Curriculum guides for film – not just for K-12
Image by Canadian Film Centre used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
This post addresses a question I have fielded as a TATP trainer who teaches a workshop on video in the classroom.
Partcipants sometimes ask, where can I find video curriculum guides to help me teach in my discipline? This question does not emerge out of thin air. It comes up because when I teach the workshop, I bring along a curriculum kit called Teaching the Levees. Hurricane Katrina caused devastating damage to New Orleans. The curriculum guide is intended to support discussion of the associated social and political issues that are raised in Spike Lee’s film When the Levees Broke.
In my experience, TAs and instructors alike are very enthusiastic that other people prepare discussion questions that may be appropriate for their classroom! It is often a novel concept that such resources are available.
A challenge for post-secondary educators, is that most curriculum guides for film seem to be directed towards the teachers of kindergarten to grade 12 students. In researching this blog post, Jenaya Webb, Public Services Librarian, OISE Library, indicated to me that they have a collection of curriculum guides to assist their student teachers on placements in the K-12 educational system. Jenaya also helped me to compile a list of more widely available resources to the U of T community (see below).
In order to find curriculum kits or guides that may be useful in your post-secondary teaching, I recommend using the web as a starting point to find resources that you can adapt to make relevant for your course. Some options in alphabetical order include:
1) Amnesty International Film Curriculum Guides
As a human rights organization, Amnesty has a number of PDF downloadable curriculum guides for films that address issues such as war, race, and gender. I downloaded the curriculum guide for Born into Brothels, an academy award winning documentary, and found that some of the grade 9-12 level discussion questions could be easily adapted by linking to a university course level reading.
2) HotDocs: Toronto’s own documentary festival has film resources in their HotDocs library for K-12 learning. Here you may find materials that link to your courses. In the words of the HotDocs team, “these docs will engage students with issues of our day; with vital ideas, critical questions and new perspectives outside the mainstream media and school textbook.”
3) National Film Board (NFB) of Canada:
The NFB has a comprehensive section of their website devoted to educators. There is a section of the website where teachers can search for teaching guides on various topics. Additionally, I find the playlists for educators organized thematically (i.e. films about Science and Technology) to be a great resource.
I hope that you are able to find curriculum materials for films that are relevant for your classroom. If you have experiences or tips you wish to share, please comment.