Amherst Cinema Gives Films For Thought To Help Teach Youth Tools Of Media Literacy
by Justine O’Brien
Amherst Cinema offers students an immersive experience in media literacy through their “See-Hear-Feel-Film” Program.
Forty third graders shuffle off of their long yellow school bus and into a movie theater. This would usually spell disaster, but Amherst Cinema is on a mission to make third grade students in the Pioneer Valley more media literate. “See-Hear-Feel-Film” is Amherst Cinema’s visual arts program that uses film to help children navigate an increasingly media-driven world.
Over the course of the school year, 1,400 students from 70 classrooms in the Pioneer Valley descend upon Amherst Cinema as part of their English Language Arts and Literacy curriculum. Throughout the program, students learn the importance of collaboration and active participation.
Jake Meginsky, the Director of Education at Amherst Cinema, leads the activities at “See-Hear-Feel Film.” Meginsky, 41, of Northampton, Mass., remembers days as a child plopped in front of his television screen watching Sesame Street, wishing that the adults he knew in real life were as caring and attentive. Today, Meginsky tries to implement what he saw on Sesame Street when he instructs the children at “See-Hear-Feel-Film.”
“Who here likes stories?” Meginsky asks to a big response of little hands shooting up into the air. “Who here likes creating their own stories?”
Media Literacy, or “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms” is becoming an increasingly important function within our society… “One of the core goals of the program is to take students away from a passive way of watching media,” Meginsky said. “We want them to remember the sense of being an active participant.”
Media Literacy, or “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms” is becoming an increasingly important function within our society. Students in the “See-Hear-Feel-Film” program noisily file into the soft teal seats of the theatre and begin their lessons in media literacy through the viewing of several short films.
“One of the core goals of the program is to take students away from a passive way of watching media,” Meginsky said. “We want them to remember the sense of being an active participant.”
Trompe L’oeil, one of the films the students watch, tells the story of a worm that lives inside of an apple. At first glance, it appears that the worm is perfectly content in his apple house, but the viewer ultimately learns that the apple is really inside of an apartment. Muffled voices can be heard periodically, but the kids are instantly hooked, their attention fixated on the screen.
“That was so funny,” one boys called out over the audience.
After the film, Meginsky starts a discussion. Does it take place in a city or in the country? Was it daytime or nighttime? What color are the walls inside the worm’s house? Once the children are encouraged to hunt for the details they may have missed, the film is rolled again.
“Wow you guys are very perceptive”, Meginsky says, clearly impressed when the children point out the new things they noticed.
After the students view the selected movies, they take a popcorn break and are introduced to volunteers who will lead their small group activities. Tiny fingers dig into crinkled, brown bags of popcorn while the kids chatter to each other, often from rows of seats away.
Some volunteers are Pioneer Valley locals and others are students at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst just down the road. Rachel Keating, a 24- year-old Sociology and Communications major from UMass, became involved with “See-Hear-Feel-Film” through a Media and Education course at school.
“I think this program is important to show children that there are many ways to succeed in our world,” Keating said. “I feel that this program shows that the answer isn’t what matters, but rather the process.”
Students collaborate on stories of their own by making a “storyboard,” a device typically used by filmmakers to help them plot out their films. The topics for these films range from “Life with a Baby Polar Bear” to “Life on the Other Side of a Sleeping Volcano.”
“My favorite part [of “See-Hear-Feel-Film” is] seeing the stories created at the end of the session. I love watching some quiet kids break out of their shell once they realize their story is getting told,” said Keating.
Once the groups finish creating their stories, they present them to the rest of their peers in front of the theater. Smiles beam from gap-toothed faces as the children tell their stories into a microphone and show the scribbled drawings they made illustrating their movies to their classmates.
The Common Sense Media group reports that today’s children ages eight and under spend upwards of three hours a day exposed to media, whether it be on phone screens or on television. With so much access, “See-Hear-Feel-Film” encourages youth to become critical thinkers when it comes to their understanding of the media.
When the students complete the program, they are given their own personal film journal; when a student fills their journal with their ideas about film, or anything else, they’re given another.
The additional three units in the “See-Hear-Feel-Film” curriculum are taught back in the classroom. Teachers go through interactive training sessions and are given a guide to the Amherst Cinema curriculum. It is not an accident that the program chooses third grade students for this type of immersive education.
“The third grade year in our school system is really the year that students go from learning to read to reading to learn,” Meginksy stated. “Every film experience culminates into writing-based activities. We really want to take the short time we have with students to spark interest in a literary life.”
Nearly 70% of the schools that visit “See-Hear-Feel-Film” are from disadvantaged districts within the Pioneer Valley. Every student that travels to Amherst Cinema is able to visit on scholarship on behalf of local donations to the theater.
In recent years, there has been an increase in interactive teaching styles like the one conveyed by “See-Hear-Feel-Film.” “City Voice, City Visions” in Buffalo and “Mighty Writers” in Philadelphia are just two examples of organizations that are fitting into the larger trend of teaching media literacy to our younger populations.
“Now more than ever, this generation is experiencing images at an unprecedented magnitude, but they are not always invited to talk about their visual experiences,” Meginsky noted. “Children are basically literate at the age of eight. They are just not always invited to view [their experiences] in a literate way.”
The Common Sense Media group reports that today’s children ages eight and under spend upwards of three hours a day exposed to media, whether it be on phone screens or on television. With so much access, “See-Hear-Feel-Film” encourages youth to become critical thinkers when it comes to their understanding of the media.
“See-Hear-Feel-Film” doesn’t just provide popcorn and a movie; it actually gets the kids to critically think about the world around them, using movies to show how being perceptive works,” Keating suggested. The students who participate cultivate a deeper understanding of media literacy in a way that makes learning fun.
Justine O’Brien is a senior at UMass Amherst studying journalism and media literacy. In her free time she loves photography, shoes and attempting to keep plants alive.
