Using Film to Unlock Textual Literacy

Robert Bryant Crisp

Description

In Using Film to Unlock Textual Literacy: A Teacher’s Guide, Robert Bryant Crisp explores strategies for using film study and filmmaking to help students engage in entirely new ways with both print and digital texts. 

Struggling to help students engage with print texts? 

Looking for ways to help them learn to analyze texts deeply in a hands-on, differentiated, and real-world environment? 

High school teacher Robert Bryant Crisp explores how film can be read in much the same way as print texts—and can be every bit as rewarding. We are surrounded by screens, and we understand film viscerally. It’s a language we all comprehend, from which we can make meaning, even when we may not understand the technical aspects of how that process happens. And telling stories via the medium of film requires every bit of the forethought and intent that constructing print text requires. 

From basic team building, storyboarding, and filming-with-your-phone-camera activities to deeper dives into adapting texts, making directorial choices, and guiding audience response through texts, Crisp proves that you can teach film study even without specialized training. 

Texts incorporated into lessons include: “Casey at the Bat,” 42, E. T., “Everyday Use,” Othello, Edward Scissorhands, “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” Unbroken, and more. Resources include a list of film vocabulary, observation charts and rubrics, storyboard templates, and sample film technique assessments.

Sujets

• Disciplines
• Media Studies
• Language Arts
• Subjects
• Teaching
• EDUCATION
• Película fotográfica
• Level
• Secondary
• Subject
• School
• Literacy
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
• Date de parution: 14 décembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780814100158
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

Extrait

NCTE Editorial Board
Steven Bickmore
Catherine Compton-Lilly
Deborah Dean
Antero Garcia
Bruce McComiskey
Jennifer Ochoa
Staci M. Perryman-Clark
Anne Elrod Whitney
Vivian Yenika-Agbaw
Kurt Austin, Chair, ex officio
Emily Kirkpatrick, ex officio

Staff Editor: Bonny Graham
Manuscript Editor: Michael Ryan
Interior Design: Jenny Jensen Greenleaf
Cover Design: Pat Mayer and Robert Bryant Crisp
NCTE Stock Number: 54465; eStock Number: 54472 ISBN 978-0-8141-5446-5; eISBN 978-0-8141-5447-2
© 2021 by the National Council of Teachers of English.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright holder. Printed in the United States of America.
It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified.
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Every effort has been made to provide current URLs and email addresses, but because of the rapidly changing nature of the web, some sites and addresses may no longer be accessible.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Crisp, Robert B., 1974- author.
Title: Using film to unlock textual literacy : a teacher's guide / by Robert B. Crisp.
Description: Champaign, Illinois : National Council of Teachers of English, 2021. | Includes biblio-graphical references and index. | Summary: “Shows high school ELA teachers how to teach film with the same degree of forethought and intent that goes into teaching print texts”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021034867 (print) | LCCN 2021034868 (ebook) | ISBN 9780814154465 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780814154472 (adobe pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Motion pictures—Study and teaching—United States. | English language—Study and teaching—Foreign speakers.
Classification: LCC PN1993.8U5 C75 2021 (print) | LCC PN1993.8U5 (ebook) | DDC 808.2/0309353— dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021034867
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021034868
To Bud, for teaching me to appreciate a good story, and to Bill, for showing me how to teach it
Film analysis enables us to recognize how the filmmakers have their magic on us, how all the constituent elements of the film have combined to create that magic. Rather than rob us of the pleasures of watching films, this approach affords us the even greater pleasure of deep engagement.
—Jon Lewis, Essential Cinema: An Introduction to Film Analysis
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.
—Albert Einstein, What Life Means to Einstein
Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
SAMPLE LESSONS
LESSON 1     The Kuleshov Effect: Making Meaning through Juxtaposition
LESSON 2     Intro to Film Study: Group Dynamics
LESSON 3     Spec Scripts: Transforming a Classic for the Silver Screen
LESSON 4     The Filmmaker's Toolkit: From Building Blocks to Works of Art
LESSON 5      Edward Scissorhands: Snow Globes, Visual Rhyming, and the Fine Art of Mise-en-Scène
LESSON 6     Looking like You Know What You're Doing: Avoiding Bathroom Selfie Cinematography
LESSON 7     Casey for the Win: Exploring Director's Prerogative
LESSON 8      Othello: Getting More from the Moor of Venice
LESSON 9     From the Stars to the Silver Screen: A Technical Analysis of the Opening Scene of Spielberg's E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
LESSON 10      That Night on the Marge of Lake Lebarge: The Art of the Smooth Transition
LESSON 11      Documenting the Action: Not Your Everyday Short Story Analysis
LESSON 12       Unbroken: Guiding Audience Response
APPENDIX A     F ILM V OCABULARY
APPENDIX B     Charts and Rubrics
APPENDIX C     Sample Film Technique Assessments
APPENDIX D     Storyboard Templates
APPENDIX E     Common Core State Standards
WORKS CITED
INDEX
AUTHOR
Acknowledgments

“N otice how the images here reflect what is happening in the story. See those background elements? What do you think Tim Burton is trying to say here?” Cheryl Harris, our presenter for this part of the workshop, scanned the room, gauging the reactions on her participants’ faces.
I was hooked.
It was the first time I had ever seen anyone use film as more than a reward for staying awake in class. I was learning about a text, analyzing it deeply, and seriously enjoying the process. And to top it off, the text in question was the film Edward Scissorhands.
Since that summer, roughly two and a half decades ago now, I have been fascinated with fleshing out this approach to use with my own students, more than a few of whom have since gone on to study film in college and work in the film industry.
Having said that, one of the most important lessons the journey has taught me is that no man is an island. I could not have written this book alone. I owe more than a few people a tremendous debt of gratitude for helping to make this book a reality.
Thank you to my family—whether by birth, love, choice, or marriage—for supporting me all of these years. Whether helping grade papers and assessments, lending a hand with personal film projects, being willing to pose for photographs or video clips to be used in class lessons or quizzes, giving me time to explore ideas, or encouraging me to keep going, you are incredible. There is no way I could do any of this without you. Penni Beth, Garrett, and Caroline, you are and will always be my Why.
To my grandfather Bud, you were the greatest storyteller I ever knew. You taught me that good storytelling is about so much more than the words. I am humbled to stand in your shoes and will forever be trying to fill them.
To my great uncle Bryan, your photography inspired a passion in me for visual storytelling that continues to this day. The day you saw something good in my own photography was a moment I will always cherish.
To Bill McBride, who has been so much more than a mentor to me for so many years now, I can never say thank you enough. We have shared steak, coffee, and midnight snacks. We have written together and presented together, and once, you snuck me into a national convention. You taught me what it means to be an educator. You are also one of the most faithful and supportive friends I have ever had.
Thank you to my colleagues and administrators at Myers Park High School for supporting me. In particular, thank you to Allyson Davis, a truly incredible assistant principal, for being such a staunch supporter of the program, for helping submit the proposal that allowed my students to earn honors credit, and for encouraging me to write a second level for the course.
Thank you as well to Kristen Angerer for being an incredible department chair and for allowing me to indulge my passion project. Not many department chairs would have been so willing to fill my schedule with an elective course in which we “just watch movies.” Having you in my corner means the world.
Moreover, to my cadre of film teacher colleagues, Katherine Cates, Mark Jenkins, Melissa Hefner, and Kristen Angerer, I am blown away by your subject knowledge, your passion for educating your students, your work ethic, and your sheer intelligence. You are a daily reminder that the students at MPHS are in very capable hands. You make me better, and I don't do a good enough job of telling you that.
And thank you to our incredible counseling staff, who took the time to understand the course we have worked so hard to build and for encouraging students to add Literature and Film to their schedules.
To that end, thank you to my students. I wish I could list every one of you here, but as there are nearly five thousand of you now, the space is far too limited to do you justice. You are incredible human beings, and you keep me going. Seeing the curiosity stoked as we break down everything from shot details to conspiracy theories surrounding Kubrick's The Shining makes getting up early on Monday mornings worth it and celebrating Black Keys Fridays all the more enjoyable. I love you all.
Among those thousands of students, I would like to single out a few who have come back through the years to visit and to offer their expertise to my current students. To Gabriel Kauntiz and Conor Burner, you guys gave up your spring breaks back during your college years to teach my students for a week— and you did it for four years running. Who does that? And you were amazing! You were among the first to show me that what I was doing really mattered, and I will be forever grateful to you for that.
To Graham Keever and David Knuckles, you remain two of the most passionate and talented filmmakers with whom I have ever worked. I am proud of you for chasing your dreams and humbled that you have kept in touch after all these years. I continue to be amazed by your talent and humbled by your passion. I look forward to seeing you receive your Oscars. Thank you for considering me your “Mr. Feeny.” Th