“Introduce yourself,” are the first words we hear and almost at the same time the notes of a piano playing and then the words themselves appear as white handwriting on a deep blue screen. But the voice might as well be saying, “I love you,” such is its tone and timbre. And really that is what the narrator is saying, for this is “Elaine is Almost,” a hybrid animation and live action documentary that explores the unconditional love in the relationship between two siblings. In these two short films, Emily Yue captures their sister Elaine on the eve of her 14th and 15th birthdays. In just eight minutes, Yue communicates a memoir’s worth of understanding about their sister; their relationship; their culture; their experience as the children of immigrants; and, of course, Elaine herself. The magic of this medium is that it brings us as viewers into the intimate space of conversation that feels like we are participants in a FaceTime or IG Live with Elaine. Emily Yue is a Chinese-American artist and filmmaker from North Carolina. Their work in documentary animation and interactive media explores the intersections of queerness, language, and technology through the lens of tenderness.

This is a fitting time for their work and for this project. The news media is focused on the theme of cultural and political division in the U.S., and the realm of social media is often viewed as the hive of that division. This film (and this lesson) lives outside of that dominant framing and lives into the truths of the authors’ life. Instead, the film reminds us that social media can also be a platform for vulnerability, for self-revelation, for providing a counter narrative to those that would tell a very different story about what our bodies mean in the world. It highlights one relationship and centers the voice of one young person, taking their voice seriously and presenting it respect. The film demonstrates the power of listening with love.

With “Elaine is Almost” as inspiration, this lesson will introduce students to the art and ethics of the interview. Students will learn and write their own ethical code of interviewing. Through a collaborative in-class project, students will work with a partner to co-create a set of interview questions, taking turns as interviewer and subject, thereby experiencing shared agency and accountability for the experience of asking and answering questions about oneself. Finally, students will conduct and record interviews with someone they consider important to their lives, applying the code that they developed, and sharing the final, recorded project to a class-specific Instagram account. This lesson works in person or on a digital platform; some of the tweaks to the format necessary to conduct it online will be left to each instructor. It is also one that could be expanded into a longer curriculum, especially with a focus on animation and visual editing. As it stands here, students will have the chance to take their projects in a journalistic or creative direction. They will be sure to leave it with a new relationship to the art of care, curiosity, and connection.

A Note On Technology and Accessibility

This lesson, as well as the others in the Otherly series, bring social media into the classroom. These lessons are designed to integrate ethical engagement on social platforms to complete the assignments. It will be important for you to check with your school or district for any regulations around classroom or in-school student social media use.In addition, this lesson entails the creation of a class Instagram account. In order to set this up, the teacher will need to set up an IG account which will be shared only to the class, with a username and password that students can all access. That said, while some of the content and theory of the lessons would be lost without the use of social media, students could complete the assignments using the photo and video tools on their phones. However! The lessons are intended to critique, engage, and potentially transform the use of social media. If possible, the lesson will be most transformative as a social media-based engagement. And with enough planning, you and your learning community can create an analogue version of this lesson with printed-out photographs, storyboards on large paper in the classroom, and using school-based technology to record and play videos in school.

A Note From Curriculum Creator, Jade Sanchez-Ventura

I believe in personal narrative. I think that to communicate the particular experience of a life and to tie it literally or intuitively to the histories--familial, cultural, societal--that have shaped us is an act of resistance that also makes for excellent storytelling. This conviction is the underpinning of my work as an educator: No matter the subject, I know that every young person has a singular, vital perspective to bring and my role is to act as a catalyst for their bursts of insight and inspiration. Sometimes (too often) my role is to help students recognize the power of their own insight and intelligence. As with all systems of our society, the classroom can also be a site of profound oppression and silencing. As one mentor told me, “You want your students to leave a classroom not thinking that you’re smart, but that they are.” Often that entails reminding myself that with every generation there are new methods of making and communication emerging; reminding myself to ask students about what is present and relevant to their daily lives.

Smartphones and apps and social media often feel like the epitome of a generational divide. Phones are banned from classrooms (including my own, generally), social media is demonized (even though we all use it), or if not demonized, trivialized--regarded as a cultural arena for entertainment and play, but not for serious study and critique. However, many of us, and certainly most young people, are daily crafting intimate narratives about their own lives on those very phones. Any minute on Instagram is one crammed with countless Stories, Posts, Live broadcasts from our lives. Yes, the celebrities and politicians and gatekeepers are there too, but one can easily ignore them and follow only the interpretations and explorations of regular folks like us.

Much has been made of the information bubbles made possible by social media. Certainly that is an important conversation to have, but for the purpose of this lesson (and it’s partner lessons featuring the Otherly documentary series), we have the chance to interrogate the vast options for self-expression and self-chronicling afforded by social media, in particular Instagram. I am enchanted by the truism that the more focused and personal a story, the more broadly it appeals. There is a magic that happens when an artist tells one small story honestly-It becomes a big truth that resonates for countless others.

“Elaine is Almost” is one of those stories. In these two four minute films an entire relationship is told. As a viewer, I felt as if I was sitting in the room with Elaine, looking at the art on her walls, walking with her as she answered her sister’s questions, asked and answered in a narration floating over the images. It reminded me that the phone I hold in my hand is a tool I can use to capture the power of everyday.

This lesson, as well as the others in the Otherly series, bring social media into the classroom. These lessons are designed to integrate ethical engagement on social platforms to complete the assignments. It will be important for you to check with your school or district for any regulations around classroom or in-school student social media use.In addition, this lesson entails the creation of a class Instagram account. In order to set this up, the teacher will need to set up an IG account which will be shared only to the class, with a username and password that students can all access. That said, while some of the content and theory of the lessons would be lost without the use of social media, students could complete the assignments using the photo and video tools on their phones. However! The lessons are intended to critique, engage, and potentially transform the use of social media. If possible, the lesson will be most transformative as a social media-based engagement. And with enough planning, you and your learning community can create an analogue version of this lesson with printed-out photographs, storyboards on large paper in the classroom, and using school-based technology to record and play videos in school.

I believe in personal narrative. I think that to communicate the particular experience of a life and to tie it literally or intuitively to the histories--familial, cultural, societal--that have shaped us is an act of resistance that also makes for excellent storytelling. This conviction is the underpinning of my work as an educator: No matter the subject, I know that every young person has a singular, vital perspective to bring and my role is to act as a catalyst for their bursts of insight and inspiration. Sometimes (too often) my role is to help students recognize the power of their own insight and intelligence. As with all systems of our society, the classroom can also be a site of profound oppression and silencing. As one mentor told me, “You want your students to leave a classroom not thinking that you’re smart, but that they are.” Often that entails reminding myself that with every generation there are new methods of making and communication emerging; reminding myself to ask students about what is present and relevant to their daily lives.

Smartphones and apps and social media often feel like the epitome of a generational divide. Phones are banned from classrooms (including my own, generally), social media is demonized (even though we all use it), or if not demonized, trivialized--regarded as a cultural arena for entertainment and play, but not for serious study and critique. However, many of us, and certainly most young people, are daily crafting intimate narratives about their own lives on those very phones. Any minute on Instagram is one crammed with countless Stories, Posts, Live broadcasts from our lives. Yes, the celebrities and politicians and gatekeepers are there too, but one can easily ignore them and follow only the interpretations and explorations of regular folks like us.

Much has been made of the information bubbles made possible by social media. Certainly that is an important conversation to have, but for the purpose of this lesson (and it’s partner lessons featuring the Otherly documentary series), we have the chance to interrogate the vast options for self-expression and self-chronicling afforded by social media, in particular Instagram. I am enchanted by the truism that the more focused and personal a story, the more broadly it appeals. There is a magic that happens when an artist tells one small story honestly-It becomes a big truth that resonates for countless others.

“Elaine is Almost” is one of those stories. In these two four minute films an entire relationship is told. As a viewer, I felt as if I was sitting in the room with Elaine, looking at the art on her walls, walking with her as she answered her sister’s questions, asked and answered in a narration floating over the images. It reminded me that the phone I hold in my hand is a tool I can use to capture the power of everyday.

This is intimate work that will ask students to take a leap of trust in each other and in you. Depending on where you are in your year and with your group, this may be a first flight or one that builds on the bond in an already tight knit class. And of course, you may be applying this to a group of students who have only ever met each other on a digital platform like Zoom. Wherever you are, I encourage you to have faith in yourself and your students to make this leap! However, there are preparations that will be necessary to keep this space safe, and therefore positive, for all. Before beginning, I strongly suggest you create community agreements with your group. Even if you already have these in place, this is a good moment to review. You can also adapt your class agreements to a set specific to this project. Here is a sample list of community agreements, and there are a wealth of resources online for how to create a set of agreements with your class. Because all the variations of this lesson include sharing work in public and allowing for public comments, it will be essential to create a set of agreements focused on how to do so in a respectful, inclusive manner. For those using social media, that emphasis will be especially important. Take time to outline “Content Sharing” agreements. Though the time spent on these agreements might seem an aside to the curriculum itself, in fact those conversations will help create a shared trust that will facilitate powerful creative and academic learning.

Subject Areas

• Journalism
• Filmmaking/Visual Art
• English • History
• Current Events
• Social Justice
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Health

Grade Levels: 8 - 12
(can be scaffolded for Higher Education)

Objectives

In this lesson, students will:

• Learn ethical interviewing tools and techniques.
• Explore journalism ethics and analyze questions that inform interviewee choice.
• Participate in a digital process of executing and archiving interviews.
• Create a recorded interview with visual and oral components.

Materials

• Films and equipment to project/screen the films.
• Physical or digital space for charting student discussions. (Whiteboards, chalkboards, poster paper, digital whiteboard, etc.)
• Note taking materials: Pen, pencils, paper, or relevant assistive technology for students who use electronic devices for note taking.
• Personal recording devices, one per student: Smartphones, laptops, tablets would all work.
• A private Instagram account created by the teacher for each class section; teacher and students share account admin capabilities through a shared username and password.

Time Needed

2-3 sixty minute sessions

Elaine is Almost is available in Instagram story highlights on the Otherly Instagram account page: @otherlyseries.

Clip 1

Elaine and Her Room [0:55-1:46], length: almost a minute.
While Elaine is speaking, the camera scans over her walls and decorations.

Clip 2
Elaine and her belongings [3:02-4:03], length: one minute.
Again, while Elaine is answering questions, the camera takes in her belongings, her desk and her books.

A. Warm-Up: She/He/They/We are!

1. if in person, class arranges themselves with the teacher into a circle. Each student “introduces” themselves to the group (even if they already know each other), by stepping into the middle of the circle, describing themselves in the third person, naming themselves, and adding a descriptor.

Examples: “He is Raul, and he is a musician.” “They are Lee, and they are funny.” The class then choruses back the same line: “He is Raul and he is a musician.” This gives all participants a chance to name their pronouns and to consider one theme that informs their identity.

On a digital platform, encourage students to turn on their camera if you know that is a comfortable option for all participants. Furthermore, ask students to turn on their mics for the duration of the activity, monitoring their own background noise and turning off if their space gets too loud. Ask one student to start and spotlight each student as they speak. The choral response back will be loud and chaotic but try to play it with it and see how it goes. Modify as is necessary for the size of your group. Ask each student to pass to the next speaker.

Optional (and fun!) expansion: Round 2, each student adds a physical motion to their lines. The group then needs to repeat their lines and the motions back to them.

Optional (and even more fun!) further expansion: Memory challenge, each student steps into the circle, or is spotlit on Zoom, and the group has to remember their lines and motions and do them for each individual.

(Resource: Theater of the Oppressed)

B. Screen film; “Elaine is Almost”

1. Allow for some supported but open-ended reflection immediately following the film. While you conduct the discussion, ask a student to chart ideas and responses where the group can view. Useful prompts: :
2. What do you learn about Elaine?
   1. How do you learn that? What in the film gave you that information or impression?
3. What do you learn about the interviewer?
4. What is their relationship?
5. Would you want to be interviewed like this?

C. Introduce content: Ethics in Interviewing

1. Review & discuss these three core standards from the Center for Media & Social Impact:
   1. Honor your (vulnerable) subjects. Protect them from attack and don’t leave them worse off than when you met them.
   2. Honor your viewers. Make sure that what they understand to be true and real wouldn’t be betrayed if you told them where and how you got that image.
   3. Honor your production partners. Do what you contracted to do, even if you made that bargain with yourself.
      1. Expand with this point: Narratives about people from oppressed communities (POC, queer, undocumented, women) often focus on trauma and suffering, as if those are the only stories they have to tell. It’s important to be mindful of avoiding these pitfalls and stereotypes when approaching an interview subject.
2. Ask: Does “Elaine is Almost” follow these standards? Do these shift if the interviewer and subject know each other? If so, how?

D. Closing

1. Have each student stand up, or be spot lit, and have class call out their descriptor from the opening. For example, if Raul stands up, the class calls out “musician.” ~or~
2. Have each student share in a round robin what the title of a documentary about them would be.

Homework: Have students finalize a list of 4-6 questions they would like to be asked in an interview.

Lesson 2

A. Warm-Up

1. Feel free to repeat circle of introductions from Lesson 1; either in full or abbreviated.
   ~or~
2. Ask students to share who they would like to interview, living or dead.

B. Interviewing each other

1. Review this list of interview tips from Radio Rookies.
2. Explain activity first:
   1. Randomly broken into groups of two.
   2. Before interviewing, you’ll combine the questions you each wrote for HW. Together, you’ll also return to Great Questions List, and add 2-4 more questions from that list. Now both students will have a list of about 8-12 potential questions.
   3. There will be two rounds. Choose who will be the interviewer and who will be the interviewee for the first round. You’ll switch for the second.
   4. Each round will last five minutes. Teacher will keep time, and then switch.
3. Before breaking into groups, write a class “Interviewing Code of Ethics.”
4. Break students into groups of two and help everyone find spaces to work.
5. Proceed with interviews.

C. Share out

1. Lead a discussion; ask for a student to chart while you lead.
   1. Reflection:
      1. Take a few minutes for students to share how it felt, what it was like, which role they preferred, what was scary, what felt good, etc.
   2. Identify themes and patterns.
      1. Again, ask for a student to chart while you lead.
      2. Ask groups to name what themes and topics came up in the interviews; help students keep this broad-instead of starting to tell the story of what happened during their subject’s 5th birthday, have them state “Birthdays.”
      3. After charting, notice if any patterns emerged.

D. Visual patterns & Self-Archiving

1. Prep for second screening of film.
   1. Before watching, display and define these terms:
      1. Archive: (from Wikipedia)
         1. An archive is an accumulation of historical records – in any media – or the physical facility in which they are located.
         2. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization’s lifetime, and are kept to show the function of that person or organization.
         3. Archival records are normally unpublished and almost always unique, unlike books or magazines of which many identical copies may exist.
      2. Primary source: (from Wikipedia)
         1. (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under study.
   2. Watch “Elaine is Almost” again; only this time without sound.
      1. Discussion: Again, ask for a student to chart while you lead.
         1. What did you learn about Elaine just from the images you saw?
         2. What did you see that gave you that information and/or impression?
   3. Instant Archive
      1. Ask students to pull out their backpacks or bags and choose three objects that they feel expresses something true and unique about their identity.
      2. Have students take photos of those objects in class and post to the class Instagram account.
      3. Set up a shared view of the Instagram feed and discuss what information those images give about the class as a whole.

E. Closing discussion: They are history in the making

1. Discuss: Are these interviews important, why or why not? What do our personal details tell us about the times we live in? Why might “Elaine is Almost” be important for someone to watch in fifty years?.
   1. Social media: All those IG stories and posts; what do they share there? What might it tell future generations about themselves?
2. Closing: Round Robin style, strike a pose that would go on a poster advertising a documentary about you.

Homework: Interview a member of your household or a close friend; someone who you can sit down with without too much trouble arranging. Film that interview, keeping in mind the Code of Ethics and Interviewing Tips reviewed in class. Experiment with adding images of objects and rooms to the interview. Share interviews to class Instagram and hold a class screening to end the project.

Extensions

• Expand into a focus on visual storytelling, animation and collage. In this extension, instruction would shift to studying collage and visual editing.
• A class takes on a shared topic and conducts a series of interviews focusing on that theme. Obvious and compelling examples could be: the COVID 19 pandemic, the uprisings over racial injustice and violence. But students may also want to focus on less all-consuming topics: Dating, cooking at home, applying to college. Open discussions with their group will likely lead to a rich array of themes.

Otherly Documentary Series
https://mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/otherly/
Premiering on Instagram Stories, Otherly is a series of seven short documentaries about finding one’s place in the 21st century. Using universal themes like love, inclusion, and loss as entry points, seven female, non-binary, and genderqueer creators have crafted films that are at once timeless and yet by definition of their form, ephemeral.

Otherly Instagram Account
https://www.instagram.com/otherlyseries/?hl=en

Edutopia; Focus on classroom use of social media.
https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-social-media-account-your-class

Pagefreezer; Detailed overview of legal concerns for school social media use. https://blog.pagefreezer.com/k12-schools-official-social-media-accounts-protect-student-privacy

Em Yue
https://emyue.me/
Website for filmmaker Emily Yue, showcasing their work in multiple mediums and genres.

The Audre Lorde Project
https://alp.org/
The Audre Lorde Project (ALP) is a Community Organizing Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, TwoSpirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming (LGBTSTGNC) People of Color Communities. Initiated as an organizing effort by a coalition of LGBTSTGNC People of Color, The Audre Lorde Project was first brought together by Advocates for Gay Men of Color (a multi-racial network of gay men of color HIV policy advocates) in 1994. The vision for ALP grew out of the expressed need for innovative and unified community strategies to address the multiple issues impacting LGBTSTGNC People of Color communities.

Center for Media and Social Impact
https://cmsimpact.org/
The Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI) is a creative innovation lab and research center that focuses on media for equity and social justice. Their work bridges boundaries between scholars, media producers, social justice organizations, and communication practitioners.

Radio Rookies
https://www.wnyc.org/shows/rookies
Radio Rookies is a New York Public Radio initiative that provides teenagers with the tools and training to create radio stories about themselves, their communities and their world.

Story Corps
https://storycorps.org/
StoryCorps’ mission is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.

Asian American LGBT resources:
https://aapaonline.org/resources/lgbtq-aapi-resources/

on “satellite babies”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28636226/
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/10/13/492860463/born-in-the-u-s-raised-in-china-satellitebabies-have-a-hard-time-coming-home

Interviews with experimental animators:
https://mostlymoving.com/interviews

Comprehension and Collaboration

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1
Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1.a
Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1.b
Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1.c
Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1.d
Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.2
Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.3
Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.4
Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.5
Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.6
Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Key Ideas and Details

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.1
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.3
Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.

About The Artist

Em Yue
Em Yue is a Chinese-American artist and filmmaker from North Carolina. Their work in documentary animation and interactive media explores the intersections of queerness, language and technology through the lens of tenderness. After studying photojournalism and studio art at UNCChapel Hill, they relocated to Los Angeles where they are currently pursuing an MFA in experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts.

About The Author

Jade Sanchez-Ventura
Jade Sanchez-Ventura is a writer and radical educator. She works in memoir and her personal essays have been published across an array of online literary journals, and in print with Slice Magazine and Seal Press. Her work has been featured on Bitch Media’s Popaganda podcast and been awarded the Slice Literary Conference “Bridging the Gap” award; a Disquiet Literary conference fellowship; and a Hertog fellowship. She is a regular contributor to MUTHA Magazine, which champions a fiery re-imagining of parenting. As an educator, she is very good at being continually wowed by her students and their words on the page. She believes a commitment to racial equity and social justice is essential to the practice of teaching. She has spent the last decade studying and implementing this pedagogical approach to education with the Brooklyn Free School, an urban democratic free school in New York City. Though she has ties to many countries, she has always made her home in Brooklyn, New York. She’s on Instagram posting about radical parenting, teaching, race, writing, and other such matters; find her @jade_m_sv.

This resource was created, in part, with the generous support of the Open Society Foundation.