TWM's Ten Best Teaching Movies
English Language Arts Classes —High School Level
TWM recommends these movies as the best of the best in meeting curriculum standards while providing students with stellar educational experiences.
Give us your input! Email your nominations and a description of your reasons, including your experience with the film. Tell us the name of your school and what grades you teach. You might find yourself in print.
Don't ignore the great teaching opportunities from other movies! Review our extensive ELA index.
TWM offers some great Snippet Lesson Plans! Check our Snippets Index.
Review this list from time to time. New movies will come along and subscribers will provide their suggestions. It's an ongoing conversation.
Drama is usually a component of high school ELA instruction. Check out TWM's Ten Best Teaching Movies - Drama - High School Level.
The films are listed in alphabetical order.
Updated August 16, 2009.
Beautiful Dreamers — This film is a fictionalized account of a real life friendship between Walt Whitman and Dr. Richard Bucke, the director of an insane asylum located in a small town in Canada. The conflicts faced as Dr. Bucke attempts to bring enlightened treatment to his patients provide a context in which the value of Whitman's humanistic philosophy comes alive and the meaning of his poetry is enriched. Rip Torn's portrayal of Whitman is masterful.
Students who have seen Beautiful Dreamers have a feeling for Whitman as a person and are interested in what he has to say. After they have seen this movie, students at all levels have an increased interest in reading and focusing on Whitman's poetry.
Behind the Sun — Students are entranced by this heartrending but ultimately optimistic film about young people trapped in a cycle of honor culture revenge in the badlands of Northeast Brazil. The film is an excellent vehicle for teaching symbol, subplot, foreshadowing, and flashback. The movie also gives students an understanding of why revenge has been rejected by modern Western societies and the rule of law has been adopted instead. The movie is a platform for demonstrating the international scope and moral bankruptcy of honor cultures.
Cast Away — A FedEx supervisor, whose life is a series of daily deadlines, is marooned on a tropical island after a plane crash. This movie tells the story of how he survives and what happens when he tries to pick up his life after he is rescued. This popular and well made film provides many opportunities for analysis of the literary devices including: expository phase, motif, symbol, development of theme and dramatic irony.
The Scarlet Letter — This PBS production is a faithful rendering of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel of adultery, punishment, guilt, hypocrisy, revenge and redemption in colonial New England. The book and the film are an excellent introduction to the Puritans and their effect on our society. Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter is not easy reading. This film is so true to the text that it can serve as a substitute for reading the book for those children who do not have adequate reading skills. For children who read the novel, the movie can serve as a reward, although it is quite long. Watching the film will confirm and extend their understanding of the story and the insights contained in the novel.
The Searchers — This classic Western and the TWM Learning Guide will help teachers introduce students to important myths of the Western genre which even today: 1) affect how some people act in everyday life; 2) appear repeatedly in literature, film and music; 3) are used by some politicians to gain votes; and 4) are employed by advertisers to sell products. The film is an excellent platform for the exercise of writing skills and for the analysis of literary devices, such as the expository phase and character development.
To Kill a Mockingbird — Both the book and the movie are classics.
This list contains only six movies! We are looking for recommendations for more. Email us your suggestions for the ten best movies for teaching English Language Arts.
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