Eighteen students and one volunteer in a high intermediate/low advanced ESL Speaking and Listening class at Bellevue College, spring quarter, 2010 completed a short, multi-media movie project. Students wrote scripts that told a story from the heart, recorded voiceovers, chose accompanying photos, planned movies on a storyboard, and mixed the movies in iMovie HD on Macintosh computers. (One student completed the project in PowerPoint, but it was later converted to a movie format.)
As the project unfolded, a learning community in the class formed. Students practiced their scripts with each other and with a volunteer, Jan Schelter. They helped each other learn the technology in the lab. Using Macintosh computers and software was a struggle for nearly every one. They encouraged each other and found ways to help. Eventually students really got to know each other well because they had to communicate with each other in English—speaking and listening both.  On Movie Night, June 3, 2010, students celebrated by watching each other’s movies. It was a huge accomplishment.
The movie CELEBRATION NIGHT is a photo montage of the process from students working in the lab to receiving their certificates of completion. Rose Zhang produced this movie for her classmates.
I want to acknowledge four people who made this project possible: Alex Erreguin the professional photographer and sound technician; Rose Zhang, the computer expert, who produced the DVD, edited all the movies, and updated the Listening Legacies Website; Gabriella Hemstreet, professional documentary producer, who tutored many of the students in iMovie; and Ting Chen, the class assistant, who tutored and encouraged students along the way.
Most of all, I want to thank all the students who persisted with the project and believed in my dream of bringing their stories in their own voices to life.