Critically Gauging Film Use as a Teaching Aid in a High School Literature Class

Abstract

As a teacher of English literature in an over-stimulated media-driven era, motivating the reader to enjoy and engage in literature can seem impossible. Literature teachers have used film adaptations for years in correspondence with required reading to conclude a novel as a reward, fill up extra time in class, or to leave as a substitute plan. The problem with this use of film is that teachers do not often gauge the purpose of films in application to student learning. They also do not hear student perspectives on film use, so they find it difficult to utilize film’s true worth appropriately. Too often educators have misused film as a classroom pacifier. Wise educators endeavor to utilize any and all available materials purposefully in order to create an interactive, culturally relevant class time in which students can make memorable and motivational learning connections and experiences. Through the careful use of film, students can gain great insight and increased interest in literature. Film can be a tool, engaging visual learners, igniting the memory centers of the brain through emotional connectivity, and enhancing retention. This study focuses on three classrooms of ninth graders at an affluent private Seattle preparatory school. Perhaps through the strategic, effective use of media as a classroom tool, the over-stimulated student populous can be positively directed in a controlled environment through the same affecting media, and the cause can also finally become the cure.