Families Illustrated

Teaching Family Life through Film and TV

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About teaching with film and television

 Resources

·        Web resources for teaching with film and television

·        Places to look for film and television titles

·        Selected reading list

 

Benefits of teaching with film and television

 

  • Captures and Engages Learners
    • Film and television very popular with students
    • Fits with contemporary, visual, orientation, of today’s young learners
    • Externalizes issues to the characters on the screen—more comfortable talking about the characters than themselves

 

  • Dramatize and Frame Issues, Integrating Personal Experience with That of Others
    • Puts “concepts” into “contexts”—we see behaviors play out in settings
    • Presents learners with realities that:
      • May be different than the learners—thus offering a different perspective
      • May confirm learners’ experiences, values and behaviors
    • Offers behaviors to learn from observing

 

  • Generates Discussion
    • Provides opportunities to engage in discussion of how characters handled situations
    • Provides opportunities to compare two or more characters
      • Within same film
      • Across films/clips
      • Character and learner comparisons

 

  • Stimulate Cognitive Processes and Critical Thinking
    • Engages learners spatial and rational parts of brain
    • Offers an alternative to didactic style of presentation
    • Offers scenarios for analysis, application, and problem solving

 

  • Demonstrate Skills
    • Potential for use in counseling, parenting skills, communication skills based educational/training

 

  • Share Information
    • Facilitates the dissemination of key information to others when perceived as useful, reliable and truthful

 

 

  • Gain Media Literacy Skills
    • Potential to gain skills as a critical reviewer of:
      • Direct and Indirect Messages
      • Potential benefits
      • Potential harm

 

  • Relationship with Characters
    • Television shows and some films  allow for the development of the characters
      • Provides a context in which a particular clip/segment occurs

 

  • Historical Context of Film and Television
    • Film or television clip itself exists within a historical context that can be juxtaposed against current places, times and events.

 

  • Extended Classroom
    • Film or television clips may be utilized (if available) outside of the classroom setting by:
      • Continued reflection and learning
      • Activities oriented instruction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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