In the March issue of Literacy Today we explored the British Film Institute's Starting Stories, a resource designed to teach children early literacy skills through film. Here, Richard Newall, education officer 5-14, explains its key stage 3 counterpart, Screening Shorts.

I am often made aware of the inadequacy of my Spanish, for which there is no excuse since my mother was born in Barcelona. She blames my late father saying that he, an English teacher, argued that learning Spanish in early years would confuse me.

But learning a second language from an early age can in fact complement the first; bilingualism tells us that. A child brought up with two languages learns to make choices, depending on the situation, between the two names now available for things. They learn about differences but about similarities as well. They don't just learn about, say, Spanish and English, but at a higher level about language itself.

An analogy may be drawn between this relationship and the one between film language and formal written language. As regular viewers of television, children soon familiarise themselves with the former; how can this then be used to complement the traditional literacy curriculum and higher level thinking about language?

BFI Education's Screening Shorts is a resource that combines literacy-based activities with the study of short films. A compilation of six short films and a CD-Rom, for key stage 3 English, it follows on from the award-winning Starting Stories for key stage 1 and Story Shorts for key stage 2. These resources treat short films as texts that may be watched and rewatched (or read and reread). They allow pupils to demonstrate their understanding of 'text level' concepts like plot, character and theme, provided through a medium they are familiar and comfortable with.

One example from Screening Shorts, is the moving Father and Daughter; a drawn animation about someone who never stops, even into old age, wishing for the return of her father who left during her childhood. Pupils' interpretations vary: some feel that the film's message is of the need to move on, whilst others feel that it is about the persistence of hope. Crucially, one pupil supported the former view by arguing that the film's avoidance of close-ups prompted a more objective, critical response to the character of the daughter.

Here we see pupils' ability to engage with short films as "critical readers who search for meaning", as required by the Key Stage 3 National Strategy. (1) As critical readers, they have intelligently discussed character and theme. In addition, insights into film language have been used to aid interpretation of the text's meaning. Thus literacy objectives are extended and enhanced through analysis of the moving image's distinctive language.

Understanding of film language can also be used to enrich writing. Here's the opening to a short story produced by a teacher at a Newcastle Inset. The focus for this work had been genre. What kind of tone is set by this piece? What kind of story will this tell?

The session used the film Virus, which quickly establishes itself, with film's customary economy, as a thriller: the framing, lighting and mise-en-scene (props and setting) are typical of this type of film. Our writer concentrated on transferring the use of generic mise-en-scene to writing, and succeeded in transmitting the same sense of unease. Using genre like this is one way for students to "explore different ways of opening…narratives", also a requirement of the Key Stage 3 National Strategy. (2)

Pupils should be encouraged to think about the choices open to filmmakers and the choices open to writers. Virus opted for sparse props and low-key lighting. Our writer opted for past tense and third person narration. Perhaps if she'd opted for present tense, this might have been just as effective. Parallels between filmmaking and writing should be explored. For example, point-of-view shots in a film are like first person narration. Even the purest cinematic code of editing has its parallel in writing: fast editing (for action) is like short sentences; slow editing (for atmosphere) like long sentences.

The Key Stage 3 National Strategy has expressed an interest in purchasing copies of Screening Shorts for English advisory teams and, at Inset, teachers see its potential for extending pupils as readers and writers. We hope that many more will be inspired to build on children's enjoyment and understanding of film to explore its potential for developing their literacy skills.

References

1. Key Stage 3 National Strategy, 'Year 8 Text Level Reading no.5', p. 28
2. Key Stage 3 National Strategy, 'Year 9 Text Level Writing no. 5', p. 31.

Screening Shorts, £34.99, can be ordered from the British Film Institute at education@bfi.org.uk or www.bfi.org.uk/education.

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