Students already love movies, so getting them to use video in the classroom seems like a natural fit — as long as their teacher knows how to make it happen.
For the second year in a row, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) Mediatheque Summer Institute is offering a three-day program of workshops on teaching all aspects of film literacy and production. The program is open to teachers of grades 3-12 and will run August 23-25.
Lindsay Wright, the NFB’s supervisor of operations and education programs, says the first Summer Institute was a big hit and she hopes the program again shows teachers just how effective and easy the use of film production in the classroom can be.
“We’re hoping to dispel the myth that media education and production is difficult to implement in the classroom,” Wright said.
Featured workshops on subjects like video and sound editing, stop-motion animation, live-action production and digital storytelling will throw teachers into hands-on activities they can later repurpose for their own students and that fit the Ontario Ministry of Education Curriculum.
As media outlets like television, films and the Internet continue to take centre stage in people’s lives, Wright says teaching media literacy skills is crucial to helping students navigate media landscape and learn to express themselves.
