Movie Questions

I show at least one movie per quarter in my World Literature Class & perhaps 3 movies all year in my British Literature Class - Here's Why....

• Movies can reinforce what students are already learning in a new and meaningful way

• I show films that most students have not seen and would not have watched on their own - that is what learning is about (to me); to expose students to something new - to get them to think in a new way.

• Every movie is accompanied by movie questions - a way for me to link what they are seeing with what we've been studying - sometimes in superficial, sometimes in profound ways.

• Movie questions are divided into two parts - 1) Questions in bold face that are to be answered right away.  I have found in a BIG way that these simple content questions really help keep students engaged.  When I've had student teachers - I've asked them to walk down the hallways and observe classrooms (discretely and fleetingly of course) that are showing movies - and to tell me what they see.  Invariably, they tell me that the kids are sleeping, or in the past several years - on their phones.
  2) Thinking questions that are answered at home.  Each of these questions resembles an short essay prompt.  It requires them to pull together what we've been doing in class with the movie they see before them.  Students (and everyone really) love connections.  This gives the students the chance to make that criticle thinking leap.