What do you think about allowing students watch movies instead of reading books?

greenlady5

greenlady5

Legacy Member
In my opinion, movies should always come after reading the book. So, if you want to see the movie, for instance Ana Karenina, you should first read the book because that is the natural order. It was first written and then movie was made.
However, many teachers agree that it is totally acceptable to watch a movie without reading the book at all. They assert that the students are more motivated to sit for two hours watching a movie than reading 300 pages. I guess they've never thought about motivating the students to read.

What do you think?
 
I think this depends on what type of school you are teaching. If it is college level I would assign a book and then watch the movie. I can see how some teachers think that it is better to just watch the movie. I would assume that most reading assignments are not actually done since there are so many ways online to get around actually reading the whole book. I have always assigned the book and then if there was a need would screen the movie in class however this is a rare occurrence.
 
I really consider it would be a great idea because kids could somehow get motivated to do their homework and work harder if they really want to watch the movie, the teachers could actually set up a kind of movie schedule in order to establish the movie dates, it definitely could not be every single day since it would not make any sense at all, but it would be a great idea to do it mostly on Fridays or probably on weekends, of course, the kids will have to work hard in order to watch the movie, by the way, teachers should also let the guys pick between a variety of movies if they show a proper behaviour.
 
Greenlady5, I think you are right! Books first and movie after. Unfortunately, the story is almost always modified so that it is a more interesting story on camera and many details that are amazing in written format sometimes don't even make it to the movie! I also think that the experience is totally different. In a book, the reader feels involved because he/she is forced to use his/her imagination. Movies are normally more passive experience unless you pair it with a bunch of gadgets and technology that schools can't provide.
 
I think it really depends on the individual characteristics of each student. Visual learners tend to understand and gain interest on a certain topic if they watch it first before reading it. They become curious and interested on what's originally written on the book after they see the story on cinema. The wide readers tend to read books first before watching the movie version and sometimes they don't even watch the movie versions anymore because the book has already provided them with everything they need.
 
Yes, while it may sound more logical to read the book first and watch the movie later, what normally happens is the reverse. I think the reason being that a movie is more captivating than plain black ink on white paper. Myself, I have gone down this path many times. Like, for example, the Game of Thrones. I watched the TV series first, then read the books.

I think there should be no hard and fast rule about this. Do whatever gets the attention of the students. If a movie gets them excited enough to read the book, then go for it.
 
Well, yes, it may depend on many factors and I don't mean that students shouldn't watch movies, but as pijuy said, movies are passive, the interpretation of a book is done by someone else and it is presented to you. That's what I don't approve. I want students to think with their own head, to use their own imagination and present their point of view. It is okay to watch movies after reading the book, but only out of curiosity.
It happens sometimes that I watch some movie on TV without knowing that the book even exists, then I read the book later and see that the movie was just a bad presentation of the book.
 
Well I do not really have an issue with watching movies, but I would not like to see them replacing the books, if that is the case. The way I always had it in school was that if there was a movie, which was for probably half of the books, they were the reward for getting through the book. If we had good discussions and we read the book, we would get rewards with a class or two where we would watch the movies, and people would bring in snacks to share, and it was fun. I would like to see that, but I am not sure if teachers are still going that route. Thanks for sharing.
 
I don't like it.
I grеw up rеаding bооks. Tо this dаy, I wоuld still rаthеr rеаd а bооk оn thе соuсh thаn rеnt а mоviе аt my hоusе, аnd I nеvеr sее film аdаptаtiоns withоut rеаding thе bооk first. Hоwеvеr, it wоuld bе impоssiblе fоr mе tо sаy thаt I dоn't likе mоviеs. Bооks аnd mоviеs bоth hаvе thеir bеnеfits, аnd simply rесоgnizing whаt еасh mеdium dоеs bеst will lеаd tо а bеttеr bооk rеаding оr mоviе wаtсhing еxpеriеnсе.
 
Its quite a good idea to see a movie in addition to reading books. In my country, there is a system whereby students read literature books and them they view movies based on the characters depicted. This enables the learners to develop a graphic memory of these set books. This method records a high rate of success. One movie is all it takes for the students to connect the dots in an entertaining fashion.
 
Whether students should watch movies first before reading the books they are adapted from is sort of a chicken and egg question IMHO. Watching a movie before reading the book could pique the students interest too. Maybe they'll want more details about the story. I know there are times I've watched an adaptation and decided to read the book it drew it's source material from.
 
rz3300 said:
Well I do not really have an issue with watching movies, but I would not like to see them replacing the books, if that is the case. The way I always had it in school was that if there was a movie, which was for probably half of the books, they were the reward for getting through the book. If we had good discussions and we read the book, we would get rewards with a class or two where we would watch the movies, and people would bring in snacks to share, and it was fun. I would like to see that, but I am not sure if teachers are still going that route. Thanks for sharing.
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Exactly, they definitely should switch between schemes in order to keep up with the reading and also with the movies at the same time. It would not be a good thing to make the kids step aside from books, it'd be a harmful thing for them and their learning process, indeed.
 
greenlady5 said:
In my opinion, movies should always come after reading the book. So, if you want to see the movie, for instance Ana Karenina, you should first read the book because that is the natural order. It was first written and then movie was made.
However, many teachers agree that it is totally acceptable to watch a movie without reading the book at all. They assert that the students are more motivated to sit for two hours watching a movie than reading 300 pages. I guess they've never thought about motivating the students to read.

What do you think?
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You are right this should be the order in which it's done. When I was in school I don't recall watching the movies, we were told to read the selected book which was "To Kill A Mockingbird", and then we had to do a book report on it.
 
Reading a book and watching a movie are two distinct scheme of making the students learned and moved to action as far as teaching and educating them is concerned. I have said that on the availability of resources for our students to get availed of. Reading of book is near to unreality for there is no available books for the students to read on and watching a movie is also another hindrance for not all the students have accessed to cinema or movie houses. So it is a case to case situation. Nowadays, students are engrossed to seeing TV movie series in the cable and they could see the serialized Harry Potter's movie than reading it from the book. Well, in my case, I have to check first if the assignment I would giving them could be found in the library or could be seen in the digital movie discs or whatever is available. So it is too dependent on the sources.
 
I also think reading should come first. When we read, we will start imagining the characters and the scenes in the book, and then we plot them in our mind. While if we watch the movie, the imagination has already been limited, as everything is shown on the screen. Once we have watched the movie, everything has been formed, and the kids will not be able to nurture their imagination anymore, even if they read the book later.

Moreover, I do not think the kids should watch the movies instead of reading the books if it is for them to learn. The messages conveyed from the book might be different from the movie, and it has been much limited in the movie, hence the kids might not really learn from the movie.
 
To me, as a bibliophile and cinephile, I like to enjoy the book first and afterward its screen version. However, I do believe that showing kids and teenagers the films will be more productive than having them read the books. Plus, since films are about 1-2 hours long, a lot more material can be reviewed in a school year than if the students were reading each book. Perhaps assigning them with a couple of books so they don't slack or lose the habit of reading, but primarily teaching them with films and TV series.
 
In Teaching, there is no multimedia materials or any other resources that can fully help a learner to learn. Movies and books are great tools to learn, however one should used it in moderation. Allowing children to watch movies as a substitute for books may at some point help them to get the overall idea of a story. On the other hand, book is still important because it is where written communication were based upon. Books adhere to standard grammar and linguistics rules while movies may seems to be off-chart on that matter sometimes. Movies tends to used conversational English, some of its aspect may not be really helpful for full academic growth. Overall, what is needed is guided in learning during the teaching and learning process of our children.
 
It is also a good medium for students to learn by watching educational movies but it does not necessarily means that it should be the only medium. We should still let students read books because they can also learn different skills by doing such. We should not replace one good way with another but we should add more ways instead.
 
Watching educational videos is fine for me but not to relieve the old way by reading books because when you're reading a book it's also a way of enhancing your reading ability especially when you're reading in loud. Because some words are spoken not in a correct way. And pronunciation is different to reading by eyes.
 
Watching movies in school was my favorite way to learn. I had a reading comprehension problem and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't understand what I read. I went to special classes the entire 12 years of school and it wasn't until college that I could understand what I read. It was humiliating to have to be the one to read out loud in class. I am sure some other students go through this. I knew how to read but it just didn't sink in.
 
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