Moving Images in the Classroom A SECONDARY TEACHERS’ GUIDE TO USING FILM & TELEVISION FILM EDUCATION 2 Acknowledgements Production credits Many people contributed in different ways to Moving Further comment and advice were provided by: First published in 2000 by the Images in the Classroom and the editorial team are Louise Spraggon (bfi). British Film Institute extremely grateful to them all. In particular we would like 21 Stephen Street to mention the following: Other contributors: London W1P 2LN Andrew Burn, David Parker, Tom Barrance. Those attending a bfi seminar in December 1999, chaired Copyright © British Film Institute by Professor Dylan Wiliam of King’s College, London: The editorial team were: Sally Blackwell (Dartmoor Community College, Devon), Cary Bazalgette (bfi), Wendy Earle (bfi), The British Film Institute offers you opportunities to Geoff Dean (English Adviser, Buckinghamshire), Jenny Grahame (English and Media Centre), experience, enjoy and discover more about the world of film Tony Knight (QCA), John Hertrich (Ofsted), Jill Poppy (Film Education), Mark Reid (bfi) and and television. Paul Higgins (National Literacy Strategy), Martin Hollins Alastair West (QCA). (QCA), Roland Howard (Gillott’s School, Henley-on- British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Thames), Barbara Jones (QCA), Chris Maynard (QCA), While the editorial team has tried to ensure that Moving A catalogue record of this book is available from Jane McCarthy (bfi), Sarah Mumford (National Museum of Images in the Classroom will be relevant to teachers across the British Library. Photography, Film and Television, Bradford), the UK, this first edition relates more closely to the National Martin Phillips (English and Media Adviser, Devon), Curriculum in England than to the curricula in the other ISBN 0 85170 831 5 Margaret Talboys (QCA) and Mike Weller (English, Drama three nations. We look forward to continuing dialogue with and Media Adviser, Sussex). teachers and other colleagues in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, to explore the ways in which future editions can The subject grid contributors: be made more relevant to their curricula. Martin Hollins (Science), Chris Durbin (Geography), Ian Williams (Design and Technology), Cover image adapted from an Eadweard Muybridge Professor Brian Hill (Modern Foreign Languages), photograph sequence. Tony Carroll (Art and Design), Kevin Hayter (Music) and Gill Pooley (Citizenship). Subject Officers at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority who commented in detail on the subject grids: Design: Amanda Hawkes Jerome Freeman (History), Barbara Jones (Geography), Tony Knight (Music), Chris Maynard (Modern Foreign Cover design: Amanda Hawkes Languages), Margaret Talboys (Art), John Keest (Citizenship/PHSE). Printed in Great Britain by Cromwell Press Ltd Contents 2 Acknowledgements 4 Introduction 7 Chapter 1 · Basic teaching techniques 13 Chapter 2 · Moving images across the curriculum 14 English 18 Science 20 Design and Technology 22 History 24 Geography 26 Modern Foreign Languages 28 Art and design 30 Music 32 Citizenship/PSHE 35 Chapter 3 · Using moving images in the classroom 41 Chapter 4 · Making moving images with digital media 47 Chapter 5 · Managing teaching and learning about the moving image Stills fi 51 Chapter 6 · Becoming cineliterate – learning progression b Courtesy: 59 Chapter 7 · Resources and resource providers Bringing music history alive: Tiny Davies in Tiny and Ruby: Hell-divin’ Women (Greta Schiller, 1988) from the video compilation Black Women in Blues and Jazz available from 63 Glossary bfi Video. 3 4 Introduction Why moving images matter learning in moving images: assembling and selecting evidence, and using digital technology to present an The moving image is a shared and vital global language. argument or construct a hypothesis. The moving image Educators are aware of the power of the moving image, can often be more appropriate than written texts or still whether delivered through cinemas, broadcast, video or images as a way of presenting ideas or processes, and online; but throughout the 20th century attitudes differed for some children it offers new ways of succeeding. towards its place in schools. This guide is intended to help build a secure place for the moving image in 21st century education. Critical understanding of film, video and Why now? television is becoming an integral part of literacy, and the spread of digital technologies means that the ability to make Some enthusiastic teachers see moving image material as and manipulate moving images will become an ever more more than just content to be added to the curriculum. important skill. Moving images are also important in their They realise that moving image texts have their own own right as a valuable part of our culture. Pupils need complex and unique language which must be understood access to the history and worldwide range of the moving properly if these media are to be used in schools to their image’s achievements in order to recognise what moving full potential. However, to teach well the analytical and images can do, and to encourage their creative ambitions. creative skills relating to moving image texts many will need to develop the appropriate expertise in teaching and Education professionals know that the lives of young people curriculum planning. Although this will not happen are informed and animated by the moving image. From overnight, there are, fortunately, several recent While the full implications of this investment for teaching early childhood, we live in a world saturated by audio-visual developments that will help in this task. and learning remain to be seen, the place of moving images texts. Children spend more time with moving images than in the curriculum has been clarified by the publication in they do with school work, and through this they acquire an The, often daunting, technical and financial difficulties of 1999 of Making Movies Matter. This influential report of the enormous amount of knowledge and experience which accessing and using moving images in the classroom are Film Education Working Group on the future of moving some teachers are learning to access and develop. These beginning to diminish. Substantial UK investment in image education in the UK has been widely discussed. In teachers enthusiastically argue that the ability to analyse a hardware, software and networks promises not only to the same year the Revised National Curriculum for England moving image text sharpens pupils’ responses to literature deliver moving images to the classroom but also to clarified and increased the prominence of the moving image and can increase their reading and writing skills. Film and provide the means of manipulating and exporting them. in the curriculum for 5- to 16- year olds. It is possible that television versions of literary texts or historical events entice The costs of both hardware and software are being driven new education policies will be formed in the devolved further reading and study. In schools which encourage down as the ICT market expands. In addition, a range of nations of the UK which will also review the place of the creative moving image work, teachers in many subject areas, governmental and commercial initiatives are being moving image in their curricula. There has never been a including Mathematics, Geography and Science, have seen offered to schools to update their equipment and get better time for schools to develop both critical and creative its value. Pupils can document and communicate their access to training. use of moving image texts. Which part of the curriculum? ̈ Pupils can explore many of the processes and systems Moving Images in the Classroom has been written by a they must learn about in Science more easily through team of teachers and advisers convened by the British Film As the communications environment continues to change, moving images than through print or diagrams, and their Institute, and produced in association with Film Education there is much debate about the nature and range of the general knowledge of science is increasingly derived and the English and Media Centre. It thus draws upon the basic skills people will need to participate in the society of the from film and television. expertise of three organisations that have been central to future. There is little doubt that print literacy will remain a ̈ Citizenship explicitly requires pupils to consider how the development of media and moving image teaching in key competence, but there is also little doubt that other film and television contribute to our ideas about social the UK for many years. We are grateful to the Qualifications kinds of competence will grow in importance. The ability to groups and political ideas. and Curriculum Authority, and in particular the subject analyse moving images, to talk about how they work, and officers, for their support in the development of this to imagine their creative potential, drawing upon a wide film publication. and television viewing experience as well as on practical For basic help, start here! skills, could be termed ‘cineliteracy’. Like competence in print, number or ICT, cineliteracy will increasingly underpin Moving Images in the Classroom is a guide for teachers, the whole curriculum. departmental subject heads and curriculum managers in secondary schools who want to develop work with moving ̈ In English, pupils’ moving image-based knowledge of images. It offers a set of basic techniques, grounded in the genres, narrative structures and character function can realities of today’s classrooms and curricula, which can help contribute to their self-confidence as readers and any teacher, in any subject area, to use moving images more writers. effectively. These techniques can be used by individual ̈ Film and television are important primary sources of teachers, or they could form the basis of departmental or evidence on 20th-century history, and both fictional whole-school policies. Teachers and schools who already and documentary treatments of earlier events need to teach Media will find much here that is familiar, but the be considered as influential examples of purpose of Moving Images in the Classroom is to reach historiography.