How do you read a frame? How do you read a shot? Here's a resource that shows viewers how to read films. As part of the study, class members examine the camera angles, lighting, movement, and cinematic point of view in Mr. Smith Goes to...

In our increasingly visual society, it is often difficult for some readers to create a mental picture of a picture created only with words. An image-rich text like F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby can therefore, present a real...

In this, the third in a series of four resources that use Robert Wise's 1951 version of The Day The Earth Stood Still as the core text, young film makers examine the language of film including shot composition, camera angle, lighting,...

Learners examine how a scene in a movie or in literature is constructed. In this film and literature lesson students answer questions based on film clips then create storyboards depicting a scene from their life.

Watching is not the same as seeing. Transform viewers from passive watchers to active students of film with this 34-page packet, filled with lessons and activities that use Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to examine the technology, the...

How are films made? As part of their study of film, middle schoolers investigate the pre-production, production, and post-production process and consider the role of the director, the screenwriter, production designer, cinematographer,...

The Hunger Games. Maximum Ride. Why is so much of young adult literature so dark? What is the appeal of dystopian literature to young readers? The six activities in this resource ask kids to reflect on some of the reasons this genre has...

Middle schoolers participate in an engaging, alternative assessment activity: making a silent film of an Edgar Allen Poe story. This project offers them an additional way to demonstrate their mastery of the topic. 

How was Edgar Allan Poe able to create "intriguing, memorable, and lasting literature"? To answer this question, learners analyze the syntax, diction, and characterizations in Poe's poems and short stories and compare the impact of these...

Students explore the Latin American film industry. In this Latin American film lesson, students compare Latin American films to American films as they watch segments of "Que Viva Mexico!" Students research the painters on the film and...

Imagine an entire course devoted to dystopian literature. If that concept appeals to you, check out this course that uses 1984 as the anchor text and includes classic short stories as well.

Students watch Charlie Chaplin films and discuss film elements. They select a story written by Edgar Allen Poe to write and produce a movie of. They film scenes, edit, and create a final iMovie project.

Young scholars research the social context of Elizabethan England for Shakespeare's "Hamlet". They identify cultural influences on the play focusing on the theme of revenge and then analyze and compare film interpretations of the play.

According to John Betjeman, "Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows." With The Boy in the Striped Pajamas film study, scholars work in small groups to discuss the quote and other...

The challenge film makers face when creating a film based on a novel or nonfiction text is the focus of a interdisciplinary resource that uses To Kill a Mockingbird to teach viewers how to read the visual images of film. A...

As part of their study of the film adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird, class members analyze how Robert Mulligan uses the film lens to depict the historical period and social issues presented in Harper Lee's novel. A superior resource...

Gear up for Halloween by studying the horror genre with your class and analyzing films and texts to uncover the genre's traditional conventions.

Life in the Florida swamps after the Civil War comes alive in the 1946 film adaptation of Majorie Kinnan Rawlings’s The Yearling. The film of this powerful coming-of-age story, filled with love and loss, can be used with or without a...

Warning or prediction? Nineteen Eighty Four is the anchor text for a series of tasks that ask readers to compare the novel to the film as well as current events to those pictured in George Orwell's dystopian classic.

Excerpts from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and from John Fante's Ask the Dust, as well as a variety of primary source documents provide the background for an examination of the migrant experience from 1920-1945.

How does an author's choice of artistic medium influence an audience? What about how an author chooses to transform original source material? These are the questions class members grapple with as they compare scenes from episode IV...

From Canterbury Tales to The Odd Couple, this presentation details the different treatments of humor in different literary formats. Numerous authors and works of literature are represented here as examples of satire, irony, comedy, and...

The television and interstate highways both came of age in 1950s America. Scholars use film, text, and discussion to explore how these and other cultural icons shaped the literature of the time. Pupils also create a family history...

How did literature reflect people's attitudes in post-World War I America? A lesson explores the topic using a variety of activities. Individuals watch and respond to a video; read author biographies and engage in discussion; write...