The Story of Movies

Learn more

• Learn more about American history, critical literacy, film, information literacy, media literacy, movies, and visual literacy.

Legal

Ready to move beyond “Read the book, watch the movie”? The Story of Movies is an interdisciplinary curriculum introducing students to classic cinema and the cultural, historical and artistic significance of film. Resources are available for two films, To Kill A Mockingbird (1962, d. Robert Mulligan) and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939, d. Frank Capra) with a third title, The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951, d. Robert Wise) scheduled to be released soon.

Components of the curriculum are available at no charge either as a download on the website or for free from the Film Foundation. These include a DVD of the selected film for in-depth study, a Teacher’s Guide featuring lessons and performance-based assessment activities, a Student Activities Booklet which includes graphic organizers, Screening Sheets to be used while viewing the film clips, and reading, writing, visual-thinking, and group activities sheets, and a DVD that includes selected film clips or segments, most of which have a running time of 3 minutes or less. Also included on the DVD are movie stills and photographs.

In addition to the film-specific materials, there are some general lessons including a problem-solving activity called Film Piracy, a lesson called Writing About History Using Moving Images and a lesson about interpreting documentary film called Investigate, Interpret, and Inform.