Using Film in the Classroom/How to Read a Film

Classroom Activities

Chunking the book into three chapters a day will be a feat so I need to focus on the compare and contrast aspects of the book and film and then analyze a least two aspects of Native American Indian authenticity. The compare and contrast organizer are the basic Venn diagram with a summary then to the complex comparison matrix. The Venn diagram and summary is completed in one fifty minute setting, the varied topics are the three tribes (Cherokee, Iroquois, and Dine-Navajo) comparisons in home structures, common food staples (corn, beans, and squash), clans, establishment of government structure, and the book and film contrasts. I will use the basic Venn diagram during the first week of the unit. The comparison matrix will take two to three 50 minute sessions because there are five to six columns with two to three horizontal rows and a concluding box for a summary. This graph organizer is similar to the Process Grid, which is used during the second week of the unit. A rubric is a tool I use to gauge students’ progress, and eventually students will learn to use the rubric for self-assessment, which will help them reflect on their work.

Character analyses of the characters in the book and the film are examined and compared. All aspects of human characteristics from the beginning to the end are discussed. Visual sketches of the characters from the literature and the film are displayed on charts using colored markers while the chunked information about each of characters is written on the chart. The following day we revisit the charts and add vocabulary words in strips onto the chart to emphasize them. This process teaches the students how to say, read, and pronounce the word and soon they are able to explain the meaning of the word. After reviewing the words, students will turn over their right or left shoulders to partners and explain two facts about the character. These oral facts are shared with partners then with the whole class. On the third day, students review the character charts with pictures of specific vocabulary words that describe the characters. The chart is revisited again because they will write a “Text and You,” exercise about the characters which is two paragraphs long. The text will be explaining the characters and how the student connects to the characters. This lesson involves a four process.

At the conclusion of my unit, my students will create a short video clip to demonstrate their knowledge of movie production or to provide an explanation of Native American Indian culture in part of the literature they have read or a movie they have viewed. Students will create props for their scenes and dress as the characters or create puppet characters to demonstrate their knowledge. This is when parents are involved in providing materials and resources for their child’s movie production. They will have a choice of a classroom setting or outside in the surrounding school campus, either of which can be used to film their video clip.