Students are reading in the dark in Richmond County. It's a new program to help them focus on learning and bring up test scores. NBC Augusta 26 News’ Bridgett Williams visited two classrooms and found out “reading in the dark” isn't what it sounds like.

Seventh graders at Morgan Road Middle School are "watching" their reading assignments come to life. It's called Reading in the Dark. Teacher Yvette Buoy is using television and audio techniques to improve reading comprehension and writing skills in her students.

“She lets us watch videos and that gives us a better perspective it gives us a better learning perspective and it tells us more about what we're going to be reading and what we're going to be learning about” Shantel Hunter, a student, said.

“Expository writing is a type of writing, it explains, describes, informs. It gives information,” Brian Nathan, a student, said.

“The kids are enjoying it, the results are a lot better, the kids are scoring higher on CRCT tests, kids seem a lot happier” Buoy said.

Reading in the Dark gets more advanced at the high school level where students not only watch films to help them interpret literature, they direct their own.

“They have to shoot a short scene using an angle to show how that angle might affect the way the viewer might look at that particular person or that particular issue” Nancy Sladky, a Davidson Fine Arts School teacher, said.

Tenth graders in Sladky's literature class are making movies and watching them to learn how to spot propaganda, whether it's on screen or read between the lines.

“We're trying to shoot a low angle shot where you make one person seem more powerful than other people” Ellen Sentell, a student, said.

“It lets me stay aware of what the director or writer is trying to convey or maybe exaggerate to show how something he wants to show us,” Logan Collier, a student, said.

“Helping them to become more critical in their thinking is what we want them to do” Sladky said. “That's our focus, but they just get excited about anything related to computers, cameras and film. It's fun!”

Teachers hope the interest will translate into higher learning for students. In upcoming lessons, Sladky's students will watch and study the film “Supersize Me” to look for techniques used to influence the audience.