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 critical thinking leap.

Examples of Movie Questions on this Site

British Literature

• High Noon (shown with Grendel and Beowulf)

• Canterbury Tales Animated Stories (shown with Chaucer & The Canterbury Tales)

• Looking for Richard (shown with Macbeth)

• Twelfth Night (shown with Twelfth Night)

• Exit Through the Gift Shop Part 1  & Part 2 (shown with Literary Criticism)

• The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (shown with The Romantic Era)

World Literature

• The Return of Martin Guerre (shown with Unit on Truth)

• Everything is Illuminated (shown with The History of Love)

• Wings of Desire (shown with The History of Love)

• The Graduate (shown with Candide)

• Grand Illusion (shown with All Quiet on the Western Front)

• Duck Soup (shown with All Quiet on the Western Front)

• Persepolis Part 2 (shown with Persepolis Part 1)

• Il Postino (shown with Dante & Pablo Neruda Unit)