Film & Television

This has been an interesting unit. My minor is in communications and in previous years I have taught journalism and communication classes at the high school. I LOVED THESE CLASSES! They gave me the freedom to teach the same ideas in new ways. Everything had the ability to be more compelling, and not being tied down by benchmarks and testing requirements, we had FUN! I did a unit on televised journalism, focusing on the Edward Murrow era where television played a HUGE part in the perceptions of Americans during the Communist "scares". We watched Good Night and Good Luck and discussed how the importance of television and the impact Edward Murrow was allowed to have because of it. Had journalism been limited to print, he never would have been able to speak out against McCarthy.

I also taught a small movie unit that focused mostly on the technical aspects of film, such as angles of shooting, lighting, zooming, panning, use of color, etc. Again, I loved this unit. We read about various techniques used by directors and editors and then watched Big Fish (directed by the brilliant Tim Burton), which uses every technique we discussed. Students were amazed and loved to discuss the effects made by these techniques. I always used these techniques as a metaphor for writing techniques. It was a great way to show them the difference the techniques--in both film and writing--can make.

A third unit I still do in my English classes is the Super Bowl Commerical unit. We discuss the various propaganda techniques employed by producers and the effect it has, both on the commercial and the audience. Then, they have to apply these same propaganda techniques in their persuasive writing. These bridges are pretty concrete for my students during this unit. Once they see the techniques in action, it's easy for them to literally put them into words.


Our class focus this week reminds of the unit repeatedly. I never thought of these units as "compelling". I was just excited to be doing something new with my students. Now I've been reminded to using film and television to create imaginative bridges and not only enhance my students' learning, but also as a visual metaphor for elements in their writing.