Naima DeBrest Capstone

In SLA I have seen teacher in  almost every class find a way to use film in the curriculum. Film can serve as a way to make a concept more accessible and fun to engage in for students. I took this as inspiration and decided to design an 8 week mini course called “Netflix and Learn” where I showed different types of media that taught about certain sorts of history. I pulled from some of my favorite pieces of art like  Billy Joel's “We Didn’t Start to Fire” and “The Untouchables”. I was able to assess what the kids already knew about the topics by giving them a mini quiz before we watched and then asking them the same questions after we were done. I really took for granted how much the students knew a about certain subject and I feel like they really learned from the classes. So often student get a bird eyes view of how world events affected countries but these movies and tv shows showed them from a regular person's perspective. The fact that the media also had some elements of comedy and drama,  the students were able to stay engaged in the content. The last skill that I wanted to teach them was how to fact check these movies that we watch because some of them dramatized certain events for hollywood appeal but were then factually incorrect. I think that I sufficiently passed in making them well rounded critical thinkers when is comes to historical media.

Annotated Bibliography

  1. Crockett , Ross. “Movies in the Classroom: Teaching History With Film.” Global Digital Citizen Foundation, Global Digital Citizen Foundation, 26 June 2018,

This source was written by a teacher who wanted to show that scientifically is has been proven that student retain more information when they were presented in the form of a movie. She also talks about how much she has learned as a teacher. She stated, “Watching the films did clearly help the students learn more, but only when the information was the same in both text and film…But when the information in the film and the reading were contradictory — that is, when the film was inaccurate — the students were more likely to recall the film’s distorted version.” So in contrary to other articles she says that is it actually ok when movies have historical inaccuracies because it makes the students ask more questions and think deeper.

  1. Everding, Gerry. “Historical Movies Help Students Learn, but Separating Fact from Fiction Can Be Challenge | The Source | Washington University in St. Louis.” The Source, 13 Jan. 2016,

    1. This source is a educational article written by a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Gerry Everding. This was published in 2009 and it chronicles his experience in trying to teach student to use movies to learn historical event. He thought that this way of learning would be fool proof but then he saw the children were not retaining information. He said, “In contrast, when information in the film directly contradicted the text, people often falsely recalled the misinformation portrayed in the film, sometimes as much as 50 percent of the time.” This means that there need to be a more comprehensive way to separate fact from fiction so that student know what information is true and what they should remember.

  2. Hughes-Warrington, Marnie. History Goes to the Movies: Studying History on Film. Routledge, 2009.

    1. “Can films be used as historical evidence? Do historical films make good or bad history? Are documentaries more useful to historians than historical drama?” These are the essential driving question that Hughes-Warrington wanted to answer in her book History Goes to the Movies. The ting satta makes this citation different from the other ones that I have used is that she tried to take an intereantil view on this query. Movies from other countries on their own countries and how they portray themselves and how American pre trays other countries and their history. This makes me question some of the pieces of media that I have chosen for my project because I only have American perspectives from the late 20th century. I may need to proden the counties or even the eras that I will use.

  3. Masterman, Len. Teaching the Media . 1985.

    1. This source was a book written by a man who felt at there needed to be more guidelines for comprehensive medei that can teach people things like history and science. The chapter that I read focused privatization of information. He stated that many companies and organization are starting to move more quietly there fore less and less content about them will be coming to light. It is now up to us to do the hard research and compile accurate information and then put it into form or media that children can understand and that will be most beneficial to them.

  4. Murray, Kathleen. “Introduction: Gender and Genre: The Woman Detective and the Diffusion of Generic Voices.” Feminism in Women's Detective Fiction, 1995, p. 41. George Mason University , doi:10.3138/9781442623088-002.

    1. This source is an essay that was written by a woman named Kathleen Murray in order to inform people about how media portrays women and what need to change about it. I specifically focused on reading a section that she wrote called “Woman’s Picture: The romance and the weepie”. In this she talks about the stereotypes that are put on women in various movies like Fargo and other horror movies. She states, The way that looking is thematized in the horror film and the relationship between the hunter and the hunted makes it critical to understanding the investigating woman. The shift from active investigator to object of investigation, from the one who looks to the one who is looked upon is always threatening the female detective.” I saw this as an opportunity to think that not only can film be used to show history events, but that it can be a commentary on how people of certain gender, races, and classes are portrayed and how those parties are taking action against this.

  5. National Film Study Standards, National Film Study Standard ,

    1. This website it a teaching resource published by the National Film Study Standards Association. The are an organization that you have to be a registered member of and they show teachers how to pick out important parts of movies to show students. What makes this source so good it that they have their information broken up into three categories, Basiuc, Intermediate, and Advanced. It tells teachers what to ask for from different level of student by the time that get to the college level that should have immense knowledge of information like film vovoplay, allegorical messages, and author and viewer bias. One example is how to connect film and history to culture. In the first level ,basic, student should be able to identify what time period the movies was made in and explain how it is different from today. In the last level, Advanced, student should be able to identify what propagande gods and marketing technique were popular then and ho that could affect the movies telling.

  6. Sdifilmfest. “How to Analyze a Movie: A Step-by-Step Guide.” San Diego International Film Festival, 22 July 2015,

    1. This source has definitive steps on how to watch a movies as a critical thinker. The first step is to try to come into the movie with no biases. Try to put yourself in the mind of the time period and view it at face value. The next step is to take notes about what interest you and shocks you during the viewing. The third step is to analyze objects luke tone and cinematography and how it played a part in the film. The last step is to try to condense your feelings in to a comprehensive review that they can understand and want to learn.

  7. “Teaching Tutorials .” The Story of Movies ,

    1. This source was cited from a presentation from the company called The Story of Movies. In the presentation that document steps on how to effective leach Cibem Literacy. It states that in order to do this in the correct format you have to know lot of information about Film Study and Visual Literacy and then you must combine them. The method that they have “perfected” is known as the SOM Method. This method focuses on Composition, Pace and Continuity, Cinematography, and Soundtrack. It also states that teacher must acknowledge to students that films are combination of History, Literature, Art, Music, and STEM.

  8. Gerald Lesser (1972) Learning, Teaching, and Television Production for Children: The Experience of Sesame Street. Harvard Educational Review: July 1972, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 232-272.

    1. This source is a essay that was written by a man named Dr .Gerald Lesser who wanted to show how shows like Sesame Street has efficiently found the formula to teach kids important information that they retain. He served as chairman of the National Board of Advisors to the Children's Television Workshop. In this he talks about experimental tool that Sesame Street used in its beginning stages such as narrow focusing and cross model reinforcement. He also talks about how humor has played a big role in how children process the show and its success. The show uses sound clues that spike children's attention and allows them to recall letter that they have associated with these sounds.


    1. This website is resource for educators and socially music teachers. This specific article shows teacher how to use music to teach musical history. It asked the reader to try and imagine the world without music and how it has influenced history. Zukas makes an example of how things like Jazz can be used as an introduction into the lives and history of Louisiana and how certain types of Rock n Roll music can be credited towards England and the time period that they were going through. I will try to use some of the tactic that he has employed when Introduce “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel to the kids in my mini course.