Using Film in the Classroom/How to Read a Film

Appendix

Objectives

The aim of the unit as it is positioned at the beginning of the year is to both introduce students to the kind of analysis we will be doing throughout the year and to pre-assess where they are in those skills. The standards that I will use as my learning indicators are from the Common Core State Standards. There are four standards, specifically, that will guide this unit. The first standard expects students to “compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.7) The first part of the unit will use the novel and film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird to compare the use of literature and film strategies to craft a story. To do this, the three other Common Core Standards will work in tandem. Here, students will also be asked to “cite strong and thorough textual [and film] evidence to support analysis of what the text [and film] says explicitly, as well as inferences drawn from the text [and film], including determining where the text [and film] leaves matters uncertain” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1) and “analyze the impact of the author’s [and filmmaker’s] choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.3) These two standards build off and model ways to enable students to do the kind of compare and contrast required of them in the first standard listed. Finally, students will be reading excerpts from journal articles and monographs to model examples of academic writing. For this, we will use the standard that requires students to “evaluate an author’s [and filmmaker’s] premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information.” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.8)