Do you ever consider movies educational?

[Ashleen]

I'm asking because of the thread about the teacher wanting blanket permission to show any movie. I'm thinking about movies I watched in school (Raiders of the Lost Ark in third grade! What was the teacher thinking?) and often it was just a "fun" day (read: waste of time). But I also think movies have great potential for education.

Example: even though we read a lot of books around here, in studying elements of fiction such as plot I have shown several movies. For example, we were studying "quest" plots and we could watch several movies with that plot type in one week, whereas even though we love novels, it would take months to read several examples of a quest. With movies we could already be studying the next type of plot.

Another example: historical movies and foreign films offer so much "flavor" (costumes, accents, etc.) that enhances our study of different times and places. There are several movies that incorporate a Shakespearean story into modern times, which shows their universality.

Do you ever use movies in an educational way or do you always consider them twaddle?

[PiCO]

I'm asking because of the thread about the teacher wanting blanket permission to show any movie. I'm thinking about movies I watched in school (Raiders of the Lost Ark in third grade! What was the teacher thinking?) and often it was just a "fun" day (read: waste of time). But I also think movies have great potential for education.

Example: even though we read a lot of books around here, in studying elements of fiction such as plot I have shown several movies. For example, we were studying "quest" plots and we could watch several movies with that plot type in one week, whereas even though we love novels, it would take months to read several examples of a quest. With movies we could already be studying the next type of plot.

Another example: historical movies and foreign films offer so much "flavor" (costumes, accents, etc.) that enhances our study of different times and places. There are several movies that incorporate a Shakespearean story into modern times, which shows their universality.

Do you ever use movies in an educational way or do you always consider them twaddle?

I definitely think movies can be educational. Sounds like you make great use of them. BUT- I think movies are overused in many public schools, as a "treat" for the kids (like they don't get enough screen time at home- and most of the kids have already seen the movie they are showing!)

Also, I think people in general assume most people share their opinion of what's appropriate and what's not, based on their friends. When a teacher makes this assumption, she get a surprise! Most classrooms are pretty diverse.

[milovaný]

There's a whole program out there about using movies in an educational way. Can't think of the name of it right now, but I think it looks fabulous and would consider using it.

[WendyK]

I think they can be a great tool.

[Amy in NH]

Yes, but as a supplement. I imagine you were using other materials or at least talking about elements of fiction before you watched the movies. The movies themselves were a part of the lesson, not the whole lesson.

[Susie in CA]

Well, they can be educational. Having said that I have to admit that we rarly watch something during school hours. Most movies, even documentaries, we watch outside of school.

When I went to school (in Austria) I remember only two movies we watched. Both of which had a messege. One of them did touch us deeply. Maybe some of you know it: 'Christiane F.'

In other words showing movies during school time is largely a waste of time, imo.

Susie

[enigma]

I have a B.A. in English, and I think it is horrible to make teenagers read Shakespeare. No playwright ever wrote with the intention of his work being read. They mean for their work to be performed, and watched. I think teens should watch Shakespeare being performed well, as it was intended. To attend an actual dramatic production is ideal, but not always possible. In this case, Mel Gibson as Hamlet is, in my opinion, way more educational than mere words on a page. Having students read the play *after* they see it is okay to me. But to read it before they see it is just . . . well, lifeless.

[elegantlion]

My favorite history class in high school was the one where we watched WWII movies. It was part of the lesson, not the whole.

Last year DS and I watched "Gone with the Wind" for Civil War. I was surprised at how many subtle topics he picked up on in the movie that became talking points later on in our study.

Yes, we will continue to use movies as educational as they fit into our schedule.

[abbeyej]

Oh, sure! John Adams (HBO) was a great supplement to our American history studies last year. While we go see plenty of live Shakespeare, we can see better performances in some of the movies we have (like Henry V!)... In our world geography studies this year, I plan to use several movies to help the kids get more of a feel for a country or region than they can get merely from books (of which we'll be using plenty as well, of course)... My mother frequently uses movies or clips from movies in her high school drama classes to illustrate concepts she's trying to convey about acting or storytelling.

So I definitely think there's a *place* for movies in education. I also agree with you that teachers in school can be just as guilty of using electronic babysitters from time to time as we can as parents. Sigh. And yes, movies can absolutely be a waste of time.

[TeacherZee]

I have a B.A. in English, and I think it is horrible to make teenagers read Shakespeare. No playwright ever wrote with the intention of his work being read. They mean for their work to be performed, and watched. I think teens should watch Shakespeare being performed well, as it was intended. To attend an actual dramatic production is ideal, but not always possible. In this case, Mel Gibson as Hamlet is, in my opinion, way more educational than mere words on a page. Having students read the play *after* they see it is okay to me. But to read it before they see it is just . . . well, lifeless.

I totally agree with you. Shakespeare is hard to read. In high school when we did Romeo and Juliet we saw the movie version (not the modern one) at the same time as we read the play. It made it so much easier to understand.

I think one of the problems of showing movies in school is that you can rarely show the whole movie in one class. This makes the experience disjointed and not the way the director intended to show it. For my high school history class we were assigned to watch a movie at home for homework which we then discussed in class (the movie was shown on tv one night so no one had to rent it). I think that might be a better way around it, unless you have 90+ minutes of class a day, because I do think movies can be very educational.
:lurk5:

[H.S. Burrow]

I think that movies *can* be used in an educational way. I don't believe that they are used this way in the public school system.

Ashleen, I am going to print out your ideas and incorporate them into our English when we study writing styles. I had not thought of movies quite that way. Hmmm....Monty Python and the Holy Grail would be great for satire!!!

There are a few that we will use when our kids are old enough to view them such as Platoon, Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List.

There's also a Christian "movie" curriculum designed for grades 7 -12 called Reel to Real. I have used it before with our youth group.

[milovaný]

There's a whole program out there about using movies in an educational way. Can't think of the name of it right now, but I think it looks fabulous and would consider using it.

Learning with the Movies (http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=596303&kw=596303&event=PPCSRC&p=1010575) by Beth Holland

It does have CC, but it organizes movies by content/learning subject.

[Peek a Boo]

I'm asking because of the thread about the teacher wanting blanket permission to show any movie. I'm thinking about movies I watched in school (Raiders of the Lost Ark in third grade! What was the teacher thinking?) and often it was just a "fun" day (read: waste of time). But I also think movies have great potential for education.

Example: even though we read a lot of books around here, in studying elements of fiction such as plot I have shown several movies. For example, we were studying "quest" plots and we could watch several movies with that plot type in one week, whereas even though we love novels, it would take months to read several examples of a quest. With movies we could already be studying the next type of plot.

Another example: historical movies and foreign films offer so much "flavor" (costumes, accents, etc.) that enhances our study of different times and places. There are several movies that incorporate a Shakespearean story into modern times, which shows their universality.

Do you ever use movies in an educational way or do you always consider them twaddle?


YES, i think a lot of movies can be educational. many are pure twaddle, and still others can be explicitly harmful.

BUT --For educational purposes i prefer documentaries and other videos that were specifically designed to teach a concept.

[Peek a Boo]

I have a B.A. in English, and I think it is horrible to make teenagers read Shakespeare. No playwright ever wrote with the intention of his work being read. They mean for their work to be performed, and watched. I think teens should watch Shakespeare being performed well, as it was intended. To attend an actual dramatic production is ideal, but not always possible. In this case, Mel Gibson as Hamlet is, in my opinion, way more educational than mere words on a page. Having students read the play *after* they see it is okay to me. But to read it before they see it is just . . . well, lifeless.

excellent point.

[fivetails]

There's a whole program out there about using movies in an educational way. Can't think of the name of it right now, but I think it looks fabulous and would consider using it.

I think it's teachwithmovies.org if you're thinking of the same one I am - the site won't come up right now though...I saw it before...

And yep, we use movies, documentaries, and such....when we were reading about the titanic, I rented the movie for dd11 to watch with me - sure, it's not exactly as it happened (and has some fictional characters & storyline) but it gave her a very good "picture" of things....the size of the ship, how people dressed at the time, the differences between "classes", how the ship may have gone down, etc etc.... movies can be wonderful additions. :)

edit: oops, you posted again above with a different one...cool. :D

[unsinkable]

Some movies can be educationally twaddlish.

I just made that up.

But really:

My visual learners love movies. My dd has a very strong visual memory and loves to connect actors and their roles. She remembers things she sees better than things she reads. So we work with it.

Movies can be a useful learning tool, IMO.

[OhM]

I think that movies *can* be used in an educational way. I don't believe that they are used this way in the public school system.



:iagree: Some movies have so much there for consideration and discussion! But dd's experience in ps has been that movies are used as either filler or rewards (and really, I have no objection to rewards, within reason - filler bothers me, though:glare:)

Here's (http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/08/20/no.classes.just.movies.ap/index.html) a great article about an education with movies!

[nutmeg]

Of course! But it all depends on the movie, the topic, the goal.

I remember taking several days during junior high astronomy class to watch Star Wars. This was back in the early 1980s.

Yeah.

[Ishki]

Absolutely. I have at least children that learn better and retain information better that is presented visually. We mine our library's video section.

Janet

[Ashleen]

Yes, but as a supplement. I imagine you were using other materials or at least talking about elements of fiction before you watched the movies. The movies themselves were a part of the lesson, not the whole lesson.

Yes. In fact, I borrowed a screenwriting book from the library and it had different several examples of different types of plots and movies that demonstrate them. I assigned parts of the book as reading and we watched some of the movies that went along with each section. Then we talked about how different stories can seem different on the surface but underneath they share a similar structure.

I learned a lot from it myself, not just about plot but about theme. For example, the author claimed that the theme of a movie is often stated about eleven minutes into the film in a comment a supporting character makes to the protagonist. We started watching for this and sure enough it's right there in movie after movie. In Shrek, Donkey sings, "I'm all alone; there's no one here beside me" at exactly eleven minutes and the movie deals with loneliness.

[JennW in SoCal]

First of all, I need to get over the fact that you saw Raiders of the Lost Ark in your 3rd grade classroom. Not that you saw it in class, but that you were 8 years old and it was already out on video. I was 21 when it came out! Saw it in the theater. I feel reaaaaalllly old now! :eek:

(Can I just say that back in the olden days when I was in school, films -- reel to reel projection films -- were shown to the whole school in the cafeteria as a treat maybe twice a year, and we saw the same stupid movies every year!)

Now that I have that out of my system I can get to the topic at hand. We often watch the movie version of a book we've just finished and discuss what the movie makers got right, or what elements of the novel they chose to use in telling the story.

We watch Masterpiece Theater adaptations of some novels, we watch Shakespeare live and on DVD. We watch old movies, like Marx Brothers and Frank Capra movies simply because they are from such a different era and are so good -- and they are the movies my parents saw in the theaters. All of these have some kind of educational value, but are extras -- things we enjoy that enrich our lives.

This year my oldest son is going to do the course Movies as Literature by Kathryn Stout at Design-a-Study. It is designed to teach students the elements of good story telling, to learn to analyze the techniques used by filmmakers and to learn the literary counterparts of those techniques. He will be watching everything from Shane to Rear Window to ET and Music Man, but he will be not just watch them passively as he will have discussion questions and essay topics that will require him to watch some scenes closely, perhaps several times over.

[Jenny in Atl]

YES!!!!! We use them all the time. As well as good PBS, History Channel, and Discovery Channel shows. Heck, even some of the travel and cooking shows are great for sparking ideas and activities.

We alwasy, read a little, dance a little, sing a little, and play a little to make it all stick. :D

[Ashleen]

I think that movies *can* be used in an educational way. I don't believe that they are used this way in the public school system.

I wonder why that is. I remember watching so many pointless movies in school that had nothing to do with the curriculum. Why? When there are so many ways movies can be used, why use them as filler? In college, I took some classes in video production and the movies and clips of movies were used in ways that actually taught me so much. It was enlightening. What a shame that K-12 classes use them as a "day off" for the teacher.

[Ashleen]

This year my oldest son is going to do the course Movies as Literature by Kathryn Stout at Design-a-Study. It is designed to teach students the elements of good story telling, to learn to analyze the techniques used by filmmakers and to learn the literary counterparts of those techniques.

Wow! I must find out more about this. It sounds like something I would love.

[Ashleen]

Here's (http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/08/20/no.classes.just.movies.ap/index.html) a great article about an education with movies!

That was great. Now I want to try to find the book (of course my library doesn't have a copy).

[elegantlion]

YES!!!!! We use them all the time. As well as good PBS, History Channel, and Discovery Channel shows. Heck, even some of the travel and cooking shows are great for sparking ideas and activities.

We alwasy, read a little, dance a little, sing a little, and play a little to make it all stick. :D


I have a vision of you singing and dancing while watching Alton Brown. :D We'll be right over, I want to come to your class. :lol:

[unsinkable]

Yes. In fact, I borrowed a screenwriting book from the library and it had different several examples of different types of plots and movies that demonstrate them. I assigned parts of the book as reading and we watched some of the movies that went along with each section. Then we talked about how different stories can seem different on the surface but underneath they share a similar structure.

I learned a lot from it myself, not just about plot but about theme. For example, the author claimed that the theme of a movie is often stated about eleven minutes into the film in a comment a supporting character makes to the protagonist. We started watching for this and sure enough it's right there in movie after movie. In Shrek, Donkey sings, "I'm all alone; there's no one here beside me" at exactly eleven minutes and the movie deals with loneliness.

That sounds cool! Can you share the name of the book?

[Heather in the Kootenays]

Even Pride and Prejudice was more meaningful to me after I'd seen the movie. I'd read it first, then our prof showed us the movie (but not in class time), and then read it again.

[Heather in the Kootenays]

He showed movies like Dr. Strangelove to help illustrate the theories of political science we were learning. Really worthwhile. But never in class time.

[Carol in Cal.]

Isn't it a lot faster to read a book? I think that in general screen time is inefficient. My posting here just proves that point, LOL!

Last year I kicked off studying literary elements by assigning everyone to watch "The Wizard of Oz". (I got this idea from one of Rafe Esquith's books.) It worked out great, but we talked about it a lot. I think that that is the key. If movies are a substitute for discussion and/or reading, they are inefficient and incomplete. If they supplement reading, or help give a 'feel' for a historical period or a natural location, or enable you to see a play that you would not be able to watch live, then I think they are extremely useful. But in all cases they need to be integrated into other material, evaluation, and discussion.

[Pajama Mama]

I do use movies as educational tools at times. I also use videos that aren't exactly movies for educational purposes: dvds on astronomy, Claude Monet, the Great Depression, etc. It doesn't have to be a "movie".

In all honesty, I use non-educational movies at times as well. On a yucky sleet filled morning when ps kids are loading onto a bus; we might just stay in our jammies and watch a movie with no educational value. That's one of the benefits of homeschooling:D

[EKS]

I consider some movies educational and will count it as school time in my log. However, I don't show movies *in place of* regular lesson time. We watch them during free time.

[Tutor]

Yes. Our family watches movies all the time, and the majority of the time we consider them educational. However, we treat movies as their own "subject". I may use movies or portions of movies periodically to supplement another subject. (My kids are still talking about the clips I showed them from The Last Emporer so that they could get a glimpse at the hidden city and palace of China. They aren't old enough yet, IMO, to watch the whole movie, though.) But I wouldn't use movies to teach a subject, if you kwim.

We discuss every movie we watch, but these discussions are just natural to our family and personalities. Movies can be a great way to discuss, introduce, or compare themes, characterization, setting, adaptation, entertainment v. education, etc as well as filmography, cinematography, use of light and sound, etc.

[threecsnme]

We also use movies as part of our education. Although, we mostly watch documentaries. We also use some Animal planet programs, and some from the Discovery Channel. My children are visual and this helps tie whatever we are studying visually for them. We talk about the movies and or programs and they are used as a supplement, not as our only course of study. I believe they can be a great tool, if used properly. We just started watching Drive thru History-Greece today. All of us enjoyed it and I liked how they tied the bible to world history.

[Jenny in Florida]

I have a B.A. in English, and I think it is horrible to make teenagers read Shakespeare. No playwright ever wrote with the intention of his work being read. They mean for their work to be performed, and watched. I think teens should watch Shakespeare being performed well, as it was intended. To attend an actual dramatic production is ideal, but not always possible. In this case, Mel Gibson as Hamlet is, in my opinion, way more educational than mere words on a page. Having students read the play *after* they see it is okay to me. But to read it before they see it is just . . . well, lifeless.

Huh.

I'm a former English major, too, and I've always preferred to read the play before I see the live performance. And that's pretty much the route I've taken with my kids, too.

I wonder, though, if the difference is that my kids learn to "speak Shakespeare" when they're pretty young. Both of mine have been attending live Shakespearean performances since they were teeny (in my daughter's case, literally while she was still in a stroller). Obviously, I wasn't having them pre-read the plays at that point, although we did always go over the story first. By the time she was 8, my daughter had her own season ticket for the Shakespeare theatre here. My son started attending selected plays when he was 6, and got his season ticket when he was 9.

So, by the time they're even middle school age, the language isn't foreign or difficult anymore. Consequently, reading the play (usually aloud together) before we go see the show really enhances the experience.

My son (10) has developed a preference for not knowing the ending before we go, though. So, we usually quit reading before the last act.

[Mindy]

YES. There are some movies that are very worthwhile and educational. David Quine incorporates movies into his Worldview of the Western World curriculum. One that I can think of right off is It's a Wonderful Life. Pride and Predijuce is one of my very favorites, as is To Kill a Mockingbird. Oh, you've got me thinking now.....:001_smile:

[E_Edgerton]

Absolutely! I have watched so many thought-provoking, interesting, eye-opening, book based, or just plain great films! I love movies...I would call most of what I watch educational in some way. I am being exposed to different cultures, view points, languages, landscapes, etc....Can you tell I like movies!?:)