Film Studies Lesson Plans

Students examine different types of media and genres in this unit. They identify the characteristics of each type of genre. They also examine their relationship with certain genres.

Students create poems based on a particular moment.  In this poetry lesson students examine every aspect of the moment they've chosen and create a poem.

Students explore American history through films about baseball. In this film study lesson, students watch video clips from "The Babe," "A League of Their Own," "Eight Men Out," "The Jackie Robinson Story," and "Field of Dreams." Students then use the provided film analysis sheet to log their impressions of the films and discuss American history topics.

Eleventh graders research and study daily life around the turn of the eighteenth century and contrast that with their own lives. They view how history is made by both the people who live it and the professionals who research and write it. Each student assesses a diary by Martha Ballard and a variety of historical songs.

Students produce an animated short film about their hero or their concept of heroism. In this film genre lesson, students outline a story they want to tell, structure the beginning, middle, and end, and follow the websites to create an animated film.

Students examine films from the Harlem Renaissance period. Using the films, they analyze them from the perspective of a white dominated film industry. They discuss the influence of the Harlem Renaissance on other film portraits of African-Americans.

Learners consider the relative merits of different genres of literary and movie characters. By pitting same-genre characters against each other in fictionalized competitions, students research the traits of the various character types.

Students explore their own childhood fears. Then, by reversing the scenario and considering how the objects of their fears might in turn also be afraid of them, students confront these fears and create a student books that help younger students as well.

Turn your high schoolers into casting directors with this activity, which focuses on turning a class novel into a movie. Choosing the cast for a movie based on a class reading, as well as designing a poster for the movie, helps young readers illustrate their depictions of what they have read. Additionally, they write reviews of the film and create a script for one scene of the movie.

Students evaluate how the movie industry depicts heroes, villains, and events, and how these characters and plots relate to the society and time period in which the films are created.