Using Philosophy & the Movies to Teach Close Reading in 6th Grade

[Frank W. Baker]

ELA teacher Kevin Hodgson uses a philosophy website for middle-schoolers, What's the Big Idea?, to guide his sixth-grade students through a close reading of video clips from movies and TV -- mediums that are often more relevant to them than written text. To add yet another dimension, Hodgson draws on techniques described by the late movie critic Roger Ebert to show students how to "read" the flimmakers' intentions. Details at Middleweb.com

[Frank W. Baker]

Another strategy that film critic Roger Ebert advocated was "frame analysis"-- in other words using film stills first as a way of getting his students to look closely at the screen.  IMDB.com is great for grabbing publicity stills from films, both past and present. I use film stills as a visual literacy/close reading exercise, starting with the simple question: What do you see?  I want students to see and recognize actors' expressions, costumes, setting, set design, light, camera angles and more. Of course if you want to explore these languages of film, look at this website I've created:

www.frankwbaker.com/language_of_film