Rationale+for+Teaching+Film+and+Picture+Books

Throughout the course of the semester, we have discussed many forms of writing and media that can be utilized in secondary classrooms, but often go unused. Two forms of media that I always could see myself using in the classroom are films and picture books.

Film is essential for a classroom because it can help students understand many literary ideas such as foreshadowing and irony. Films are structured to tell a story in the same way that canonical literature does, and if students can analyze films in a reading classroom, they will be able to understand how plot structure works. Students who are struggling readers or English Language Learners would benefit from film in that classroom because they will be able to pick up visual clues about characterization and pivotal moments in the story. By picking films with similar themes to the books being read in class, students can discussions about how the theme is portrayed differently on screen than it is in writing. Students will also be able to learn how to turn the stories they are reading into storyboards, which would engross them in the text and give them more of a personal connection to what they are reading because they can visualize it.

Picture books are useful in a classroom because they have a strong moral presented in a way that is brief and simple to understand. By starting a lesson with a picture book, students can make connections to the morals presented in literature and understand how those ideas are important to their lives. If an idea is important enough to be taught to young children, secondary students will be able to acknowledge how it should be taught on a larger and more in depth scale. Using a picture book is a fun way to grab the attention of students while still devoting the class time to circulating the lesson around a specific theme or big idea.

The most important thing to keep in mind while using different types of media and texts in classrooms is relevance. You always want to make sure that what you are using will benefit your students and give them personal connections to the lesson you want to teach. You should always be keeping in mind what message you want them to get out of the lesson and how that activity will convey that message to the class.