Feature Films to Teach Literature



https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1OZzDLGaffny7Yn8y8QxHUrXnmS5odlRdRGpB0Ooj7sM

Description: This article talks about how using feature films to help teach a certain set of literature helps increase understanding and the want/need to discuss similarities and differences between the different media’s. It not only talks about movies, but tv adaptions, plays, and radio programs. Not only does this article shed insight behind the reasons as to why to include different forms o media into the classroom, but also provides 3 other references to work with that provide materials and lesson plans from companies that are trying to encourage more films in English classes. Most lesson plans tend to avoid movie days except for maybe one or two a year. They’re time consuming and some teachers find them unhelpful or even harmful when it comes to understanding the text, when the opposite is actually more true.

How to apply to the classroom: The article offers a few options, one being to bring in scripts from movies and plays and compare that to the text itself. Another is creating an assignment of choosing a line or scene from the text and adapting it into a different form of media, like Romeo and Juliet into a modern day translation via text conversation. The last is just to discuss, which this article promotes more than anything. Getting students excited to point out the differences in similarities or how they saw the literature in their head versus on the screen.

Some Problems: This article is super old. Published in 1981, most of the movies and texts it specifically recommended are either not appropriate for secondary education students (ex: The Shining), or are paired with such old texts that it’d be hard to even teach (ex: Boule de Suif). It would also be unrealistic to pair every book read in class to some kind of movie, especially if it turns out that you become reliant on having a movie in order to get your students to respond or “because its easier”. Picking a select few movies and pairing them with a text and leaving it up for your students to decide I think would be a safer option in the long run. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post #3; Speaking and Listening

I personally struggle with active listening in conversations and classroom settings that do not have a visual presentation to follow along with. I don’t think there would ever be a time in my classroom that I wouldn’t have some kind of visual aid for not only my students, but for myself as well to follow along with. Using visual or auditory aids, like the book says, “ students like to listen to stories, poetry, and radio dramas and theater. Listening to literature can also be a great pleasure”, would be a great way to not only help students with getting better at active listening, but also would enrich curriculum and diversify lessons. With 16.2 , “we need to realize that some of the listeners and speakers we are communicating with may face challenges in understanding the nuances of what we are saying”- being able to be a clear and concise speaker is not important just for me as a teacher, but as a student that will eventually move on from your classroom and into others, and that the a...
Read more

Literacy and Reading Content Portfolio

Image
1. “Percy Jackson and The Olympians” This is the most important series I’ve ever read, to this day. I love the message that Riordan portrays with having Percy being the son of a single mom, having ADD/ADHD and Dyslexia, and having a hard time in school. The different characters show that no matter your background you can make something of yourself. And just because you have a learning disorder doesn’t mean you can’t be the smartest kid in the room— all while teaching you about Greek and Roman mythology, as well as Egyptian and Norse mythology in Rick Riordan’s other series.  It’s great for students to read of characters that they can share some kind of similarity with them and connect more on a personal level than typical literature characters. 2. “The Help” The Help is a really important text, not just because I could read it a million times and not get bored of it, but because it gives a (fictional) look into what was happening at the height of the civil rights mo...
Read more