I have instituted "Movie Fridays" in my classroom. Whenever I tell people that I show a movie once a week, I feel like I have to justify that seemingly poor teaching decision. Movie Friday started mainly because of poor attendance on Fridays at our school (an inner-city phenomenon of which the effects are greatly underestimated). Anyway, at first, we did tests/quizzes every Friday, but because so many students were absent, it was a hassle for make-ups. (I guess tests were not a good motivation to attend class.) When so many students are absent, it's hard to teach something new, so then I would do review. Well, the students who come to school on Fridays are the kids who do not need review... naturally. Thus, movie Fridays. Movies about music, classic must-sees, etc... Some are educational in the traditional learn-something-new way and some are "educational" in the part-of-your-cultural-expansion way.
Currently, I'm showing The Sound of Music, which most of my students have never seen. It falls in the classic-part-of-cultural-expansion category. For each Friday, there is an assignment that accompanies the movie (yep, I'm one of those teachers).
Disclaimer: I LOVE this movie. I watch it 4 times per Friday, once with each class (which is a little overkill). When I was little, we watched it all the time, and sang the songs all the time. I have most memorized. (Music geek confession)
Anyway, watching it with my students opens up a whole new side to the movie. I have never before realized how funny it is. Here are some scenes and their reactions to those scenes.
When Maria leaves the convent to head to the Captain's house for the first time, she sings the song I have confidence. Towards the end of this song, she is dancing down the street swinging her guitar and travel bag, singing all the while. One student explained, "Ms. Cook, if you saw a lady doing all that down 79th, you would call and have her committed. She too excited."
Then, at the end of the song, Maria arrives at the captain's mansion. Several students responded, "Dannng."
When the Captain first appears on the scene, he bursts through these double doors between the parlour and balroom, where Maria is snooping around. As he burst through the doors, my students burst out laughing. I never thought of that scene as funny.
My all time favorite. When the Captain calls down the children to meet Maria for the first time, he uses a loud whistle with signals. Suddenly, all the children burst forth from various rooms upstairs, line up by height and march military-style down the stairs into their appropriate line order. In a couple classes, at least one person yelled, "aw hellllll no." hilarious!
The Captain then instructs the children to march forward and announce their names when they hear their respective whistle signals (so that Maria can learn the whistle signals for each child). As the Captain is whistling and the children are introducing themselves, at least one student in each class called out, "ugh, he be doin' too much!"
Have you seen The Sound of Music lately? Stop by room 151 if you'd like a good viewing ;)
