techniques in spelling may not be the same as they were 10 years ago, but he feels it is not being downplayed. For example, a student is given the word “act" to learn. Rather than memorize it, he is taught what other words can be formed, such as actor. actively, reaction. in- Mr. Ernest said parents might note such mistakes in creative compositions because some teachers downplay spelling when it comestothis subject. A A _ -_- "We have gone beyond the point of teaching spelling by giving a word, telling the student to write it out five times and memorize it." Mr. Ernst said, adding the Board was now advocating learning spelling by relating it to other subjects and by teaching words in relation to other words. “They Ieamed to work to- gether through the project and solve problems they had- n't been faced with before." Mr. Woods said. “It is an experience they will never forget." For example, the stu- dents wanted a large happy face to move smoothly across the stage in one sequence. To do this the face was put in one spot, four frames shot, then moved a quarter of an inch, four more frames shot and so forth until the face had moved smoothly across the stage. Although the stu- dents are constantly moving things on the set, no hands show up in the film and generally action is smooth except for purposeful jerky movements. , Mr. Woods said the film making was a unique ex- perience for the children. He said they were allowed to do whatever they wanted while the teachers acted as advisors. with the only lim- it being technological limitations. with the movement, Mr. Donat said he personally thought spelling was not worse today. lf anything. he felt it would be equal or bet- ter with the improvement in school facilities which hate more and better libraries. He said students are now doing more research on their own with teacher supervision than ever before. Regardless of the innovations in education it is unlikely misspelled words will disappear completely from the classroom in the near future. Technology has yet to come up with an absolute cure to that ailment. Mr. Ernest felt in the early grades spelling mi.stakes might be let by since students are encouraged to express themselves with words they know. “Once they gain more mastery'of the language though," he said, "emphasis does become greater on spelling. " But the idea of spelling being poorer in schools today than it was years ago could possibly be a misconception. in creative composition classes, spelling is most times overlookedsoastogetthestudenttousethewordshe knows whether or not he knows ttowtospelitttern. Edward Rutherford, principal of a Toronto school said, "We've changed our views completely. A grade one or two kid will write: “The ferocious lion pounced on the wary traveiier,' and three or four words will be spelled wrong. We say: "That's lovely. That's exciting! If we took a red pencil to it and corrected the spelling, what does the child do? He writes: The lion ran.' Bryon L. Lambert, a grade 6 teacher at Brighton said “I agree with the point that if a teacher marks every mistake with a red pencil, the student will begin to put down words that they only know how to spell. Hence, ere- ative writing will be greatly stifled. " actioetandsomr'Neemphasesistheetoetafamiiyof Mr. Eras! said this method was not necessarily happen- ing in all schools, since teachers develop the method they find most effective but is a practice in many. Blended and howled hy Joseph E. Say-m a Sorts, Ltd., Waterloo, Ont. The Easy Choiée Waterloo Chconich, WM, May 9, 1973 ti Canada's largest-selling ryc whisky. FIVE STAR Seag ranis