Although we have been at home and not physically in school, our 8th graders are spending the week learning how to “read” or analyze a film.  Yes, all of them laughed at me when I said we were going to learn how to read a film, but alas they are working toward that skill.

With three different mini lessons set up for this week, students are learning about three major aspects of films: literary, dramatic, and cinematic.  Literary aspects of films are simple: characters, setting, plot, symbols, and general story line type things.  Dramatic aspects are more of the visuals we see: makeup, costumes, and the set.  Our last aspect of films, cinematic, is more of what we hear and see in a more subtle way.  It in the sound effects, background noise, but also how the camera sets us up and makes us feel certain things.

We watched numerous film clips along the way, which will eventually end in us working toward better understanding the film Hidden Figures as we start our Civil Rights focus.

Until then, if you are free and interested, please participate in our Flipgrid learning session.  As part of their study of the cinematic aspects of film, I asked each student to play 30 seconds of their favorite movie score/soundtrack and tell us why it was so important to them (without revealing the movie).  Participate by doing your own Flipgrid.

The link is here.  Come join in our learning!