Week 12: Implementing Film
Upon reading my early blogs, I am amazed at how much my views of using “media” in the classroom have changed since day one. A lot of that change has come from the broader definition I have come to have for media; it is more than just “news,” as I originally liked to think.
Having come from a high school in which “films” were shown only when a sub was in, or a free day was needed, I was hard pressed to find real benefits to showing movies, especially pop culture programs such as “The Simpsons” or “Clueless,” as part of an English curriculum. (Except of course to give the students and teacher a break in the learning process, which is needed now and again as well). However; based on the readings, discussions I’ve had with group members, and other people’s weekly modules, I now see where there can be a use and even a benefit for these types of lessons.
One of the early assignments that started to change my mind was the “Critical Analysis,” assignment in which we looked at a film through 7 different critical lenses. Although it was one of the harder assignments, and would likely need to be more generalized or simplified for middle school to high school students, it really causes the student to take a different look at the things they see every day on TV or the movies. Although we chose to do ours on the “Cool Canuck” commercial, I believe that it can also be used for films, documentaries, and television programs.
For example, many people have discussed “Shakespeare” in this final assignment. I too agree that because of the language alone, Shakespeare’s works are well suited to be taught coinciding with their film counterparts. However; I think that film adaptations should be shown as segments, coinciding to the particular section that is being read and discussed in class. This is where “Critical Analysis” comes in. Of course, the 7 different approaches would have to be discussed in an earlier class, but for the purpose of this assignment, I would divide the different approaches amongst pairs of students and have them view the film segments (likely from both an older, and more modern film adaptation of works like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet), through a specific critical lense. I would then have them compare their interpretations between the text and both film versions, and then use class discussion to further elaborate on their findings.
Evaluation of this assignment would likely be based mostly on participation and depth of answers, as there really is no right or wrong way of viewing through these lenses. Perhaps I would have the students actually write a one to two page essay on their interpretations, but again, it would be graded mainly on the depth of their answers, their understanding of the concepts, and elaboration of their thoughts.
Another activity that I would take away from this class, and I have been an advocate of it since day one, is the use of TV news, newspapers, radio, and the internet to study current events. An assignment that I would really like to use in a classroom is having students study a specific story for a week or two across the news mediums. I think that the webquest I created, although it would need to be elaborated upon, would be a great tool to promote this assignment. Upon implementing a webquest into the curriculum, I would also like to eventually have students create their own and work through them, though not necessarily involving current events.
I would likely have my students write up a 5 to 10 page report on their findings here. Again, the grade would be based on depth of findings and elaboration on thoughts…as well as grammar, punctuation and all the fun English stuff.
Having come from a high school in which “films” were shown only when a sub was in, or a free day was needed, I was hard pressed to find real benefits to showing movies, especially pop culture programs such as “The Simpsons” or “Clueless,” as part of an English curriculum. (Except of course to give the students and teacher a break in the learning process, which is needed now and again as well). However; based on the readings, discussions I’ve had with group members, and other people’s weekly modules, I now see where there can be a use and even a benefit for these types of lessons.
One of the early assignments that started to change my mind was the “Critical Analysis,” assignment in which we looked at a film through 7 different critical lenses. Although it was one of the harder assignments, and would likely need to be more generalized or simplified for middle school to high school students, it really causes the student to take a different look at the things they see every day on TV or the movies. Although we chose to do ours on the “Cool Canuck” commercial, I believe that it can also be used for films, documentaries, and television programs.
For example, many people have discussed “Shakespeare” in this final assignment. I too agree that because of the language alone, Shakespeare’s works are well suited to be taught coinciding with their film counterparts. However; I think that film adaptations should be shown as segments, coinciding to the particular section that is being read and discussed in class. This is where “Critical Analysis” comes in. Of course, the 7 different approaches would have to be discussed in an earlier class, but for the purpose of this assignment, I would divide the different approaches amongst pairs of students and have them view the film segments (likely from both an older, and more modern film adaptation of works like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet), through a specific critical lense. I would then have them compare their interpretations between the text and both film versions, and then use class discussion to further elaborate on their findings.
Evaluation of this assignment would likely be based mostly on participation and depth of answers, as there really is no right or wrong way of viewing through these lenses. Perhaps I would have the students actually write a one to two page essay on their interpretations, but again, it would be graded mainly on the depth of their answers, their understanding of the concepts, and elaboration of their thoughts.
Another activity that I would take away from this class, and I have been an advocate of it since day one, is the use of TV news, newspapers, radio, and the internet to study current events. An assignment that I would really like to use in a classroom is having students study a specific story for a week or two across the news mediums. I think that the webquest I created, although it would need to be elaborated upon, would be a great tool to promote this assignment. Upon implementing a webquest into the curriculum, I would also like to eventually have students create their own and work through them, though not necessarily involving current events.
I would likely have my students write up a 5 to 10 page report on their findings here. Again, the grade would be based on depth of findings and elaboration on thoughts…as well as grammar, punctuation and all the fun English stuff.
posted by MLD at
9:38 PM
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