I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this past weekend and it made me a little nostalgic for the classroom. One of my favorite parts of the day was right after lunch, when I’d spend 20 minutes reading aloud to my third grade students. We made a plan at the beginning of the year of the books that we wanted to read and agreed that after reading each book we’d watch the movie version if it was available as a special treat.
My kids thought they were pulling one over on me – getting Ms. Whalen to let them goof off in class and watch movies was a huge win. We started with Tuck Everlasting (over the course of the year, we also read The Secret Garden, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlotte’s Web, James and the Giant Peach, and Bud, Not Buddy). It took the class a few days to get into the book – but by the end, the 20 minutes flew by and I was often bribed into adding ‘just five more minutes!!’ each day.
When I showed the first movie, I anticipated that the kids would immediately say “oh, the book was better!” and I’d be left with the smug realization that I, Ms. Whalen, had single handedly turned my students on to reading and off of TV (*cue the hymns of angels*).
Sometimes this did happen, but in reality, sometimes the movie won out. But, comparing the two always led to some great class discussions about why certain things were changed and why the characters looked different than they looked in my students’ imaginations. Interestingly, after watching the movie, I also found that many students wanted to re-read parts of the book by themselves, and in doing so, their fluency was much better. By taking cues from the movie version, the kids were able to put the writing in context and had a better sense of expression and tone in their own reading.
I am not recommending watching movies in place of reading – rather, I think that it can provide a great supplemental tool to wrap up a book and help provide valuable reinforcement for visual learners.
What ways have you used media to supplement a lesson or help meet the diverse learning styles of your students?