Teaching The Oscars: Part 1 of 2

SLJ pop culture blogger Peter Gutierrez gets to the heart of the matter in this wide-ranging interview with Frank Baker about the advantages of teaching with and about the Academy Awards.

Resource for Teaching With The Films of Tim Burton

An exhibition featuring artifacts from director Tim Burton's films is accompanied by this education resource kit: rich in content for diving deeper into Burton's live action and animated films. The teaching resources included can be used in "close reading" analysis and better understanding the "language of film."

Helping Student Think Critically About Pop Culture

Our students are surrounded by popular culture that is often inappropriate with violence, sex and vulgarity, writes Marc D. Hauser, an educational consultant. In this EdWeek commentary, he writes that when students want to include such video games, music or other items in class projects, teacher should use those opportunities to help students develop their critical-thinking skills to be able to recognize inappropriate materials. "Needless to say, this is not a topic of discussion and education that ever ends. But it is a topic that should be part of teachers' responsibilities," he writes.

Can A Picture Change The World?

The online site for the Scholastic magazine SCOPE, aimed at middle schoolers, contains a video which encourages students to look deeper at historical images. (If you have not previously seen my web site on visual literacy, I hope you'll also look there for resources and teaching assistance.)

Videos: Behind The (Oscar) Ballot

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science has released (so far) three video shorts which introduce the viewer to some of the nominated categories. Other videos are to be released each week. So far AMPAS has posted videos on Makeup & Hairstyles; Production Design and Cinematography. The series is a collaboration with Entertainment Weekly magazine.