Organised into the sections of: News and Current Affairs, Television Drama and Television Partnerships, this website's usefulness is via historical snapshots of television and topical programming.
I find this site a place for my ideas to springboard... as it mentions shows I personally like or despise - my individual critiquing of these television shows modelled to students using the strategy of "think-alouds"... (Pearson Educational, 2011) considering the purpose, intended audience, messages, its possible appeal... empowering young people to become discerning viewers and articulating their enjoyment, cringe-factor or dismay (Media Education Foundation, 2005).
These days the power of the remote, ease of access to recordings and archived shows, encourages young people to view - not for the sake of viewing, but with purpose in mind. It is imperative educators encourage critical viewing of television! Life is too short for square eyes!
When teaching I was always keen to link the children's own experiences to new ones: particularly when setting the context for readings. An example of this was trying to explain the setting of the Coorong when reading Colin Thiele's Storm Boy. In particular young children need these hooks to help set the scene in their mind’s eye, or the characterisation - to encourage visualisation... what better way than through the use of film? At a more sophisticated level, this can link not only to setting and characterisation, but relationships, themes and symbolism (Cross, 1995).
This contextualisation aligns with Constructivist theories and Vygotsky (Richardson, 1997) and encourages critical literacy and media literacy. As Cross (1995, p. 85) espouses, it is about creating "visual realism" for students.
The National Film and Sound Archive contains an absolute plethora of films and images. It is easy to escape into this celluloid collection - to trigger personal memories and create new ones from the comfort of your viewing location. It doesn't have to be the whole movie - often a snippet is sufficient to whet the appetite and establish a known (but not necessarily first hand) setting or context prior to sharing reading.
This is only one small aspect of the educational usefulness of film: to take someone to a place not normally possible.
Brendan Smith's blog, currently on this website, sets the challenge to not find a favourite movie moment in The Great Aussie Montage. How interesting to discuss student’s own views of these Aussie greats as to whether or not they agree they belong on the list. Better still – students design their own criteria to decide what attributes are necessary to make it on this list!
References
Australian Government. (2008a). Film. National Film and Sound Archive, Australia. Retrieved October,19, 2011, from http://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/film/
References
Australian Government. (2008a). Film. National Film and Sound Archive, Australia. Retrieved October,19, 2011, from http://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/film/
Australian Government. (2008b). National Film and Sound Archive, Australia. Retrieved October,19, 2011, from http://www.nfsa.gov.au/
Australian Government. (2008c). Television. National Film and Sound Archive, Australia. Retrieved October,19, 2011, from http://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/television/
Australian Government. (2010). Television Partnerships. National Film and Sound Archive, Australia. Retrieved October,19, 2011, from http://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/television/television-partnerships/
Australian Government. (2011). Television Drama. National Film and Sound Archive, Australia. Retrieved October,19, 2011
Australian Government. (n.d). NFSA Title Details. National Film and Sound Archive: Australia Retrieved October, 19, 2011, from http://colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=Number%3A5150;querytype=;rec=0;resCount=10
Brendan Smith. (2010). Great Aussie film montage gets a refresh. National Film and Sound Archive, Australia. Retrieved October,19, 2011, from http://www.nfsa.gov.au/blog/2010/03/31/great-aussie-film-montage-gets-a-refresh/
Cross, S. M. (1995). Dead poets do tell tales. The English Journal, 84(7), 84-86.
Education.com Inc. (2006-2011). Critical Viewing Definition. education.com Retrieved October, 19, 2011, from http://www.education.com/definition/critical-viewing/
Education.com Inc. (2006-2011). Critical Viewing Definition. education.com Retrieved October, 19, 2011, from http://www.education.com/definition/critical-viewing/
Media Education Foundation. (2005). How to become a critical media viewer. 2. Retrieved from http://www.mediaed.org/Handouts/CriticalViewing.pdf
Pearson Educational. (2011). Think Aloud Strategy: Teaching Method for Reading (Grades K-12) TeacherVision.com Retrieved October, 19, 2011, from http://www.teachervision.fen.com/skill-builder/problem-solving/48546.html
Richardson, V. (1997). Constructivist teaching and teacher education: Theory and practice. Constructivist teacher education: Building new understandings, 3-14.
Wikipedia®. (2011a). Critical literacy. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Retrieved October, 19, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_literacy
Wikipedia®. (2011b). Media literacy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Retrieved October, 19, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_literacy
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