Students learn about many of the concepts and issues surrounding the documentary film unit. The students will then apply these concepts to three different documentary films (selected by a student vote). Additionally, students will view (or listen) to two documentaries outside of class. They will also become documentarians themselves by participating in one of four types of documentary projects.

NOTE: These lesson plans were designed for 80 minute class periods, which would consist of nine lesson plans (spanning approximately a month of instruction).

Students will learn about the rise of the studio system during the Golden Era of Hollywood Film (specifically, Hollywood film from the thirties and forties) until the decline of the studio system (the fifties and sixties). In this unit, students will learn about the codification of genres and will specifically study three genres and how these genres reflected the spirit of the times: screwball comedy (of the thirties), film noir (of the forties), and science fiction (of the fifties). We will also view how film reflected the societal changes that occurred during the sixties. The unit will end with a debate over the pros and cons of censorship of the media.

Designed as an introductory unit, students will learn about the precursors of the film medium and the silent era of film history. Students will also get an introduction to the two basic poles of film: Realism and Formalism. This unit will focus specifically on Formalism and thus students will learn the basics of Formalist film vocabulary and analysis. Subsequent units in the class will cover Classicism (the middle road) and Realism.

Much has been written about using film in English classrooms, and English teachers seem to belong to one of two camps when it comes to the pedagogical value of film. One camp argues for keeping students away from the invasive media that keeps students from reading. The other camp is inherently drawn to the possibilities of pairing film and print texts. Teachers in the second camp recognize that students are much more willing readers of film than they are of written texts, if only because they have so much more practice and familiarity with film texts. And because fictional films offer many similarities to fictional print texts—narrative, characters, metaphors, symbolism, themes, setting, and point of view for example—these teachers hope that viewing might motivate students to learn these important concepts. In this unit, I side with the second camp, believing that a study of adaptations can even make students more interested in reading.
Recognizing that English teachers who do use film in their classrooms have the very best intentions—certainly they don’t use it to take up time when they’re unprepared or use it as a reward for good behavior—they still so often turn to this: showing, in its entirety, the film version of a novel or short story that the class has studied together. When it comes to using film in English classrooms, there is, perhaps, not a more common practice and certainly not a more useless one (at least as it is usually done without any effort to “read” the film text as carefully as the print text).
Alan Teasley and Ann Wilder, in their seminal book on reading film with young adults, conclude that even teachers who assign students to compare and contrast the film and novel (either in discussion or writing) engage in poor practice, because
such comparisons usually boil down to simplistic variations on a relatively few points: (1) “the filmmakers left stuff out” (yes, usually lots of characters and whole subplots have to go in order to whittle the novel down to two hours); (2) “they simplified complex material for the mass audience” (yes, literature is much better at conveying nuances and complexities—especially of characters’ unexpressed thoughts and feelings); (3) “they toned down the controversial material” (as in the near absence of lesbianism in Spielberg’s version of The Color Purple); or (4) “the actors weren’t how we pictured the characters” (perhaps Demi Moore was not our first choice for Hester Prynne). (134)
What Teasley and Wilder make clear is that even teachers with the very best intentions go wrong when it comes to using film and literature together. And this isn’t hard to understand. Even film critics and theorists are stuck on the idea of fidelity as centrally important in studying adaptations—that is, Is the film “true” to its source text? As Brian McFarlane, in Novel to Film, writes, “At every level from newspaper reviews to longer essays in critical anthologies and journals, the adducing of fidelity to the original novel as a major criterion for judging the film adaptation is pervasive” (8). McFarlane goes on to suggest that a critical (and I would add pedagogical) focus on fidelity analysis needs to be reexamined. However, McFarlane makes clear that adaptation study shouldn’t be abandoned all together:
Given the prevalence of the process, and given that interpretations and memories of the source novel are powerful determining elements in the film’s intertextuality, there is little value in merely saying that the film should stand autonomously. So it should, but it is also valuable to consider the kinds of transmutation that have taken place, to distinguish what the filmmaker has sought to retrain from the original and the kinds of use to which he has put it. (23)
Therefore, just because it isn’t easy to pair film and literature together (and learn from the process) doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. In fact, it is vital for students, saturated by media, to learn how to effectively negotiate their way. One key to learning to make their way through pervasive media is recognizing the unique qualities and attributes of each different medium. A study of adaptation is an ideal way to uncover these qualities. Also, connecting film and other media to literature can lead students to discover and become excited about print texts in ways they otherwise might not.
This unit aims to provide teachers who desire to use non-print texts in their English classrooms with a way to do that meaningfully. Specifically, the unit is focused on possible methods for students and teachers to work with and learn from and about adaptations, which we’ll define as texts “that arise when a given source text is employed in different media or in different genres” (Buckingham 77). The unit will not only focus on adaptations from print text to film (certainly the most common kind of adaptation for English teachers), but also adaptations involving many other media: newspaper, radio, television, web sites, video games, etc.
Because this unit includes multiple media (and not just text-to-film adaptations), I hope teachers of all content areas and grades can find useful material here for their classrooms, though the lessons will apply perhaps most naturally to secondary English/Language Arts teachers. I recognize individual lesson plans may not be valuable to every teacher, so I’ve tried to be flexible in the creation of the plans so that teachers can at least utilize the principles and concepts, adapting the plans to students of various ages and in various content area classrooms. Also, because of their schedule and circumstances, teachers will obviously need to adapt and may want to include their own resources and material in addition to what is suggested here. For example, I teach on a block schedule (with 85 minute periods), so I would have to combine these lesson plans and use them over three or four days instead of seven. Additionally, my lesson plans can only come out of my experience teaching. Therefore, you should know that I teach 10-12 graders at a suburban high school in Utah. What works for me may not work for you, but I hope at least some of it will be valuable.
Finally, I’d love any feedback if you use any of this material.

These lesson plans were created by undergraduate film and theatre students at BYU using AMLA's Core Principles of Media Literacy Education as a framework for the lesson plans. These lessons span various subjects, but all teach media literacy principles.

Lesson One- What is Genre? Educational Objective: Students will demonstrate their understand of the genre conventions of icons, archetypes, and rituals by identifying their use in film clips from different genres. Lesson Two - The Teen Film Genre Educational Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of teen film conventions and how they align with actual teen experiences by determining which aspects of their lives would fit teen genre conventions. Lesson Three - Defining Reality Educational Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of mediated reality by capturing “real” images in the classroom and creating a pact that defines what would be required for them as media creators to capture reality in their media productions. Lesson Four - Reading Reality Educational Objective: Students will analyze the reality of a teen film by applying their rules of reality to the film Rebel Without a Cause. Lesson Five - Reading Reality, Part 2 Educational Objective: Students will analyze the reality of a teen film by applying their rules of reality to the film Rebel Without a Cause. Lesson Six - Reaction to Teen Film Educational Objective: Students will demonstrate their knowledge of genre, teen genre conventions and film analysis by reviewing the information and taking a test. Lesson Seven - Contemporary Teen Film Educational Objective: Students will synthesize their understanding of generic conventions and mediated reality by examining and discussing how contemporary forces influence teen genre conventions. Lesson Eight - Teen Scene Creation Educational Objective: Students will demonstrate their ability to create media using generic conventions and their own experiences and creativity to write, plan, and film a short scene from a teen movie. Lesson Nine - Teen Film Festival Educational Objective: Students will demonstrate their teen film literacy by sharing and discussing their media projects. Lesson Ten - So What Was It All About? Educational Objective: Students will hand in written/filmed reflections on their work and the work of their peers in relation to capturing genre conventions, adding their individual identities, and presenting mediated reality.

This is a seven-block-day unit using media activities to teach the French play, Cyrano de Bergerac. It is not intended to cover the whole play. Instead, it will give several lessons using the play to teach media literacy. In reality, these lessons could be adapted to many other literary texts. Also a teacher should not attempt to use all of these lessons in one unit. The intent is to show the language arts teacher ways to incorporate media education into the literature classroom. NCTE has widened the definition of text to include: “…informational and academic texts, such as textbooks, lab manuals, papers, and reference materials; student-produced texts, including peer writing, journals, and student newspapers and literary magazines; technological resources, such as computer software, computer networks, databases, CD-ROMs, and laser disks; mass media and other visual texts, including films, selected television programs, magazines, and newspapers; socially significant oral and written texts, such as speeches, radio and television broadcasts, political documents, editorials, and advertisements; and everyday texts, such as letters, bulletin board notices, memos, and signs” (NCTE 11).

This unit was designed to be adaptable to any subject. It is expected that you will adapt the lessons to your needs, goals, and time requirements. Materials needed are designed to be very general so you may substitute examples appropriate to your specific needs. Lesson 1. Define media, text, and literacy. As a class develop definitions for media, text, and literacy. Lesson 2. Questioning media. Help students begin to ask questions about media. Lesson 3. Create media using A.D.D.I.E. This acronym is part of state requirements and state testing. Lesson 4. Production Basics. Help students begin to produce media using A.D.D.I.E. Lesson 5. A.D.D.I.E. / Production. Students work on individual projects. Lesson 6. Production. Students work on group projects. Lesson 7. Question media products. Use material from lesson 2 to have students critique their own work. Included with these lesson plans are the “Utah State Multimedia Standards” and “The Core Principles of Media Education” from The Alliance for a Media Literate America. They provided the curriculum goals for this unit.

The lesson plans contained in this unit are designed for students in a high school-level government course, specifically Advanced Placement® United States Government and Politics, though they could be adapted and used for a mainstream high school course or an introductory college-level political science course. The College Board, which owns the rights to the Advanced Placement course name, summarizes the media component of the course on apcentral.collegeboard.com: “The media are a major force in U.S. politics. Students are expected to understand the role of the media in the political system. In addition, the impact of the media on public opinion, voter perceptions, campaign strategies, electoral outcomes, agenda development, and the images of officials and candidates should be explored and understood by students. Understanding the often symbiotic and frequently conflictual relationship among candidates, elected officials, and the media is also important. Students should be aware of the goals and incentives of the media as an industry and how those goals influence the nature of new coverage. They should also understand the consequences of the increasing concentration of major media outlets in fewer hands, as well as the growing role of the Internet.” It is with these course requirements in mind that the following lessons have been designed.

Students will be exposed to a variety of international films, and will critically analyze them in order to understand film and cultures better.