The Film in the English Classroom

 One of the most prevalent technologies that English teachers utilize in the classroom is film. It is very easy to use the medium of film in the English classroom. You just plug in a VHS or DVD player and put in a movie. Most of the famous novels that we read in the English classroom have a film adaptation. However, most teachers tend to put in the movie after they read the novel, and then do not have their students do anything.

One of the problems with that approach to showing film is that it puts students in the passive consumer position. When teachers thrust their students into that position, it is easy to see why students may not learn anything. In fact, many movie adaptations of novels can wind up being significantly different. Without a clear pedagogical goal, the students will wind up learning nothing. This kind of pedagogy shows how technology can be useless if the teacher does not come up with a structured activity. Technology hinges upon the teacher’s knowledge of how technology can facilitate a learning experience.

In order for movies to become effective in the classroom, we need to be students in a more active role. In addition, we need to make sure that we come up with activities that align with the Common Core Standards. This standard in the English/Language Arts standards, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.7, indicates the following: “Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment.” The Common Core Standards seem to acknowledge that comparing literature’s treatment in two different artistic mediums is a valid educational activity. You can definitely meet this standard through technology, like the film.

For instance, if I had assigned a unit based around the seminal novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, I could have them watch the film after they read the book. The film adaptation is a very famous and well-respected movie in its own right, but it is very different from the novel. The novel is a first-person narrative that has Chief Bromden, a mostly silent Native American who has some paranoia problems, observe the events that unfold in the novel. On the other hand, the director of the movie significantly diminishes Chief Bromden’s role in the movie. Instead, the movie focuses on McMurphy more. As a pedagogical activity, I could have students compare and contrast how the point of view differences between the novel and the movie can affect the effectiveness of the novel’s overall message.

In addition to the other activities I proposed, there a myriad of ways to share the composition the students produce. They can put it on a blog or post it to movie review sites. Students can also comment on other students’ work by using the internet as well. Film can be an effective tool in the classroom, but only if the teacher is very thoughtful about the pedagogy behind it. Students must interpret films just like literary texts, which makes films meaningful to the students and makes them actually learn something. If a teacher just puts a video in and does nothing, the students will not wind up learning anything most of the time because they often do not correlate to the novel well. This is not the only pedagogical revolving around the film. I wrote this blog post because I felt that the usage of the film clearly demonstrates how the effectiveness of technology in facilitating student learning truly depends on the teacher.