We’ve just opened the booking for our well established Media Literacy Workshops – they don’t take place until June but with all the activities we’ve got planned for 2012 this year’s going to be busy for RELAYS at Watershed so we need to get confirmation by March 6th. So, if your Year 9 English, Media or PE students are enthusiastic about the Games, bringing them to our Olympic-themed Media Literacy workshop will help them learn more about how the Olympics has been represented over the last century – on film, on TV, in art and graphics.
If, however, they’re already bored by the very idea of sport, it’s more than likely they’ll find some intriguing, entertaining and challenging ideas in the wide range of movie clips they’ll watch from previous Olympic Games that include personal rivalries, political showmanship, bizarre costumes and things that go wrong at opening ceremonies – as well as some iconic sporting moments.
Watershed’s day-long Media Literacy Workshops – part of our programme of RELAYS activities – take place late in the summer term when David Goldblatt, writer and broadcaster, with input from the BBC, will invite students to unwrap some of the stories from what has been described as the greatest show on earth.
“Thank you for a really enjoyable and valuable experience yesterday….we had a fabulous day! ”
“Thank you for an excellent day at the Watershed”
These quotes are from teachers who brought their students to this year’s Media Literacy workshops at Watershed. The theme was ‘Why study the Olympics?” (see below for more information) and Opening Ceremonies through 20th Century Olympic Games provided the focus for the morning screening session, which included clips of Leni Riefenstahl’s innovative 1936 Berlin Olympics film, Los Angeles 1984, and the astonishing 2008 Games in Beijing.
Photos from the workshops can be seen in the gallery.
We’re just finalising details for this year’s Media Literacy workshops for secondary schools (follow Media Literacy tag on the right to see information on previous years’ workshops) and thought we’d tell you a little bit about our plans and the theme “Why study the Olympics?”!! Here’s an introduction to the topic for teachers by the workshop leader David Goldblatt:
“The Summer Olympics are an extraordinary event. What began as an obscure, eccentric Hellenic revival and sporting gymkhana has become one of the world’s most important and most watched public spectacles. Now over a century old, they have survived every twist and turn of global history and grown ever larger. Up to six years in the making, the scale of a modern Olympic games is immense: 20,000, athletes, from over 200 countries, compete in 23 sports over three weeks, and most of the planet will be watching some of it. (more…)
Here’s a chance to view what over a hundred Bristol school pupils experienced when they came to Watershed in May for the Media Literacy Workshops. With teachers in mind we recorded one of the morning sessions led by David Goldblatt so schools who haven’t attended before but are interested in coming to future workshops, can get an insight into the process.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the Media Literacy Workshops please contact liz.milner@watershed.co.uk
Building on the established and successful format of previous Media Literacy Workshops, writer, broadcaster and teacher David Goldblatt, led the workshops with a World Cup theme to explore the use of language, cliche and meaning in sports’ media.
Five Bristol schools each came to Watershed for a day bringing 134 year 9 and 10 students from Bridge Learning Campus, Brislington Enterprise College, Bedminster Down, Fairfield and St Mary Redcliffe schools. To see more photographs and storyboards go to the Gallery, and for a full video recording of David’s presentation visit this page.
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Audio excerpt from Media Literacy Workshops 2010 – David Goldblatt on Story making
Bristol University and the 2012 Relays Project have teamed up with Watershed and Bristol CYPS to deliver a programme that engages young people in sport and culture by enabling students to produce their own films.
Two of the films produced during the Be Active programme are available to watch below.
‘Sport + Culture + Passion: Let the Games Begin’ – Media Literacy workshops for schools at Watershed, Bristol.
As part of the RELAYS project, Watershed ran a programme of Media Literacy workshops for schools during June in conjunction with Bristol City Council’s Children and Young People’s services and the BBC. Each workshop was a day-long session held at Watershed and was attended by over 200 students from 5 Bristol schools, with 16 volunteers from the BBC helping out during the sessions. Go to the Media Literacy Workshops gallery to see more photos.
Tim Crawley, eShed co-ordinator at Watershed, and Patrick Young, eShed member, worked with a group of Young Ambassadors and Media Students from Ashton Park School to film the Bristol Festival of School Sport at Combe Dingle Sports Complex in Bristol and edited the footage during a workshop session to be held at Watershed.
eShed members filming Bristol Festival of School Sport
