Teaching Visual Literacy with Films and Video, ‘the Moving Image’

Abstract

The article looks at: the use of educational films as an affective or cognitive learning tool, both to impart information and to create experiences for students; how to select a film for a particular lesson; how to prepare students for the film so that its relationships to the instructional objectives are clear; and how to structure a lesson, including the language arts (vocabulary, grammar, writing exercises); and how students can be led to analysis of the form and structure of the medium in order to promote visual literacy. Students must learn how to think about questions to ask in order to integrate the film experience into their other knowledge, feelings or information. As a practical exercise for the audience at the ICEM Conference, an example was used—a 16 mm. film, with printed handouts and guidelines given to the audience.