TS1: The use of movies for comprehension skills.

A. Using short animation videos to teach Literal Questions

Children with dyslexia often find it hard to process large chunks of texts and can find it difficult to comprehend (Miller, 2013). With comprehension and critical processing skills becoming more and more prevalent and important these days, it is highly important that they are able to process these skills. One fun way to incorporate comprehension skills into classroom learning is by using movies to teach such skills.

Movies can engage all learners, be it audio learners or visual learners. Because it involves the senses so well, movies can be a great tool to use to teach comprehension.

One such movie that has proven a big hit in the classroom is Dora and the Lost City of Gold. Using the film, a series of Literal questions can be asked in a post activity worksheets and discussion that can range from literal questions like, “What happened when the spores were released from the large flowers?” to interferential based questions like, “Why were the walls getting higher in the forest?”

Depending on the level of the student, questions can be posed as open ended or Multiple choice.

A snippet of a quiz taken from Mr Hull’s Movie Guide.

Movies can be a fun way to teach the skill necessary to evaluate questions and pick out answers from information received. The students tend to enjoy the process and the learning naturally takes place without needing much fuss!

B. Using short animation videos to help your students in global sequencing questions 

Global sequencing (or Story sequence) is a frequently tested question in the English Language paper. Students with dyslexia are more prone to making mistakes in these type of tasks due to the learning difficulty (Wenande, Een and Petok, 2019). It is possible to use short animation videos to help students counter their problems sequencing stories by first trying to engage their audio-visual senses and practice sequencing information gained. 

Short animation videos are also a powerful tool to use in the classroom. One reason why is because they are varied in length and often can be completed within 10 minutes, allowing the teacher to then focus the remaining time in the post video activity. They are also immensely entertaining and engaging because the story is not dragged out. Due to these reasons, they can become a great tool to help dyslexic learners sequence stories or information better. 

For example, the short animation clip “Pip”, a story about a young pup becoming a guide dog for the blind is solely focused on the animation and lacks words. It requires the learner to focus on the visuals to form their understanding of the story. Thereafter, they can be provided with a jumbled sequence of the story and asked to sequence it out according to the events that took place in the animation. An example is provided below:

TS2: Movies can help with creative writing. 

Teaching creative writing to school children can be difficult, especially if they lack ideas and/or interests in writing. Since many children love watching videos, why not include them in our lesson plans to arouse their interests in writing? 

Using short animation videos and movies goes hand in hand with teaching narrative writing. Here are some ways we can incorporate movies or short films in our writing classes.

A. Using short films to teach Story Mountain. 

Every story follows the story mountain template which has a beginning, problem and ending. However, students may not understand the structure of a story and do not know how to use the story mountain template. You can introduce your students to the use of story mountain through short films! 

Select a short film or animation video that your students may like.
Allow them to analyse the film. After which, guide your students to putting the key events into the story mountain template. Below is an example of how you can dissect the ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ story into the respective components of the story mountain. For beginner or younger learners, you can print out snippets of the short film that illustrate the key events. Then, guide the learners to put the key events into the respective story mountain component. For intermediate or advanced learners, you can simply provide the story mountain template and allow the learners to pen down the key events with little or no scaffold.

B. Using short films to teach Introduction Techniques (e.g. flashback). Besides teaching learners story mountain through films, you can also use short movies to teach introduction techniques. One example is the use of videos to teach flashback. Flashback is a common introduction technique used in many films. However, flashback can be an abstract concept for dyslexic learners and it is difficult for them to grasp it. So, illustrate this concept through videos or short films can better enhance their understanding.

Ratatouille is a good example that encapsulates the concept of flashback! Get students to watch short film like Ratatouille and break down the sequence of events with your learners. First, identify the main characters and the current events. Then, find out the trigger that leads the main characters to recall the story that your learners intend to write about. In Ratatouille’s case, the taste of the dish. Lastly, do remind your learners to return back to the present in their ending. We hope some of these suggestions can be helpful for educators!

References 

Miller, B. et al. (2013) Unraveling reading comprehension : behavioral, neurobiological, and genetic components . Baltimore ;: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. 

Wenande, B., Een, E. and Petok, J., 2019. Dyslexia-related impairments in sequence learning predict linguistic abilities. Acta Psychologica, 199, p.102903.