Film

Film: An English Teacher’s Best Friend

In the book, //Reading In The Dark,// John Golden talks about all the ways that a teacher can use film in their class as an aid to text, or even as a text itself. He brings up school’s biggest concern about it: students not being able to use their reading and analytical skills while watching a movie, and addresses all the ways film can actually use and help develop these skills. He talks about how many students are visually oriented and using film can make it easier for them to pick out images than when they read a text. This can be a great help for many different aspects of English. Some schools also assume using film means the students will be watching an entire movie, but this isn’t the case either. Golden states, “I rarely show entire films unless it is part of a film unit; rather, I suggest using short clips from movies, some as short as two minutes and one longer than fifteen, that highlight the skill you are trying to practice with your students.” The whole book talks about how film can help make elements of text and analysis more easily accessible for students. The books starts off by defining all the important terms when discussing the elements of film. This leads into ways for students to make predictions; in film and when using film to accompany text. He talks about how to use it to question text, and how visuals can make it easier for students to understand things like symbolism and irony. Golden states, “Film works so well for symbols,…, because directors can be so obvious in saying, ‘Hey, look at this! This is important!’ by lighting it or framing it a particular way.” Teaching these elements of literature using visuals could be more effective then just having students try to indentify them in a book they are reading. He also goes into ways to use an entire film in the class and how to do it “the right way”. He talks about the most effective ways to use an entire film so that students are still learning your desired knowledge, and the film isn’t taking up your whole semester.
 * Summary**

This book gives more than enough tips on how to use film in the classroom. It gives many examples of film and how to use them to identify irony, symbols, importance of setting, predicting upcoming events, or the effect of the chosen point of view. The entire text is basically ways to use film effectively in the classroom. He talks about how clips can emphasize a lesson or be used as a mini lesson within a unit. He also talks about how to create a lesson based on an entire film. Chapter 4 is all about great tips to teaching entire films. Golden actually states in the introduction that watching a film can be a great way to show how students use analytical skills that are required by schools, when they “read” a film. If schools are concerned with students obtaining skills to identify elements of texts and be able to analyze them in an appropriate way, then this book is nothing but a guide on effective way to do this using film.
 * Analysis of Usefulness in Classroom**

“I rarely show entire films unless it is part of a film unit; rather, I suggest using short clips from movies, some as short as two minutes and one longer than fifteen, that highlight the skill you are trying to practice with your students.” (Golden XV)
 * Quotes (From Summary)**

“Film works so well for symbols,…, because directors can be so obvious in saying, ‘Hey, look at this! This is important!’ by lighting it or framing it a particular way.” Teaching these elements of literature using visuals could be more effective then just having students try to indentify them in a book they are reading. He also goes into ways to use an entire film in the class and how to do it “the right way”. (Golden 82)

Golden, John. Reading //In The Dark//. United States: National Council of Teachers of English, 2001. Print.
 * Citation**