CLPE/bfi
Project:
Working with film as text in Key Stage Two
Michael Dudok de Wit, film maker,
and
Cary Bazalgette from bfi at joint CLPE/bfi conference
Still from Father and daughter, a flim byMichael Dudok de
Wit, shown at the conference
In 2003-04 CLPE
and the British Film Institute (bfi) worked together on
an action research project funded by the Best Practice Research
Scholarship. This aimed to explore ways that using film might
enhance children’s writing at Key Stage Two. Initially bfi’s
own Story Shorts and Starting Stories collections
were used, although individual teachers quickly began to include
other examples of the moving image, capitalising on children’s
extensive
knowledge of film.
The year-long
project supported ten teachers from schools across the country
bringing
them together for seminars at CLPE. They explored key
approaches to teaching literacy
and film such as the use of Aiden Chambers Tell Me
framework to encourage and
support oral exploration and critical response.
Specific
techniques were introduced for analysing film which enabled
children to think
about the roles and conventions used in film making and how they
tell the story.
The teachers
involved in the project felt intuitively that film could have
something special to
offer their classes and in particular that it might encourage
some of their least successful
writers. Consequently, most chose underachieving boys as the
target group for their
research. They reported very positive gains. However, there
were other, unexpected
d a keenness to use language with more precision. They reported
children’s willingness
to keep writing and to sustain it out of school . Alongside the
children’s enthusiasm for
writing the teachers also reflected on their own shifting
perceptions recognising that
teaching writing could be enjoyable.
Jane Bunting CLPE
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