Integrating Media in the Curriculum

TIES: videos of teaching ideas/student productions related to units 

Lots of literature units based on specific texts

More literature units

Digital writing resources

Student writing about the media

October 20: Day of Writing at the University of Minnesota

Based on the readings, discuss how you would integrate film/TV, and/or media studies into your instruction, student teaching, and/or ideal classroom (if you’re not teaching). In teaching social studies, how would you use films/documentaries to teach about the Vietnam War. In teaching literature, what film adaptations of literature would you use (“Clueless,” “The Crucible,” “Persuasion,” “Emma,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “The English Patient,” “Hamlet,” etc.), and what activities would you use to study these adaptations. How would you help students understand the differences in their experiences between print literature, film, and theater?

Here’s an example

Jamie Myers: Hypermedia responses to literature

Jamie Myers. Using technology tools to support learning in the English language arts. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 3(4).

Literature Units

Peter Smagorinsky: lots of literature units based on specific texts

Integrating film into your instruction

Ligia Hernandez and Andi Larson

Here is one activity idea focusing on film adaptation:

You could teach Julia Alvarez's "In the Time of the Butterflies" in Literature Class.

Have the students watch the movie with Zalma Hayek and Marc Anthony.

While the movie is great,being an adaptation it leaves things out, and changes some others.

Have your students:

1- Research the life and dictatorship of Leonidas Trujillo and the Mirabal Sisters

2- Read the novel

3- Watch the movie

4- Answer a series of comprehension questions related to the novel

5- Create a chart naming the differeces between the movie and the novel

6- Differenciate the real events from the made-up ones in the movie related to Trujillo's Dictatorship and the Mirabal Sisters. I try to make the students aware, though, that they must keep in mind who's tellingthe story and might it be different if told from someone else's point. Would the emphasis on things be different?

Eventhough the students watch the movie in class, the Exam is largely based on the novel. You could use the movie to benefit those who are more visual, yet in a literature class, the written work comes first. At the same time, students learn that they cannot always trust movies instead of readingteh novels.

Here is another idea focused around film adaptation:

A great novel and great film adaptation from the novel is The Count of Monte Cristo. This novel is a classic by Alexandre Dumas. Students should read the entire novel. Then focus on certain scenes in the novel and have students create a storyboard on this particular scene. Students should write a journal from the perspective of the main character in this scene. Provide certain prompts and have the students write about the scene, feelings and emotions of the characters, and have them explore motives of the characters. Choose a couple scenes for these students to perform this activity with. In small groups have students write a short story from the perspective of another character. The story need not be connected to the novel in any way except that the character must embody certain qualities exhibited throughout the novel. Have the small groups share these stories with the entire class. Select the scenes that you focused on and show the scenes of the movie to the class. The students should compare and contrast these scenes with their own storyboards. Students would also analyze in small groups the differences between the experiences of the literary texts and the film. One scene that would be interesting to do is the time lapse. It is interesting how it is described in the text and how in the movie, it just occurs. The effect in the film isn't as drastic and explored as deeply as the text.

Hamlet

Nate Schultz and Dan Richardson

We would make use of all the versions of “Hamlet” that are out there in the world. We’ve got versions with each of the following actors starring in the title role: Ethan Hawke, Mel Gibson, Kenneth Branagh, and Laurence Olivier What’s interesting about having so many interpretations of the same text available, is that juxtaposing them really brings out the degree to which directors are interpreting the text through the use of setting, camera work, music, lighting, etc. We would have students watch the same scene from “Hamlet” as portrayed in each of the film versions. They could watch with the sound turned off, and write about the image work being done by each filmmaker: what kinds of shots are being used? What images are being juxtaposed? What time period is the film taking place in? What’s the cumulative visual effect/feel? Students could also listen to the music used by different directors for the same scene—I have soundtracks from the Branagh version and the Ethan Hawke version on CD. Students could talk about what kind of mood the music creates. They could then watch the different versions of the scene in their entirety--no filtering of sound/image. Maybe the final step in the process would be to integrate their “visual notes” and their “sound notes” into a larger piece of writing in which they describe how the meaning of a scene is changed by its filmic elements. We could also discuss the larger issue of how even though all of us are looking at the same text, we construct different meanings from it.

It might even be interesting to have students then film their own version of the same scene from Hamlet in their own unique way. By filming their own versions, they would be exercising the interpretive license that they had observed in the clips from the movies. Students could work in groups with each student playing a particular role on the “film team.” Casting director, sound person, costumer, camera person, director, editor.

Advertising and Political Campaigning

Mary Voight,Alma Mendez and Patricia McGurk

I taught some concepts of media studies when we did our political party and media unit in Civics. I would start with basic persuasion techniques and vocabulary, then had them practice applying different techniques to types of advertising that is found in popular magazines. I would also lecture on and have them practice identifying implict messages found. Then step by step, we applied them to advertising that took place during the election. The students were able to identify political persuasion techniques and the effect they were supposed to have on the viewers. They were able to connect them to the politcal party stances that candidates took, and we fact-checked some of the commercials that were aired. At the end, they did some campaign spoofing of their own.