Anti-Bullying Week Week Resource_FilmEdu… · Anti-Bullying Week 19th-23rd November 2012 2 2....

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Anti-Bullying Week19th-23rd November 2012

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ANTI-BULLYING WEEK 2012

NOVEMBER 19th – 23rd

1. INTRODUCTION

Bullying happens in lots of different ways and in many different situations. Being bullied is hurtful and it can be confusing knowing what to do to make it stop, whom to talk to and where to get help.

Understanding a little about why some people behave as bullies and how others have successfully stood up for themselves and for others is an important life skill.

Anti-bullying week in November each year offers schools an excellent opportunity to focus on some of the issues around bullying, and the medium of film provides a particularly engaging, powerful way to explore these issues. Furthermore, talking about characters and situations from a film gives students a safe way of talking about the topic without the need to disclose their own personal experiences.

This resource offers teachers suggestions of suitable films that could be shown and proposes some ways into exploring these film texts in order to empower students to challenge bullying when they see it and to develop understanding about how and why bullying occurs.

Although anti-bullying week provides an important focus to explore this topic, it is obviously the case that all year around students should learn to challenge bullies and to feel confident to stand up for themselves and others. It is hoped, therefore, that this resource provides ideas for teaching and learning about this subject that extend beyond the limits of the week’s events.

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2. ASKING QUESTIONS

Using film as a pedagogical tool in the classroom means treating films (or clips of films) as texts. Like other texts such as novels, plays or newspaper articles, films are constructed for a particular purpose and are aimed at a certain type of audience. All texts, be they written, visual or multi-modal, construct and present specific meanings that readers may interpret differently.

When using film texts with students, it is worthwhile drawing their attention to some key questions that will help them work out and analyse meaning within a film. Within the context of exploring the theme of bullying in films, it is particularly important for students to be aware that the world presented in the film is not real and that teachers enable students to evaluate the significance of the film’s message for their own lives in the real world.

Before viewing films that include bullying as a theme, you might want to start by talking about students’ expectations, knowledge and awareness of different representations of bullies and their victims in film.

■ What films have you watched that deal with the theme of bullying? ■ How do some of these films represent the bully and their victim(s)? ■ To what extent do you think the films you have seen present an authentic representation of bullying? Does it look and feel realistic? Why?

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After viewing questions that will help students understand the constructed world of the film might include:

■ What is the purpose of the film and who is it aimed at? What do you base your answers on?

■ What devices are used to engage the audience?

■ What do you think the central character(s) is feeling at key points and how has the film maker shown the audience their point of view?

■ What is the setting and why do you think the filmmaker chose it?

■ How does the soundtrack affect your viewing of certain sequences in the film?

■ What do you think is the message of the film and how has it been communicated?

■ What do you take away from the film on a personal level?

Remember, if you don’t have time, you don’t have to watch a whole film with your class. Working with your students on key scenes to explore how bullying is represented - how sound, lighting and editing might impact on how we view the content – can inform discussions about this topic in more meaningful ways than consuming a whole film uncritically.

3. CLOSE READING

For a close reading activity based on content from the film Small Creatures by independent filmmaker Martin Wallace, go to: http://filmeducation.org/resources/secondary/topics/anti-bullying_week/close_reading/



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4. RELEVANT FILMS

Film Education has a range of resources linked to many films that deal in whole or in part with the issue of bullying. Some of our resources are online microsites; others are downloadable study guides. Most of these resources do not focus specifically on the experience of bullying but do offer context to students’ learning about the film and are a useful springboard for discussion.

All of these resources can be easily accessed by searching the RESOURCES section at www.filmeducation.org

Online resources ■ Arthur and the Invisibles (U) ■ Persepolis (12) ■ Sket (15)

Downloadable PDFs ■ Bridge to Terabithia (PG) ■ Freedom Writers (12) ■ Holes (PG) ■ Kidulthood (15) ■ Let the Right One In (15) ■ The Ant Bully (U) ■ This is England (15)

The best place to watch a whole film is in the cinema where both the visual and audio effects have their strongest impact. You can liaise with your local cinema to request a screening of a film of your choice in the morning when the cinema would otherwise be empty. Film Education co-ordinates film programming hubs in a range of locations to support teachers wishing to work closely with cinemas for this purpose.



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5. SHARING IDEAS

As well as providing excellent stimulus material to explore the impact bullying can have on someone’s life, film content can offer students easily accessible material to inform display and presentation work. Displays can be mounted around the school or in classrooms whilst presentations can work in the context of the classroom or larger group assemblies.

Activities in which students share their ideas about challenging bullies and protecting themselves and others are ideal for project work during anti-bullying week. Here are some suggestions:

■ Students choose a sequence from a film to play to others followed by a talk about how bullying is represented and the extent to which this feels authentic.

■ Students research images related to a particular film including the film’s official publicity poster and press photos of the film’s stars. Using this research, they compile a presentation about how bullying is represented in the film and the key messages that are communicated.

■ Students choose a character from a film (it could be a bully or their victim) and write a letter to this character showing empathy for them and making suggestions about how to change their life for the better.

■ Using techniques learned in their reading of certain film texts, students construct a short, filmed sequence (no longer than 2 minutes) to show a dimension of bullying that they have learned about.

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6. USEFUL LINKS

http://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/

http://www.respectme.org.uk/

http://www.beyondbullying.com/anti-bullying-week-2012.html

http://www.beatbullying.org/

http://www.tes.co.uk/resourcecalendar.aspx?nbday=0&nbmth=11&nbyr=2012&evcode=1292

Anti-Bullying Week Week Resource_FilmEdu… · Anti-Bullying Week 19th-23rd November 2012 2 2....

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