Welcome along!

Hello and welcome to the course. I’m Simon Richards and I’ll be your lead educator for Using Film to Teach Literacy Online and in the Classroom alongside Alexia Larkins and Chevonne James from Into Film.

This course is all about giving educators a range of engaging and simple tools to help them increase literacy levels amongst their pupils. The strategies and resources throughout the course have been designed to complement blended learning, an approach that combines online and face-to-face activities. This way, educators can support their students wherever lessons are taking place.

In these increasingly unpredictable times for educators, we’ll consider how film can be used as a central component in a blended learning literacy programme for young people.

Over the next two weeks, we’ll introduce you to a variety of quick and simple ways of using film both in your classroom and in teaching your pupils from home. You’ll be able to download a range of short films and pupil-facing resources that will help drive an increase of attainment in reading and writing amongst your pupils.

What will you learn?

Over the next two weeks we’ll be exploring:

• Visual storytelling, inference and deduction through setting, character and colour
• Visualisation and interpretation, developing writing through the use of film sound
• Frame composition including camera angles, positioning and movement, and how each can be used to create meaning
• Strategies for delivery in the classroom and online. Start a conversation! We’d love to hear your opinions, ideas and feedback. Start the conversation on Twitter (@intofilm_edu) and Facebook using the hashtag #FLFilmliteracy.

Into Film and BFI

This course has been produced by Into Film in collaboration with the British Film Institute, the lead agency for film in the UK. For further information on resources and courses visit the BFI website.

Into Film is a UK-wide film and education charity, which puts film at the heart of children and young people’s learning, contributing to their cultural, creative and personal development. For further information on resources or for training click here.

Meet our course team:

Don’t forget to follow our course team below – they’ll be providing feedback and answers in the Comments sections throughout the next two weeks. Simply click on their profiles below and click on the Follow button.

Simon Richards

Chevonne James

Alexia Larkins

Each week we will be referencing a variety of teaching materials. For your convenience, these are attached in the Downloads section below in a single PDF. You may find it convenient to print these at the start of each week, when you have access to a printer.