Everybody Loves...Teaching Film (Adaptations and Documentaries)

[Ryan Goble]

DOING SOME HOUSCLEANING AND MOVING OLD CONTENT TO BETTER LOCATIONS.

THIS WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED February 12, 2009 - ENJOY

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Thanks to "everybody" who read yesterday’s post and changed their profile pic. Today we continue our exploration of “Me You and Everybody.” Since yesterday showcased “me and you,” today we’re going to meet another body among the MC POP everybody, a gifted educator and author who I met in 2003 at NCTE San Francisco.

Alan Teasley hails from Durham, NC and recently retired from many years of work as a classroom teacher and administrator. In addition to being a film connoisseur and former member of NCTE’s Media Commission, he’s deeply involved with ALAN - NCTE’s Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (btw-I have no idea how the N was added to the ALA). Alan is the John Peel of YA lit; he knows more about hip up-and-coming YA authors than I will know in my lifetime.

In 1996, Alan and Ann Wilder co-wrote a spectacular book about teaching film across the curriculum, Reel Conversations: Reading Films with Young Adults. Alan and Ann are in conversations about a revised edition of the text but take note that the first edition remains the most practical guide written for educators interested in teaching with film that I’ve read to date.

In “retirement” Alan teaches at Duke, does leadership training around the state, travels (Peru is on his March itinerary), assists with the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, writes, and presents on film, media, and education across the country.

Nicole and I had the pleasure of iChatting with Alan earlier in the week because he’s one of the keynote speakers at the conference we put together at Columbia – Teach, Think, Play 2009: The Moving Image in the Classroom. During our iChat he informed us that he recently learned how to make webpages. Armed with the iLife software suite he created a cool site called “Teaching about Film in the English Classroom.”

On the site you can find a truckload of study guides, graphic organizers and rationales from his last two presentations done in collaboration with Nathan Phillips. The handouts deal with teaching documentary film and adaptations. Note: this is not an English teacher only zone - the documentary film resources are useful across all disciplines.

Hopefully you’ll find Alan’s materials as useful as I have. Alan is a consummate southern gentleman and he's always keen to chat with folks about using film in the classroom. Don't be shy, as I'm sure he'd like you to strike up a Ningversation with him.

"I see living people,"

RRG