Using Movies in Your Homeschool
UPDATE: This article has been extensively updated, re-written, and moved to our sister site, Whole Child Homeschool. To view it along with dozens of vetted movie recommendations, click here.
Visual media is rapidly overtaking the written word in our society. There are a couple of main reasons for this, in my opinion. First, most people can visually scan a set of pictures faster than they can read a description of the photos. The second reason stems from the decreasing literacy rate in our country. Since homeschooling parents want their children to be strong readers, we tend to shy away from movies and visual media and to promote the written word through books and writing assignments.
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Homeschooling families are typically very busy and need to be careful with their choices of how to spend time. Instead of letting kids passively watch a movie, there are a few ways to use the power of visual media. These take us educators beyond the obvious reinforcement of “after you read The Lord of the Rings, you may watch the movie.”
Movies are popular and powerful because they cause the viewer to feel emotions that they will remember along with the plot. Films set in the past can help students better understand how people lived, what they wore and how they spoke during that time period. Students could also research the time period in which the movie is set before watching. This would help them gain some background knowledge. Action movies that include blowing up objects or gun fights could be used at the basis for science or physics lessons in a “Myth-busters” style.
Books that have been made into films are easy to incorporate into your studies since many educators have already made their coordinating lessons plans available on the internet. Parents can use the movie as an opportunity for their high school students who are interested in taking CLEP/ACT essay tests to practice writing opinion or research essays based on the movie and a couple of related articles.
Websites such as Plugged In Online and books like Group publishing’s Dinner and A Movie series have discussion questions and activities to coordinate with family-friendly movies. If your family prefers less violence, profanity and sexual content in your movies, there are also some great filtering software choices available. Enjoy and clear-play might suit your needs in this area.
So, when you have a lesson assignment that can be supported by a movie, incorporate that movie into your lesson plan. Or, when there is a movie that the kids want to see, check it out ahead of time and use it to aid you in the education of your children.
