Introduction

Why use short films in the classroom?

Aims of this pack

Why use short films in the classroom?

The power of film to capture the attention and interest of students is incontestable. But using films in the English classroom can offer far more than a way of engaging disaffected students. Films offer a rich and illuminating focus of study, which can enhance students' grasp of a wide range of literary concepts as well as promoting their media literacy.

Short films may be a new form to your students and can challenge them to think about and articulate their responses to film. Short films have their own specific features, including:

• A likelihood of ambiguity or the unexpected in the narrative;
• A small number of characters;
• Heightened use of mise-en-scène and music;
• Minimal dialogue and powerful themes.

Many of the creators of short films are at an early stage in their film-making careers, which means that they often have their own powerful stories to tell and a desire to establish their own style. As these film-makers are often giving accounts of their own childhood or youth there is much to engage young people.

Although the National Curriculum patchily acknowledges the importance of the moving image in the lives of young people, there has never been a statutory entitlement to learn about film as a discrete subject. Moreover, such is the bulk of the curriculum at all key stages, and such is the pressure to meet exam targets, you may feel that film study just adds to your workload. After all, no school has ever failed its Ofsted inspection for inadequate film studies provision. However, short films offer rich texts, the study of which can enhance students' skills and contribute to their achievement levels.

The bfi's earlier publication Screening Shorts offered four key reasons for using short films to help teach print literacy at Key Stage 3. Given the continued importance of literacy at Key Stages 3 and 4 (and it is likely that 'functional literacy' will be a core component of all GCSE English specifications from 2008), it could be argued that these reasons remain valid when delivering the curriculum for older students.

Firstly, there are practical advantages:

• A short film can be screened in its entirety easily within one lesson.
• Longer films lose their impact either by being viewed over a number of lessons, or by being screened only in extract form.
• Short running times make repeated viewings possible, and thereby students can acquire very detailed familiarity with the work under consideration.

Secondly, film is an inclusive medium, accessible to students of diverse learning styles, experiences and needs by virtue of its variety of visual and auditory content.

Thirdly, short films, like short stories, are not necessarily governed by the same conventions as their longer counterparts. These departures from more familiar forms and narrative structures very often hold an audience more securely, and provoke stronger responses, than more traditional films.

Lastly, film and print, while different in many ways, are very closely allied; and the study of each within the context of the other can make visible many shared or related practices and conventions. A short film therefore can offer a manageable and stimulating resource to develop a core skill which lies at the heart of the English curriculum.

Aims of this pack

This is not a prescriptive resource. It offers a flexible and versatile way of addressing the requirements of the curriculum, while indicating ways of stretching students' understanding of how film texts work. As a follow up to Screening Shorts, it builds on and extends the range of concepts introduced in that pack. The target audience for Screening Shorts was students in Years 7 to 9. The films in this pack are mainly appropriate for slightly older viewers, from Year 8 up - though the age appropriateness of the films vary and you should view each film before deciding whether to use it with your class.

The films have been chosen because they offer multi-layered meanings and rich sources for investigation and exploration. This guide introduces ways of making connections between print texts and films, drawing out the parallels and specific rules and codes of each form. The practical ideas, schemes of work and lesson plans provide flexible ways into studying each film. We hope that you will use them as springboards for developing your own work with short films.

Your own experience of using short films will influence how you use this guide. It offers some schemes of work developed by practising teachers, at varying levels of detail. You may find it useful to refer to Screening Shorts if you need more support. The guide also includes activities and key questions for each film, around which you can develop your own schemes of work and lesson plans.

If you are interested in in-service training, please contact Education for information.

English, Drama and Media

This pack provides detailed guidelines for using the selected films in English in Years 7 to 9 (Key Stage 3) and Years 10 and 11 (GCSE).

Drama and Media in Years 10 and 11 are often studied within the curriculum time allotted to English. In this way, students are prepared for a double (English and Drama/Media Studies) or triple (English; English Literature and Drama/Media Studies) award at the end of the key stage. The four subject areas of English, Literature, Drama and Media Studies present opportunities for coherent and integrated study: they share much common ground which can be bridged by the study of film, as reflected in the new English and English Studies specification from Edexcel, which gives equal weight to both the study of the Moving Image and English Literature.

Teaching with short films in English and Drama

Ideas for using films in Years 7 to 9 and Years 10 to 11

Teaching with short films in Media Studies

Suggestions for using short films to teach GCSE Media Studies

Short films across the curriculum

As well as English, Drama and Media Studies, the study of these short films fits comfortably within the specification requirements of many subjects at Key Stage 4, an can be used to enliven them, including:

• Art
• Music
• Design and Technology
• Modern Foreign Languages
• Citizenship.

Although we have not included any detailed scheme of work or guidance on these subjects, we hope you will see the potential of the films and feel confident to use them in supporting your work in other subjects.

The 14 to 19 curriculum

Years 10 and 11 are essentially a transitional period of preparation for choices that are made at 16. Additionally, for the most able students, the demands of some GCSE subjects can be met comfortably within a year. Therefore, many institutions have created a more fluid and flexible Key Stage 4, by introducing aspects of post-16 study into pre-16 courses, both to stretch the more able learners, and to offer students a taster of post-16 courses to assist them in making informed choices. The study of film in Years 10 and 11 helps to meet GCSE curriculum requirements and prepares students for the challenges of more advanced work.