Synergy Between Books and Movie Versions

In this Ed. Magazine article, Katie Bacon reports on the work of Robert Selman and Tracy Elizabeth (Harvard Graduate School of Education) developing teacher resource guides for the book and movie adaptations of The Giver by Lois Lowry and The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis. “There is a certain amount of engagement in a really good book and a certain amount of engagement in a really good movie,” says Selman, “and if you put those two together, you get exponential engagement.” He and Elizabeth aimed to bring together “three Es” – education, ethics, and entertainment – to create powerful classroom experiences, using the movies as a “trampoline” to increase interest in the books.

Elizabeth drew on her own teaching experience in South Carolina for this project. “Once kids learned that there was a movie version of the books or stories we were reading in class, they would express delighted curiosity in the ways in which the film would tell the story,” she says. “What would characters look and act like? What parts of the book would the film include and exclude?... After being ‘invited’ to a movie viewing, students notably increased their focus when reading – they wanted to consume every detail of the book in preparation for critically analyzing the film.” 

Selman’s and Elizabeth’s teacher guide to The Giver (which is available at no cost at www.walden.com/educator-resources) has students analyze the narrative and creative decisions made in the book and the movie, hones critical thinking skills, and delves into the moral issues of the book – free will, lying, euthanasia, the role of strong emotions. Researchers will follow students in Massachusetts and North Carolina to learn more about the potential of using books and films in tandem.

“Movies, Books, and The Giver” by Katie Bacon in Ed. Magazine, Winter 2015 (p. 30-35), www.gse.harvard.edu/ed

From the Marshall Memo #571