2. What does literacy mean to you? 
being able to communicate effectively with other people

3. What do you think society thinks of as literacy? 
i feel like society (especially american society) seriously takes literacy for granted, since there are other countries in the world where half of the citizens cant read or write

4. Do you like novels?
i like the idea of them, but im not particularly into reading them

5. Do you like movies? Tv?
i like certain genres of movies, but i dont really like watching movies very often

6. What is your most common mode of consuming media? (Film, tv, books, etc.)
my phone and my laptop

7. Do you think you learn from novels?
depends in the genre. if its fiction, then no. if its nonfiction, then yes

8. What is your general opinion on movies/tv? Are they just for fun? what do you use this medium for? Escape? Knowledge? Relief? 
i feel like movies are a fun way to gather people together and have a good time while also paying the actors' large salaries. i dont typically watch much tv in general unless theres a nba game on, so i pretty much watch tv because i love analyzing and studying the game of basketball

9. Do you talk about these with anyone? What form do you talk about most? What kinds of things do you discuss? Character development? Arcs? Plot twists? Meanings? 
i mostly just talk about nba team standings, player statistics, and awards races with a couple of my friends from high school

10. Do you think you learn from movies? How is this "learning" different from or similar to learning from novels/text? 
i feel like it would be easier to lesrn from a movie than it would be to learn from a novel. i feel like movies can provide so much more detail and context into a past or current event through the sense of sight as well as the sense of hearing, while novels can only do so through the sense of sight

11. How were films used in school? As companions to books? Were films ever used alone? 
for me movies were either used as a homework material or a reward. they were used alone if they were meant to be awards

12. Would you have changed this? What would you have changed? (More or less movie days? Different movies?) 
i definitely wouldve wanted more movie days in order to have less homework before i graduated from high school

I think of reading and writing and all the various media that includes those things like poetry and speeches. 

 

2. What does literacy mean to you? 

literacy to me is just reading and writing as well as boredom. 

 

3. What do you think society thinks of as literacy? 

I think it depends on who you are. some people definitely think very similar to me whereas others probably think very highly of literacy. 

 

4. Do you like novels?

no I despise them. 

 

5. Do you like movies? Tv?

yes I love anything visual. 

 

6. What is your most common mode of consuming media? (Film, tv, books, etc.)

definitely streaming shows but movies are a close second. 

 

7. Do you think you learn from novels?

i would have to try extremely hard. I could probably learn from school books if I reread them like 10 times but most of the time my eyes just kind of follow the words and nothing stays. 

 

8. What is your general opinion on movies/tv? Are they just for fun? what do you use this medium for? Escape? Knowledge? Relief? 

I love movies and tv because they’re so colorful and entertaining. mostly I use them to fill time for entertainment but sometimes they can be used as an emotional release. like u can watch a sad show to cry or an old favorite for nostalgia. 

 

9. Do you talk about these with anyone? What form do you talk about most? What kinds of things do you discuss? Character development? Arcs? Plot twists? Meanings? 

I always talk about shows and movies with friends. we mostly talk about favorite characters and arcs and try to convince eachother to watch eachothers favorites. 

 

10. Do you think you learn from movies? How is this "learning" different from or similar to learning from novels/text? 

I learn much easier from any form of visual media. I also feel like the visual component for me leads to more of an understanding kind of learning versus just the cold memorization that text leads to. 

 

11. How were films used in school? As companions to books? Were films ever used alone? 

I feel like it depends on the class and definitely the teacher. i’ve had some classes that rely heavily on films alone and sometimes a mix. 

 

12. Would you have changed this? What would you have changed? (More or less movie days? Different movies?) 

I would love more movie days. 

 

2. What does literacy mean to you? Lots of reading

 

3. What do you think society thinks of as literacy? I think that society thinks of literacy of reading and understanding books

 

4. Do you like novels? No

 

5. Do you like movies? Tv? Yes

 

6. What is your most common mode of consuming media? (Film, tv, books, etc.) I look at tv and my phone with social media 

 

7. Do you think you learn from novels? No

 

8. What is your general opinion on movies/tv? Are they just for fun? what do you use this medium for? Escape? Knowledge? Relief? I like watch tv to relax and just to have time to sit down

 

9. Do you talk about these with anyone? What form do you talk about most? What kinds of things do you discuss? Character development? Arcs? Plot twists? Meanings? Yes, I see if they have watched the movie or show that I have watched and try to see you they know any of the characters or what is happening in the show

 

10. Do you think you learn from movies? How is this "learning" different from or similar to learning from novels/text? I can’t just sit and read a book and remember what I read. I learn from watching something rather than reading 

 

11. How were films used in school? As companions to books? Were films ever used alone? We would read a book and then watch the movie at the end as a reward 

 

12. Would you have changed this? What would you have changed? (More or less movie days? Different movies?) I loved movies because it was a way to just relax and have fun 

ii.                   What do you think society thinks of as literacy?

iii.                 Do you like novels? 

iv.                  Do you like movies? Tv?

v.                   What is your most common mode of consuming media? (Film, tv, books, etc.)

vi.                  Do you think you learn from novels?

vii.                What is your general opinion on movies/tv? Are they just for fun? What do you use this medium for? Escape? Knowledge? Relief? Mindlessness? 

a.       Do you talk about these with anyone? What form do you talk about most? What kinds of things do you discuss? Character development? Arcs? Plot twists? Meanings? 

b.       Do you think you learn from movies? How is this “learning” different from or similar to learning from novels/text? 

viii.              How were films used in school? As companions to books? Were films ever used alone? 

ix.                  Would you have changed this? What would you have changed? (More or less movie days? Different movies?)

What if these were instead reversed? What if students were first exposed to a film and then shown the text from which it's based? What if films were taught back-to-back? What if, instead of using the familiar structure, films could be taught intermittently with text? Could the mediums remain congruous in this structure? Most importantly, what is the relationship between these two mediums? In the same essay, Andrew Sarris hypothesizes that, "Literature is what you read from a printed page, and film is what you see, hear and even read on the screen. Thus the collected screenplays of Ingmar Bergman are literature, and Charles Laughton's resounding recitation of Kipling's If in St. Martin's Lane is cinema" (pg. 13). Sarris goes further to understand this difference by considering that film attempts to sensuously imitate nature, though it is not nature and instead, "a restructured entity full of light and shadow" (pg. 14). Film attempts to recreate nature (reality) through sensuous imitation, though it cannot ever hope to actually achieve it. Meanwhile, text attempts to recreate film, though it is similarly bound by sensuous limitations inherent to the medium (Sarris). Ultimately, this means that when film and literature are compared against each other, the question that is underlying the discussion is merely one of aesthetic and sensuous nature rather than of the literary skills used to consume, analyze, and explain the media. What if, then, we could redirect the way in which we talk about films in literature class? What if there was less emphasis placed on the aesthetic components of a film because they are aesthetic and instead because they may act as assistive tools for literacy development? How does one begin this process? Does it begin with a definition of literacy skills? Or perhaps of literature itself?

In a powerful article titled, “Literature into Film (and Back Again): Another Look at an Old Dog”, high school teacher John Golden explains that he teaches film and text simultaneously by dividing student focus between cinematic, theatrical, and literary elements. Golden states, “The kids who will never think about characterization in a novel have no trouble listing all of the defining traits of James Bond or Batman. Looking for the literary elements in film helps students understand these terms and improves their analytical abilities with print texts” (2007, pg. 25). Once the students feel comfortable identifying literary aspects within selected films, Golden will ask the students to consider, “How does the director use cinematic and theatrical elements to illustrate literary elements?” (2007, pg. 25). By creating this reciprocal relationship between the two mediums, Golden is able to create a class-wide language that enables students to grasp and discuss the three elements by comprehending and referencing aspects of the other elements as entry-points of understanding and comparison. Even further, Golden asks his students to consider the pieces of literature that are indeed unfilmable. These moments are focused on when the class watches an adaptation and Golden asks his students to consider how the director and cast attempt to embody or represent these unseen moments. This reciprocal insight allows for greater understanding of both mediums. 

              In an article titled, “Focus on the Film : Movies in the Literature Class”, author Robert C. Reimer states, “If one views the source of a film as nothing more than the source of inspiration, films could be studied without prejudice even by scholars with a literary bias. But this would lessen the value of the film. […] In other words, we should not ignore the literary source when reflecting on a film” (1979, pp. 4-5). Reimer goes even further to consider that by examining
 literature alongside film one can learn more about both pieces of work, as suggested previously, especially in the case of adaptations. The author goes further to create a list of rules for showing films in literature class. The first of which is to always read the text before watching the movie. Reimer argues that it is nearly impossible for one to remove cinematic associations from the brain when reading a text after seeing its adaptation (Reimer, 2007). But what if students could efficiently alternate between the mediums with an alternate focal point? 

Instead of the historically descriptive discussions around the relationship between cinema and literature, specifically in the frame of faithfulness to the original source material, discussions may benefit from shifting to the skills utilized to consume the narratives. What if, instead of discussing the ways in which a film attempts to adapt its source material, we instead discussed the elements of cinema alongside the elements of literature within a film? Would this create a better opportunity for students to engage with the medium? If the focal point of discussion is shifted from the source material to the analytical skills that the student is employing to consume the source material, the teacher stands a much better opportunity to refine those skills through the use of those same multiple mediums. Why? The discussion will be refined from discussing the specific qualities of a piece to considering how these are, at the very core, critically analyzed by a student. According to Golden, “just as I learned more about English grammar by studying Spanish, the students in this ‘film’ class have learned more about literature than they do in my traditional English classes” (2007, pg. 30). 

Would this create an opportunity to create better readers by creating better film watchers then? Would shifting the prioritization from textual mediums benefit the students because of the accessibility of visual media? Could they attain a status of full literacy through this transition, or will something be lost in the shift? Do students see films as accessible, and do they believe in the possibility of films as literature? In other words, do they believe that they could become more literate through watching movies?