Film in the Classroom:
Using Visual Texts to Develop
Critical Literacy Skills
Elizabeth Cobia, K-12 ELA Supervisor
Sylvia M. Spruill, Ed.D – English Teacher, Hillgrove High School
Cobb County School District
Our Story…
Focus Statement
Today the topic of discussion
is film in the classroom and
the goal is to learn how to
engage students in critical
analysis.
Rationale for Using Film and
Visual Texts
• Serves as a useful lead-in to teaching analysis of written text
(literature and informational)
• Provides a more accessible medium for students to sharpen
their analysis skills
• Uses a common and/or shared experience as the vehicle for
teaching complex analytical skills
• Engages students in the task of analysis
• Affects students ability to analyze and criticize literature
(Golden, 2001)
Opening
Consider the following:
How have you used film in the past?
What standards have you focused on
when using film in the classroom?
What films or film clips you have used in
the past or are currently using?
Spruill’s Rules for Film
• Film Clip vs. Full Film
• Purposeful Use
 Why are you showing this film clip?
• Teaching an analysis skill or literary element
• Developing a thematic connection
 What standards are you working on with your students?
 How will you assess what you intend students to learn?
 How will it move from identification to analysis to
evaluation to synthesis and creation?
Introducing the Language of
Film Analysis
• Film Terminology
• Paper camera
• Student application assignment (flip
cameras or smart phones)
Analyzing Author’s Choices
ELACC10RL5: Analyze how an author’s choices
concerning how to structure a text, order events within it
(e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing,
flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or
surprise.
Film Clip #1: Fast and the Furious (2001)
https://youtu.be/nfV87TgYH78
“Reading” Purpose:
 What do you notice?
• Strategy: See/hear/feel/believe
 How does the director manipulate time and why?
Approaches to Film Analysis
ELACC10RL5: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how
to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and
manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as
mystery, tension, or surprise.
• Film Clip #2: Schindler’s List (1993)
• Include Accountable Talk protocol
• Analyzing Author’s Choices - “Reading” Purpose:
 What do you notice?
 Strategy: One Question/One Comment
 Why did the director use primarily a long shot?
 How do the events seem to affect Schindler and Ingrid?
 Describe the sounds heard in the scene. What is the effect of
these sounds?
Literary Elements Approach (symbolism and
juxtaposition):
the girl in the red coat – Why do you think her coat is red and
everything else black and white?
The sounds you hear – both diegetic and non-diegetic –
Describe them. Why are these the sounds you hear?
symbolism and juxtaposition.
10
Analyzing Author’s Choices:
character
ELACC10RL5: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning
how to structure a text…create such effects as mystery,
tension, or surprise.
ELACC10RL3: Analyze how complex characters…advance
the plot or develop the theme.
• Film Clip #3: He Got Game (1998)
 How does the director establish the relationship between the two
main characters shown, Jake Shuttlesworth (Denzel Washington)
and Jesus Shuttlesworth (Ray Allen)?
 What do you notice? (say, mean, matter)
Analyzing Author’s Choices
ELACC10RL5: Analyze how an author’s choices
concerning how to structure a text…create such
effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
• Film Clip #4: Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
*activity from John Golden’s Reading in the Dark: Using
Film As a Tool in the English Classroom (2001)
– Describe the visual pictures that might correspond to
the song.
– Describe the emotions evoked while watching this
scene.
– Define irony and its effect while watching the clip with
sound.
Assessment
Analysis mini-paragraphs (using C-E-I – claim, evidence, interpretation
format)
 How does the director manipulate time?
The director uses editing techniques to manipulate time. As the two cars
race toward the train tracks, the director uses cross cutting between the
cars and the oncoming train which prolongs the time that it takes for them
to reach the tracks and also builds suspense.
Framed Paragraphs (differentiated/scaffolds)
The director uses_______________ to ________. - claim
[Describe the moment in the film clip in which the technique is being utilized] evidence
[Explain the effect of the technique] - interpretation
Other Ways to use Film
• Anatomy of a Scene (NY Times Learning Network)
• Analyze opening credits or scenes
– He Got Game (Spike Lee)
– Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
• Analyze film trailers (as rhetoric – RI5 and RI6)
– Action
– Comedy
– Drama
• Analyze documentaries and/or clips (as rhetoric – RI5 and
RI6)
– Waiting for Superman (Davis Guggenheim)
• Analyze a concept in different contexts (RI7)
– Heroism in The Dark Knight
– Heroism in the Real World
– Heroism in the Greek World (Troy and written classical texts)
Student Voices
• “Using film has helped me think harder and analyze
better as a student”
• “Because we studied film…I started analyzing all
visuals…”
• “The one thing I will always remember about this class is
how we used film to help us learn better.”
• Advice to future students who take this class: “That you
will probably die in this class, but at the same time, find
yourself more alive.”
YOUR TURN!
Consider what you currently use in your
classroom. How could you incorporate
film in your current units of study? What
films?
BALANCED LITERACY DISTRICT
drsylviaspruill@gmail.com
www.drspruillpl.weebly.com
@spruillschool
elizabeth.cobia@cobbk12.org
www.elacobb.com
@elizabethcobia