Reel Conversations: Reading Films with Young Adults (Young Adult Literature S)

Excellent resource for secondary teachers
I received this book from Amazon yesterday afternoon and just finished reading it. It’s not long, but I did skip through a number of sections where films were listed and described.Having just completed a dissertation about the use of film in the classroom–although I found what was said in this book to be consistent with the literature and my own study findings–I subtracted a star for three missing pieces: lack of an index, more information about the logistics of showing a film (invaluable for teachers for whom this is a new activity), and more of a research base to address “why do this and not that.” A further review of their references indicates that a basis for Teasley and Wilder’s approach exists, but isn’t used sufficiently for justification of their recommended methods.For example, there are a lot of explanations made about appropriateness of a film to the audience which translates to development. Just a few references to pertinent developmental psych (or even cognitive, educational psych, or human development) would have been useful to explain not just “what” but “why.” Although they do mention “deep structure” in their explanation of genre, they do not link it to the characteristics they ask learners to look for in genre films.There are a number of good references included, but many more are missing. For teachers disinterested in this type of information, it might be included in one chapter that could be skipped. That would add significantly to the book’s sparse theoretical foundation and make it equally useful for academics and researchers as well as practitioners.Other research areas germane to learner response to film, for example, are the function of “mirror neurons” in terms of character identification and empathy, and a study by Israeli neuroscientists indicating that there is no consistency between participant brain scans while viewing a feature film, EXCEPT when they’re watching faces, places, and hands–all external stimuli. (This research–the only of its kind–discusses what’s actually going on in people’s brains when they are watching film.) Nor did the authors directly address learners’ worldviews and how they affect expectations, reactions, and the impact of films–which is huge.I suppose I’m talking myself into writing a book to fill these gaps, aren’t I? After having searched far and wide, there’s very little available to help teachers both select and use film effectively. In our media-saturated society, it’s a very good skill for teachers to develop, but one not as obvious or simple as might be assumed.These criticisms aside, this book takes a leap forward in helping teachers who want joy and excitement–not to mention learning–to return to their classrooms. For anyone unconvinced how involved kids get with movies, just visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) forums. Kids are watching and discussing movies with or without responsible adult guidance. As educators, we’re missing a huge opportunity here. This book–via highly practical and well-thought-out methods that are, in fact, based on theory–is an excellent start of a return to relevance in the classroom.

Intriguing to the Aspiring English Teacher
This book was very easy to read and follow, and it provided great detail and supplementary terminology to explain the film-teaching techniques that the authors suggest using in the English classroom. Wanting to become a high school English teacher myself, I found this book very helpful and intriguing because I recognize the growing importance of using media in the classroom and being innovative with technology, particularly film. Teasley and Wilder discuss the growing role that media and visual imagery have in the classroom and how these mediums can be used as a more effective way of inspiring conversation about literature and about real life application. This book was brief and very interesting, although there were a few sections that just described techniques for teaching particular books that I didn’t find as useful. The book didn’t delve too much into why exactly film is becoming more vital in the classroom, but the authors, who have a great deal of both academic experience and experience in the education field, did iterate and reiterate how utilizing film as a tool makes the class more fun and interactive. Their years of expertise and guidance offer great insight into many techniques in which teachers can utilize film, and I particularly liked that they emphasized the importance of not using film to replace reading but rather to use films as tools in creating life-long readers. They are supplementary to the novels and shouldn’t just be an easy out for teachers who don’t have a lesson planned for the day. According to Teasley and Wilder, film is merely a literary genre, and like all other genres, there is a particular approach to it. I found this book very applicable and interesting to me because I am an aspiring teacher. To those not in the education field, it probably would not be as intriguing. Also, the lesson plans weren’t completely applicable to me because I am not yet a teacher.