3 Ways to Make Your Classroom Movie Days More Educational

We all love a classroom movie day – but NOT when it takes away from valuable lesson time.

An effective movie day turns passive watching into active engagement. And that means choosing the perfect production that brings together everything you've taught your students these last few months.

Keep reading for our top tips to make the most of your next classroom movie day...

Tip #1 Introduce texts with context worksheets

With the end of the year fast approaching, why not take this time to prepare your students for January.

Boost comprehension of new topics and texts, and help your class get to terms with character relationships, themes, and tricky language before they've even opened their textbooks.

Start with one of our many productions that come with an accompanying Discover, Explore, and Assess Workbook. These handy guides are split into three sections:

• Before Watching: Discover everything you need to know before working on the text.
• While Watching: Explore the text in more detail as you work your way through it.
• After Watching: Bring together everything you've learned and test your knowledge.

You can even download and print activities from the While Watching section – from fill-in-the-blank plot point and character worksheets, to ready-to-go tasks such as 'Design a Character Shirt' for Hetty Feather, or 'Hot Potato: New and Unfamiliar Words' for Shakespeare's Othello.

Tip #2 Reinforce learning with post-film discussions

Movie days can fall flat if you aren't prepared to engage your students after the credits roll. Discussing what you have watched as a group, and connecting it to the skills or topics found in their lesson objectives, is key to ensuring a valuable learning experience.

The same Discover, Explore, Assess Workbooks mentioned in Tip #1 include 'After Watching' activities split across easy-to-navigate Choice Charts. You (or your students) can select the activity that best suits their needs and abilities.

You can also consult our ready-made lesson plans, which include simple yet effective exit tickets:

• What other locations could you set a production of Into the Woods in? Share your ideas with a short written reflection. (Explore Props and Sets: Into the Woods lesson plan)
• How does Scrooge and Cratchit's relationship develop over the course of A Christmas Carol? (Analyzing How Scrooge and Bob Cratchit Interact lesson plan)
• Think of characters from another play, a movie, or a TV show. How does their register reflect their background and social status? How does this compare to the performances in this production of The Crucible? (Analyzing Language and Social Status in The Crucible lesson plan)

Plus, your Streaming Week access to Digital Theatre+ includes 24/7 Single Sign On (SSO) access for your entire class. Why not ask students to dive into the topics, themes, or skills that stood out to them in the production? They could even prepare a presentation for the first week back!

Tip #3 Save time with Compare & Contrast scenes

Despite the name, a movie day does not have to feature an entire movie. If you can't show your students a full production, Digital Theatre+ still has you covered.

You can jump directly to key scenes or specific acts in a play using our section breakdown. You could even go hyper-specific with our in-caption search, allowing you to jump to exact lines in the text. 

Why not make this an engaging game for your students? Ask them to identify their favorite lines, and then spend a portion of your lesson discussing how they are represented on screen.

Alternatively, you can browse the Comparing Key Scenes collection. This series features multiple performances of the same scene from core texts like Hamlet, Macbeth, and A Doll's House.

Not only do these shorter e-learning clips bring an audio-visual element to your lessons, but they also inspire deeper critical analysis by directly contrasting artistic decisions in bringing the text to life.

Our top pick? The first meeting of our star-crossed lovers in Romeo and Juliet.