Mark Reid ran a session on the use of film in Literacy and encouraged us to use film in a variety of different ways. He opened the session asking us the difference between written texts and film, prompting a discussion about how film relies on ‘showing’ you, rather than ‘telling’ you. We were then shown the film clip: ‘Le Pain et la Rue’ by Abbas Kiarostami. To begin, he played us this without any image, so all we could hear was the music used. He asked us to predict what the film clip might be about. He gave us a table: characters, setting, tone and surprises. We discussed as a group and then wrote the first line to the story we were imagining. I found this a really effective method to engage one’s imagination – although all we had been played was a short piece of music, we all had an exact image of what we expected to film to be about. After this, he shared the start of the clip with us and prompted us to note down anything that had surprised us. After a short discussion, we predicted what would come next, before he showed us the complete clip. I found the session useful as it gave several suggestions on how to use film in a different way.
At the beginning of the year, I used film in my Literacy lessons, in order to inspire my children’s imagination. I showed many clips from the Literacy Shed, including: ‘Nemo’s First Day at School’, ‘Dreamgiver’, ‘Something Fishy’ (The Fantasy Shed) and ‘Release Your Imagination’ (The Inspiration Shed’) amongst others. We used these to inspire several different written activities. After showing children ‘Nemo’s first day at school’, we asked the children to write a letter to reassure and give Nemo advice about his first day. Although a very simple stimulus, this video helped to give the children’s writing a purpose and I was really impressed with the work they produced (see Appendix 38). This was a character all the children knew of and therefore a writing activity they enjoyed.
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DreamGiver from Tyler Carter on Vimeo. We used ‘Dreamgiver’ to inspire children to write a poem entitled ‘10 things a Dreamgiver might have in his pocket’ and the children really enjoyed using their imagination. After this lesson, one child said ‘Can we watch clips from this all the time?’ Furthermore, we showed children only the opening of ‘Something Fishy’ and asked them to write this as a written text from the point of view of the girl. The work produced was very thoughtful, showing a real awareness of feelings . I think seeing the character on screen helps them to imagine and visualise more clearly how they might be feeling at each point.
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Something Fishy from J.J. on Vimeo. |
The children undoubtedly enjoyed watching the different films we showed them. On several occasions, we only showed the children a clip from the video, my class would then ask to stay behind and miss part of their break or lunchtime just so they could watch the end. I also found their writing did improve and the children had ready-made ideas when asked to write the story, allowing them to focus on the quality of their writing rather than generating ideas. In fact, one parent told me their child wanted to enter a writing competition and asked for the website link to the Literacy Shed as their children had mentioned this as something they liked using when writing. The training as part of the WRITE course has furthered this and I certainly intend to use film in Literacy more often.
After the session, I used film to help inspire children when writing their own ‘Traditional Tales’ (see Appendix 40). I showed the children a clip from Cinderella, where the fairy godmother appears. After this, I told the children I wished them to write this part of the film as a story. After some shared writing, I sent the children away to their independent work. I was really impressed with the work the children produced. Writers who were usually very reluctant to put pen to paper were keen to get started. After watching the clip, children were able to readily discuss and empathise with Cinderella and this helped their writing to improve (see appendix 41 and 42 for comparison).