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Posted by: scaher on 09/09/2005 07:55
Updated by: scaher on 09/09/2005 07:57
Expires: 01/01/2006 12:00
The Story of Movies

www.storyofmovies.org takes the classroom plan of "reading the book and watching the movie" to a whole other level. It focuses on helping teachers teach their students to interpret and understand the language of film and visual images--skills increasing in importance.

Do you know any teachers who are planning to teach a novel this year and then show the movier?

Suggest they visit http://www.storyofmovies.org


The site introduces the Story of Movies project which promises to take “the current read the book, watch the movie approach one step further, teaching students how to interpret and understand the language of film and visual images.”

Teacher are offered a chance to order a free interdisciplinary curriculum package containing a free copy the movie being taught, special features DVD, lesson plans, student activites and teacher resources.

Thanks to the support of the IBM Corporation and Turner Classic Movies (TCM), the curriculum kits will be distributed free of charge to middle school educators who teach the Arts, English/Language Arts, Social Studies or History.nationwide starting this fall.


This Year’s Titles
To Kill a Mockingbird (available now)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (coming soon)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (coming soon)

Each middle school unit from the Story of Movies curriculum has four interrelated components:
• A DVD of the selected film for in-depth study. The Film Foundation recommends that all classes view the entire film prior to beginning the teaching unit.

•A Teacher’s Guide, featuring lessons with teaching objectives, detailed, step-by-step instructions for presenting each activity, and answer keys. Appendices include chapter tests with answer keys, performance-based definitions of key terms relative to the study of film. In addition, transparencies for projecting graphic organizers are included.  

•A Student Activities Booklet, which includes graphic organizers, Screening Sheets to be used while viewing the film clips, and reading, writing, visual-thinking, and group activities sheets.

•A DVD that includes selected film clips or segments, most of which have a running time of 3 minutes or less. Also included on the DVD are movie stills and photographs. 
 
The Story of Movies site also hosts a Teacher Lounge, an interactive space that promotes professional development, posts news and features and offers a forum for teacher interaciton.