Short movie clips from Tinsel town are useful for teaching because they evoke emotions and are non-threatening, while providing a quick, direct way for learners to understand, recognize and analyze a particular topic, issue or emotion. Additionally, a movie clip can be translated to classes even when the clip centers on a non-school topic. However, for maximum effectiveness, movies must be used in a balanced and useful way.
We are a society of information overload: from reality TV and Internet blogs, to e-mails on Blackberries and text-messaging on phones. Such constant input of large amounts of information can end up sounding like dissonant noise. Did you know American students watch an average of 16.6 hours of television and movies each week (Kaiser Family Foundation, December 2006)? As a teacher, I do not want to add to the craze; yet I do want to be cognizant of the fact that television and movies are tools that can be used to reach and teach the next generation. So, in utilizing a movie clip as a teaching tool, the teacher must pare it down to its absolute, essential minimum. This allows modern learners of all learning styles and needs to interact and engage with the clip while also being able to focus on the content.
There are four keys or IDEAs to using movie clips which allow learners to bring the information from their heads (cognitive domain) to their hearts (affective domain):
- Interact: Assign questions to be thinking about and answering. This engages both sides of the brain and takes the clip from entertainment only to a learning tool as well. This could be as simple as filling out a worksheet with fill-in-the-blanks.
- Debrief: Plan to have students discuss what happened in the scene.
- Experience: Select a clip that is funny, sad, intense, intriguing, or links learning to a past experience participants have had.
- Application: Have students take action on what was discussed and apply the lesson to the subject at hand.
Three examples of using movies to teach are:
Any Subject: Select a clip and have half the class watch one of the characters in the movie and assess their behaviors, actions and words. Have the other half do the same for the other character. After watching two segments of the movie, have a debate about what occurred in the scene and who might be more responsible for what occurred. The movie grabs their attention, but you can keep their attention through a well thought-out debate or discussion.
Languages: Have students watch a five-minute clip and note any vocabulary words they don’t recognize. Watch the clip a second time for context and have students guess the meaning of the word. Then have students work together to look up the words in the dictionary.
Science/Physics: Watch a scene with a lot of special effects. Based on the special effects students see in the movie, write a paper (alone or in pairs) describing whether the physics involved was a plausible occurrence.
By engaging multiple senses, instructors increase the opportunity for information to move from short-term to long-term memory. Visualizing a movie clip makes it much easier to tap into where we “filed” the information. But without adequate debriefing and application, a well-chosen movie clip can still become noise. If you have been showing a mandatory video without even a movie guide for learners to fill in, are your learners getting the most out of the clip?
Becky Pike Pluth is The CEO of The Bob Pike Group and author of 101 Movies that Teach and Train.
