This video is designed as a short online CPD module, offering an overview of the resource with suggestions for classroom use and links to curriculum and specifications.
The detailed Teachers’ Notes that accompany the resource can be downloaded below. In addition we have provided a brief guide on copyright and how this relates to the use of film in the classroom.
Download Teachers' Notes Download copyright information PDFHello, I'm Film Education's Primary Education Adviser and author of Thinking Film: Thinking Primary Literacy. I'm also a Primary School teacher currently teaching a mixed ability year three class. Over the next ten minutes or so I'm going to introduce you to the Thinking Film: Thinking Primary Literacy resource, its themes and approaches. I'm also going to outline how the clips and lesson plans can be used to extend literacy skills at primary level, especially in writing. The Thinking Film: Thinking Primary Literacy DVD-ROM is a literary resource for primary school teachers. The resource is designed to help improve engagement and attainment in reading and writing about the moving image. Pupils will develop skills in watching, analysing and responding to moving image texts, extending their reading skills across text type and genres and developing descriptive, analytical and imaginative writing through a range of focused activities.
The disc contains a set of teaching maps linked to ten units of study, which aim to extend literacy skills for pupils aged seven to eleven. Each scheme of work uses a close analysis approach to a film clip with further activities which aim to encourage a deeper understanding of the art of creating meaning on screen at the same time as developing reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. Its aim is to provide you the teacher with a film-focused resource supported by activities that strive to support, stimulate and extend the pupil in a way that enriches their writing and reading comprehension skills.
I'm now going to talk about the four key areas of the resource in order to relate it to your day-to-day needs as a teacher. My aim is to demystify the Thinking Film process and to make it relevant to your classroom practice. Together we'll explore the resource in terms of:
The disc is in two sections: the clip viewing section and the PDF section, where you can access the teaching maps which accompany each clip. You might want to personalise these materials, so we have made all of the PDFs available as Word documents. You can access these at www.filmeducation.org/thinkingfilm. You can access the teaching map PDFs or schemes of work from the CD-ROM section of the disc.
A teaching map is very similar to a scheme of work: the map includes all the information you need to teach, the learning objectives, whole class activities, differentiated group activities with 'must/should/could' learning prompts, plenary ideas and success criteria. There is also some background information about the clip and a week-by-week outline covering three weeks of literacy lessons. You can taper these to match the amount of time you have available to use the resource, but we would suggest three weeks of daily literacy lessons. Each teaching map and clip relates to a specific unit of work for literacy, like Beauty and the Beast for myths, legends, fables and traditional tales, and Roald Dahl's Matilda for authors.
There are ten teaching maps in total. Each one asks pupils to explore how film language unlocks narrative. The idea is that by analysing the clips shot by shot, learners will gain a deeper insight into how meaning is made on screen and that this will inform how they make meaning themselves, be it in story writing, film making or presenting to an audience. Once you know how to describe each shot using the language of film you can de-construct a film sequence as you would a sentence of prose. To do this, you and your pupils need to have a basic understanding of the principles of film language. The resource provides you with the Film High Five model so that you can talk about film language in an accessible way for children and unsure teachers. I'll take you through the Film High Five model later. The teaching maps are supported by worksheets for pupils as well as script extracts, posters and film stills. These are designed to encourage learners to foster deep connections to the material, and to extend literacy skills through close analysis work and de-constructing the on-screen narrative. Now I've given you an overview of the teaching maps and the overall structure of the resource I'll take you through the Thinking Film: Thinking Primary Literacy pedagogical approach.
The Thinking Film: Thinking Primary Literacy resource aims to extend literacy skills. First let's define what we mean by literacy skills. Whilst this obviously refers to the ability to read, write, speak meaningfully and listen critically, we believe that children also need to be given the skills to decode, interrogate, critically evaluate and construct moving image texts. The children who are good at this tend to be the children who have a knowing approach to reading and who write for effect, with a strong awareness of audience, i.e. those who are above average when they come to leave primary school. Children develop literacy skills in different ways: some prefer to use words, the verbal or linguistic types; some learn best when using their hands, the physical or kinaesthetic types; some have a systematic approach, the logical types; some like to develop ideas in group situations, the social or interpersonal types; and some prefer to work alone, those who are intrapersonal.
The Thinking Film: Thinking Primary Literacy resource appeals to those whose dominant learning styles are visual and auditory, although the process of learning about and making film appeals to most if not all of the learning styles. When it comes to unpacking literacy skills for visual and auditory learners we have found that the following three approaches work the best. Reflective: when teachers facilitate children's critical response to film by asking for their reactions, then asking them questions, specifically 'why?'. Why does this shot follow that one? Why is it lit this way? Why is the camera in that position? Children will actively seek out alternative perspectives in order to help them to understand the story themes at a deeper level. Integrative: using the Thinking Film clip as the focal point, teachers and pupils explore the context for the film, its intended audience and genre type. Children gather information from different sources and diverse perspectives in order to amalgamate concepts from a range of disciplines. And Higher-Order: The Thinking Film: Thinking Primary Literacy resources use the Analyse, Synthesise and Make Judgements approach to learning, or in more basic terms, Clip, Pair, Share. I'll explain what I mean by this later. Now it's time to take you through the basic ideas behind film language and the Thinking Film: Film High Five approach.
So, what are the key questions to ask when approaching a film text? The most important question to ask any moving image text is 'why?' Why this camera angle, sequence, choice of lighting, lack of sound, character, body language and so on? By exploring the choices that the script writer, film maker, actor, editor and composer made when making the film, children will be able to access the complexities of the text at their own level. In order to know which questions to ask we need to have a grasp of how films are constructed and the language of film. To this end we developed the Film High Five model. The Film High Five model breaks film language down into five key concept areas which can be directly linked to writing skills for children.
The five concepts are: the Frame – relating to camera angle and camera movement. Where is the camera placed to film the action, at a high or low angle? Is it close up or from far away? Why? How does this affect what we see in the frame? What can't we see in the frame? In writing we might describe the use of camera angles as the adjectives within the text. Sound and Music – children can talk about this in terms of sound effects and atmospheric music. What mood does the music create? Is the music part of the action or outside the story? How do the sound effects add to the meaning created? In writing we might compare this to adverbs, changing the meaning of the verbs or the action. Colour and Light – is the scene dark or light? Are there any colour patterns? How does this affect how meaning is made? In writing we could compare this to the use of connectives, the elements that hold it all together. Mise en scène – this literally translates to 'put in the scene'. It refers to the props, characters, body language, basically everything in the frame. In writing we could say the mise en scène is the inclusion of details or words for effect. Sequence – does the pace get faster or slower? How many edits can you spot? When writing a story we use varied sentence styles to add texture. Some are short; some are long; some passages include lots of short punchy phrases or dialogue; some are long wordy descriptions.
Here's how I use the Film High Five model with a class. We watch the chosen clip together and discuss our reactions to it as a group. We then begin to break it down using the Film High Five diagram as our point of reference. I invite children to raise their hands and share anything interesting they have observed about the clip, in terms of the High Five. You might want to use the Key Questions and Film High Five worksheet on the CD-ROM to stimulate discussion. Then I split the class into five groups, hand out Post-It notes for each child to make notes about the clip in terms of one of the High Fives predetermined by me. After two or three viewings of the clip, each group is given time to pool their ideas and discuss their findings, using the key language of their particular focus area. They choose what to share with the rest of the class and we come together to share our thoughts.
Following on from this I ask the children to complete one of the fifteen to twenty minute writing activities suggested in the teaching maps, with the success criteria matching their High Five focus with one of the writing links outlined earlier, camera angles and adjectives for instance. As you use this model on a regular basis your pupils will become skilled at interrogating, analysing and evaluating how story is developed on screen, and then using this deep thinking approach to create their own short pieces of writing. As I have already mentioned, there are ten teaching maps and clips of the resource. The Film High Five model is a way into studying film. It's almost like an extended started activity. Each teaching map provides teachers and learners with extension work and varied approaches to studying the clip in context, depending on the literacy focus.
We would suggest that you use the Clip, Pair, Share model when working with each clip on the Thinking Film: Thinking Primary resource. The Clip, Pair, Share model means that children watch a clip together, then work collaboratively in pairs or table groups to discuss it in relation to the Film High Five model and how it relates to a particular Literacy unit of work. Then they share their interpretation of the meaning being made on screen. As teacher, you will need to facilitate this process by initiating a dialogue with them about the clip, the dialogic approach. With the key question being 'why?’ Why does this shot follow that one? Why are the characters positioned in this way? Why is the camera placed down low? Why is the music high pitched? Why is the shot so brightly lit? What effect does the music have? And so on.
It's our hope that the Thinking Film: Thinking Primary Literacy resource offers you and your pupils a new way to approach the clips provided, but also the wide range of moving image source material now available to primary teachers and literacy specialists. By developing the specific skills required to de-construct and analyse these on-screen texts, Thinking Film: Thinking Primary Literacy provides teachers and pupils with a framework to evaluate the representation of meaning on screen, and a way of becoming better writers and literary consumers. For updated material linked to this resource bookmark filmeducation.org/thinkingfilm/thinkingprimary.
