The Story of Movies: Understanding Films and Filmmaking
An educational package to add to the curriculum.
by Amy Standen
VIDEO: Reading Film: The Story of Movies
Running Time: 5 min.
If there's one thing you don't have to convince a kid of, it's the value of movies. A love of the silver screen is practically a birthright in this country, and yet we tend to value movies more for their recreational value than their educational one.
When movies are brought into classrooms, it's usually as a treat for kids who have finished the book the movie is based on, rather than as an exercise in and of itself. Now, however, The Film Foundation, along with celebrated film director Martin Scorsese, aims to help teachers expand their use of film in the classroom with a series of DVDs and curriculum guides called The Story of Movies.
"We live in a very visual society," says Cathy Gourley, the project's curriculum writer. "We are surrounded by visual images, moving images. Teachers recognize that. They know that we live in this kind of a society. The problem becomes, how do you fit film study into a curriculum?"
The Story of Movies is intended to teach kids to think critically about what they see in film, and to consider the filmmaking process and decisions made along the way. It also helps students place films in a historical context, using them as a springboard for conversations about social issues. Finally, says Scorsese, the program should help kids manage and decode the barrage of visual information they absorb in daily life, to "shape their minds to a critical way of looking at these images and what they mean, and how to interpret them."
Last year, The Story of Movies released its first teacher's packet, which includes a DVD of To Kill A Mockingbird along with a teacher's guide, a student activity book, related images and documentaries, and a Web site with even more resources, including a teacher's lounge, where educators can compare notes. Within a month, the packets had all been given away. Soon, the Film Foundation will launch its next curriculum, this time based on the 1939 Frank Capra classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Reading Film: The Story of Movies curriculum is available free to teachers for use in middle school classrooms via Web registration.
Amy Standen is a former contributing editor to Edutopia. She reports on science and the environment for KQED-FM, in San Francisco.
This article originally published on 10/19/2006
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movies in the classroom
The films mentioned earlier in the discussion are not the best examples of films to teach with.
Teachers do not need a license to show a dvd in the classroom as long as it is accompanied by a substantial curriculum.
You can find teaching guides based on age and content appropriate foreign language films at www.Journeysinfilm.org. They were developed to teach cultural understanding and global competency skills through core subjects to Middle School students. Read the teachers comments on the website under feedback.
Film Studies
I have created a course called film studies (at Mark R. Isfeld secondary on Vancouver Island) with these central beliefs in mind. Students are regulary learning about character, theme, symbolism, and conflict, but not through novels and short stories, rather through film. Schools no only should take advantage of students interest in film, but should be more responsible in teaching students about the subtleties of film making and the messages they contain, exposing them to the rich history captured in film, and the different genres which each hold their own rules and messages.
Journeys in Film
We started a foreign film club after school for students who were struggling in reading. Because of the closed captions and the interesting themes, culture and music, the children have started reading the closed captions to figure out what is going on. Children of Heaven, The Red Balloon, as well as the Tin Cup and other Journeys in Film movies got us started. Now parents are renting foreign films at home.
@Holly Denman: I do not think so
I am administrator of Marie Curie high school