As the lights in the classroom dim and pencils are placed on desks, excitement buzzes throughout the class. Students lean back in their chairs, ready for a break from intensive classwork. The classroom projector plays the opening scenes of a film. Movies have complemented classes for a long time, enhancing education in different ways.
Films and media can be used to help students connect a class’s content to the real world. Physics teacher Steve Ratto uses movie clips as a way to apply abstract physics concepts to real life. His students determine to what extent the movie clip adheres to the laws of physics. For example, clips from “Fast and Furious,” “Speed” and “Star Trek” were used to accompany the class’s units on kinematics, projectiles and Newton’s laws.
“[Movies provided] more concrete examples of the physics we were learning and how it played out in real life,” said junior Christien Wong. “A lot of times, just looking at AP problems and doing labs is not enough, and looking at movie problems is a fun way to see physics in a new light.”
In ethnic studies and world language classes, it can be difficult for students to connect with the events they are learning. By showing movies, teachers are able to help students connect emotionally to the classroom material.
For example, ethnic studies teacher Courtney Caldwell plays documentaries such as “Precious Knowledge,” “Agents of Change” or “Changing the Game,” as well as the film “The Hate U Give.”
“It helps humanize the concepts and contribute to students building empathy”
“Sometimes in documentaries, the personal connection by having someone who lived through the exact topic we are studying in class tell their story is very powerful, more powerful than me as the teacher telling the story,” Caldwell said. “The stories told in the documentaries provide a real experience for students to learn about. It helps humanize the concepts and contribute to students building empathy.”
In his Spanish 4 Honors class, Spanish teacher Benjamin Ho plays “La Cosecha,” the Harvest, to give his students a firsthand view of the lives of modern-day migrant workers in the U.S. He also plays “The Motorcycle Diaries” in his AP Spanish Language and Culture class to explore in closer detail the life of Ernesto Che Guevara, a historical figure in the AP curriculum’s unit about identity.
“Movies about human subjects allow for greater connection between us as viewers and the individuals in the films,” Ho said. “As we see their every movement and listen to their voices, we develop an appreciation for our shared humanity, despite differences in geography, language and individual circumstances. In that sense, I also believe movies serve to sow the seeds of empathy in our students.”
In history classes, movies can similarly be used to develop an emotional connection with an event. To further develop a unit on World War II and the Holocaust, history teacher Jon Felder plays “Schindler’s List.”
“‘Schindler’s List’ [allowed] us to have a better grasp of the events that took place,” said senior Jack Hickey. “[The movie] certainly does more with the subject than reading out of a textbook would.”
“I also believe movies serve to sow the seeds of empathy in our students”
A movie’s visuals can become especially relevant to accompany reading — particularly in regards to plays in English classes. Reading Shakespeare, for example, requires effort and imagination to visualize scenes as the playwright intended and have the written script come to life with actors and props.
“[The film adaptation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’] helped clear up any confusion that [the play] offered, and it was also a fun way to engage in the unit,” said senior Skylar Rubinstein. “Reading Shakespeare can be difficult since his writing is old and kind of convoluted, so adding the visual piece to it helped me envision the scene that the book was describing.”
While playing movies can add layers of understanding to a class’s unit, it is a time commitment for teachers, which can be difficult to fit into a class’s curriculum. Since instructional hours have decreased, time has become more valuable, leaving less and less space in classrooms for movies.
“Last year during distance learning I was not able to show a few movies that I show in both AP and Spanish 4 Honors because we had less instructional time than in a typical year,” Ho said.
Additionally, movies can be up to two or more hours long, coming at the cost of student attentiveness. For instance, students sometimes sleep when a movie plays.
“Sometimes, the students think [watching a movie in class] is free time rather than actual work,” Ratto said.
While teachers are increasingly turning towards showing only short movie clips, movies remain an effective way for students to powerfully connect with a class’s content.
