Depending on where you live, you are either starting to wind down and trying to get to the end of year without using too much energy OR you will soon be in the middle of National or State Testing. Either way, this time of year can be very stressful for both you and your students.
That is why, many years ago, after being very frustrated that my students were not engaged in my lessons, that I thought that if I can’t beat them, why not join them! What this meant to me was, my students only wanted to watch movies and not have to “think”. BUT, we had been given strict instructions not to start showing movies to students in our classes. The Principal was not impressed getting phone calls from angry parents who were not impressed about the child going to school and only watching movies!
Fair call. We are teachers, and our job is to “teach”, isn’t it?
It is easier to just throw on a movie and let your class happily sit there. There are certainly a lot less behaviour problems when they are content watching a movie. It is just so tempting to ignore the Principal, and simply give in to saving your sanity by putting that movie on, even though you know you shouldn’t.
So how do you overcome this dilemma? How do you find that balance between staying sane, keeping your students engaged and keeping them learning during this hectic and stressful time of year? Simple – teach a unit of work on Music and the Movies!
When you have a valid reason for “watching” a movie, then no one can complain.
The Music and Movies Unit of Work, available over at my TPT store, makes this time of year bearable.
Not only will you have your students loving you because they can watch a movie, you will have resources at your fingertips that mean that you won’t have to worry about finding resources to teach this unit with – it is all ready for you. The only thing you will need to do is decide on a movie to watch.
Included in this printable resource are:
- History of Film Music
- Sound Tracks
- How Music is Used in Films
- Film Composer study – John Williams
- Super Six Comprehension strategies and activities throughout
- Elements of Music Listening Worksheets – each with a link to a piece of music to study and analyse
- TWO different paragraph writing templates to use with each listening task
- 10 Suggested Performance pieces – with links to the music to listen to and a link to the chords for the music
- Spelling words
- Match it Spelling word/definition cards
When I use and teach this unit of work with my Year 7 or 8 classes, I have used movies like The Sandlot or Shrek to watch. I have found, especially in recent years, that most of my students have not seen these movies, and they really enjoy them! The way that music is used in each of these films really reinforces what they learn in their lessons.
Until next time
Happy Teaching
Julia from Jooya