Literacy is widely discussed and emphasized as a critical component of education for all students. There is an increasing understanding by educators and school administrators that media literacy should be included as an essential aspect of comprehensive literacy to teach students in the 21st century.
The ability to analyze film and media, to think critically about the media that bombards each of us on a daily basis, is essential for students. Honing media literacy skills empowers students and enhances their critical thinking skills.
A key way to bolster this topic for students is to do so by engaging students in thoughtful media literacy lessons that correspond with entertaining films that students will enjoy. By teaching with films, students can improve their digital literacy skills and become critical media consumers. As a bonus, lessons that use carefully curated films can also expose students to perspectives, experiences, and ideas that expand their understanding of the world around them.
By using films to teach media literacy, educators also have the opportunity to integrate media analysis into their cross-curricular lesson plans and to integrate media literacy learning while also meeting other CORE curricula standards.
International Films Teachers Can Use to Explore Media Literacy
The beautiful, heartwarming Iranian film Children of Heaven is a favorite of the staff at Journeys In Film and a film that is appropriate for upper elementary school, middle school, and/or high school students. The Journeys In Film comprehensive curriculum for the film features two Media Literacy Lessons, one of which, Film as Storytelling, meets Language Arts standards as well. The curriculum also includes other lessons for various subject areas: Art, Social Studies, STEM, and more.
The curriculum for the Indian film Like Stars On Earth includes a lesson focused on The Elements of Film with opportunities, through other lessons, to explore the science of how the brain works, neurodivergence, and much, much more.
When teaching media literacy, it can be helpful to incorporate both narrative and documentary films into classroom lessons. While Children of Heaven and Like Stars on Earth are narrative films, Please Vote for Me is a documentary film that follows a third-grade class at an elementary school in the city of Wuhan in central China as the teacher tries to teach their students about democracy by staging an election for class monitor. The final lesson in the comprehensive cross-curricular materials for Please Vote for Me features a lesson specifically about documentary films.
The Cup is a delightful film about two young Tibetan refugees who arrive at a monastery in India and bring soccer fever with them. They are determined to watch the finals of the World Cup. One of the boys sets out on a mission to organize the rental of a TV for the monastery to view the grand occasion and his goal tests the solidarity, resourcefulness, and friendship of the entire monastic community. The curriculum for this film features 11 lessons, two of which focus on media literacy, including a lesson on the politics of production—a rarely discussed aspect of film production that can be important for students to discuss and consider.
Through the Korean film The Way Home, juxtaposition in media and the production of sound (technically a science lesson) are lessons that offer students an understanding of how media is created and manipulated. The lesson on juxtaposition focuses on student understanding of the components and characteristics of media. This knowledge can be transferred to other media viewing experiences.
Finally, the beautiful film Whale Rider, a coming of age film focused on 12-year-old Pai, a Maori girl who trains herself in the ways and customs of her people and summons the strength to challenge and embrace a thousand years of tradition in order to fulfill her destiny, offers an opportunity for students to explore special effects and music in one of the two media literacy education lessons included in the Journeys In Film comprehensive curriculum.
By integrating active film viewing opportunities into the classroom, educators can expand students' understanding of the media around them. As educators use different films and/or lessons to explore specific media literacy components, critical thinking skills around media are gained.
Most of the curricula for the films listed above also include teaching media literacy in a way that sets up the viewing experience of that particular film for students. Those lessons are quite useful as educators can draw on these elements and methods to prepare students for the viewing of other media in the classroom.
Cross-cultural learning expands student understanding. Media literacy is more important for students than ever. Connecting to the world around us and offering global perspectives to students is also increasingly important. These resources allow for all three of these things to happen through the viewing of a film that will engage and entertain students. As students understand the power and impact of media, they grow in their capacity to engage thoughtfully with the media all around them.
Additional Media Literacy Resources for Educators
In addition to the film suggestions and resources above, there are various other tools that can assist educators with their integration of media literacy education in the classroom.
Common Sense Media has put together a useful list of media literacy tools for educators, Media Literacy Now offers many tips, tools, and resources as well, and Edutopia has useful articles on the topic, including an article that offers educators guidance on fair use and copyright, articles on digital citizenship and a list of movie-making apps for the classroom
Media literacy is a skill that will only grow in importance. The tools and films shared here offer opportunities to engage students with the world around them and to this topic in a fun and exciting way—watch these films, explore the world and learn together!
This is a partnered post with Journeys in Film
