Tools in Schools workshop

Held at BITM, Kolkata from August 19 to 21, 2010

A summary report

ne day, sometime in the early part of the 20th

Century,

Hiramba Maitra, an educationist famous for his puritanical

views, was walking along a narrow lane in north Calcutta. He

noticed a movie poster stuck on the wall of the lane and the frown

on his brow deepened. “Bioscope!”, he muttered, “This new craze

will be the ruin of today’s youth!’He was deeply disapproving of the

growing popularity of this new medium of entertainment in India

and considered three hours spent in the sinister darkness of a

movie hall to be an utter waste of time. Movies were addictive, he

thought, and should be shunned like dope.

Just then, a young man bumped into him and asked him the way to

Roopabani Cinema – the movie hall where the movie announced in

the poster was playing. Hiramba Maitra turned away from him in

disgust. “I don’t know,” he snarled. But then after walking a few

paces, he realised that he just lied to the young man. And because

he considered lying a graver vice than watching a movie, he hailed

young man who had turned a corner. “Hey!” Hiramba Maitra

shouted, “ I do know the way to the movie hall, but I won’t tell

you!”

Even in the 21st

O

Century, one comes across teachers suffering from

the Hiramba Maitra syndrome, who believe that education is

serious business while movies are entertainment and “never the

twain shall meet”. But just think about it. When we come out of the

dark movie halls after watching other peoples’ lives for three hours,

aren’t we all a little wiser? Aren’t we a little more knowledgeable

about the ways of the world? We know that a well made movie

stays with us for a long time and may influence our thoughts and

actions.

Movies are integral to a child’s growing up. So why should a

teacher shy away from discussing movies with students? And

should movies not be brought into the classroom?

Why cinema in the classroom

group of enthusiastic teachers, who have been exploring

alternative approaches to learning, gathered in Kolkata and

organised Tools in Schools - a workshop to encourage teachers to

bring cinema into the classroom. Cinema can be very effectively

used as a pedagogical tool to initiate classroom discussion, to

illustrate certain parts of the text book, to

draw students’ attention when a topic is

boring or difficult, to make the abstract

tangible and to seep some emotion into dry

and dusty logical arguments.

Over and above, cinema itself can be a

topic for discussion in the classroom – why

the students liked the movie they watched

over the weekend, which parts of the movie touched them the

most, what the message of the movie was, whether they agreed or

disagreed with the message and whether they had an alternative

message to offer …

A

Cinema can be very effectively used as a pedagogical tool to initiate classroom discussion, to illustrate certain parts of the text book, to draw t d t ’ tt ti

Tools in Schools Kolkata

t the Tools in Schools workshop held at the Birla Industrial &

Technological Museum at Kolkata (August 19 to 21, 2010),

teachers who use cinema in the

classroom shared their experiences

and expertise. They demonstrated the

use of cinema in the classroom and

illustrated how lesson plans could be

constructed around a movie clipping.

It grew apparent that clippings of

popular movies could be used to teach history, geography, physics,

life science and most importantly, life skills. Often, as the teachers

illustrated, the same film could be used in different classes to

generate different levels of discussion and initiate diverse activities.

Day 1

he workshop began with an introductory session on film

appreciation conducted by Dr. Somnath Zutshi. A teacher has

to realise that a movie can charge a student’s mind and a movie

can open many worlds at the same time with knowledge,

imagination and wonder. In the subsequent session, taken by

Subha Das Mollick, the participants watched a charming short film

“Muted Music” (Courtesy Prix Jeunesse Foundation) about a child’s

loss of hearing. One of the teachers found it just the right film for

discussing non verbal communication, while another said that this

A

T

It grew apparent that clippings of popular movies could be used to teach history, geography

film should be used for teaching life skills such as anger

management and coming to terms with a disability. For science

teachers this is a great film for initiating a discourse on hearing and

the human ear. The teachers’ responses to this Icelandic film

exemplified multiple possibilities even in a different culture and

context.

The 50 participants were teachers who teach in classes ranging

from Class 2 to Class 12 (see List of Participants for details),

functioned as active listeners for 12 sessions (See Abstracts), each

more exciting than the other.

Amita Prasad gave valuable insights into the teaching of history

with the aid of film clips. Exquisite clips from the Poorva Uttara

series made the grandeur of the Qutub Minar, the Taj Mahal and

other Islamic edifices part of a journey through the ages instead of

mere words in a text book. Clips from Richard Attenborough’s

Gandhi immediately took us to the shores of another India, where

the power of civil disobedience was captured in a fistful of salt from

the sea. This clipping triggered off a heated discussion among the

teachers on Gandhiji’s philosophy of non violent resistance.

Bubla Basu began her English session with the reading of a poem

‘Mebula Ramasandra’ by Valerie Noble. The poem, obviously about

racial prejudice, was complemented by clips from a PBS

documentary, A Moral Journey (etc) giving actual news footage of

the 1960’s in America and introduced Robert Coles, a child

psychiatrist who counseled 6 year old Ruby Bridges, the first Afro-

American child to attend a previously All-White school and the

impact that this created –on her and those around her. The class,

one of input and opinion, is one after which the exercise given to

the children is “ That morning, I looked out of my window and ….”.

The final presentation was by Anjum Katyal who screened the

Czech animation film Hand by Jiri Trinka. The group exercise

following the screening threw up a number of suggestions on the

meaningful exercises that could be generated from this film. Some

suggested students could ‘identify the hand of the oppressor

through the ages in history’, while others were more inclined to

interpret the ‘hand’ in literature and the metonymic uses of ‘hand’

in language. Other teachers said that they would play the game of

‘persons’ and ‘non persons’ in class after the screening of this film

and thus identify the oppressor and the oppressed in society. Still

others suggested that they would go one step further and explore

ways to resolve the conflicts suggested in the film.

On that enthusiastic and charged note Day 1 came to an end.

Day 2

ay 2 began with a refreshing session by Sumita Mazumdar on

how an atmosphere of freewheeling and self motivated

learning can be created outside the confines of the classroom. All

that is needed is to arouse the curiosity of children with some

snippets of information, anecdotes, movie clippings etc and they

can independently source and research content, even download

images from the Net and line them up to make a film of their own.

D

Technology today is literally at the fingertips of our children and

they are capable of recording the germination of a seed with a

mobile phone camera or recording their thought process on the

mobile camera mike.

Science teachers prefer live demonstrations or blackboard

/whiteboard diagrams to showing films in class. But the world of

cinema offers spectacular possibilities that can never be replicated

in real life. Subha Das Mollick suggested that a lesson on simple

machines could be revved up with a sequence from the popular film

Home Alone .It could be followed by a serious discussion on how

Kevin managed to glide to the tree house from his bedroom. The

spectacular sequence of tapping the power of lightning in Back To

The Future could fuel a discussion on the power of lightning,

harnessing power and the impending energy crisis. Any chase

sequence in cinema can generate a discussion on conservation of

energy and momentum and only Hollywood can produce sounds

powerful enough to blow away a human being. Popular films can be

used to dispel the fear of science and generate enthusiastic class

discussion.

The National Curricular Framework drawn up in 2005 underlines the

importance of a pupil centric learning

environment, where the teacher is a

facilitator. It states that all alternative

concepts or ALCONS should be weighed

out before discarding them. It erases the

boundary between the curricular and the

extra curricular. Very little of the NCF has yet been put to practice

as it is not easy to shake off the inertia of decades. At the session

The National Curricular ramework drawn up in 2005 underlines the importance

dedicated to the NCF, Debasish Mandal demonstrated how using

films will make it easier to follow the guidelines of the NCF.

A session on sourcing sharing and cataloguing films was conducted

by S.V.Raman. To recharge the participants for this last session of

the day, he screened two films – The Passenger and The Boy The

Slum and the Pan Lids. There were discussions on the meanings

connotated in the visuals of these films, both of which were without

dialogues. A list of useful websites and names of organisations

were given out to the participants at the end of Day 2.

Day 3

ay 3 began on the chimes of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times

illustrating the point of man turning into machine. Rupali

Sachdev initiated a discussion on our dependence on machines and

how this most unfortunately has led to our materialistic values. In

the same session, a music video by Anand Patwardhan was shown,

where an optimistic popular song sung by Kishore Kumar on the

soundtrack contrasted with the images of nuclear holocaust on the

screen. This session triggered off an animated discussion on the

defence services, a borderless world and whether being offensive in

self defence was morally right.

The final session of the workshop was taken by Mita Pramanik who

illustrated “The Shield of Achilles” by W.H Auden, concerning

heroism in ancient Greece could be made more relevant using film

D

clippings. Worksheets were given to participants to show how the

clippings could be integrated into the lesson plan. In the same

session a short film called Rice Plate was screened to generate a

discussion on a deep seated prejudice in our society. As part of a

‘personality development’ class, such a film can help the students

become more sensitive to individual differences in religion and

society.

Group work

erhaps the most exciting part of the workshop was the group

work. The participants were divided into

five groups according to the subjects they

taught and each group was given a short film

or a film clipping around which they had to

develop a lesson plan. The two largest groups

were the group of Primary school teachers and

the group of English and History teachers. The

smallest group was the group of Mathematics and Science teachers.

The other two groups comprised teachers of Life Science,

Geography, Environmental Science and Life Skills.

The Primary school teachers gave two delightful presentations

based on the short film A Sunny Day (Courtesy Prix Jeunesse

Foundation) and the 3D film Turtles (Courtesy BITM). The other

groups, in spite of lack of homogeneity in terms of level of students

and curricula, managed to come up with interesting activities and

points of discussion around the films given. For details refer to

Group work reports.

P The participants were divided into five groups according to

The Life Skills group presentation was based on the Mongolian film

Friend (Courtesy Prix Jeunesse Foundation). This group designed

activities to drive home the idea of inclusion. Several issues

concerning the content of the film were discussed and questions

were raised as to what issues could be explored in the context of

the classroom.

The Tools in Schools workshop was rounded up with words of

advice from Principals and educationists, the awarding of

certificates and the promise of a Follow -up Workshop.

Road ahead

Before bringing this report to a close, plans for the immediate

future include:

1. A request to all participants to share their experience with

their colleagues and conduct a session with a film clipping. A

request that Principals try to make it convenient to attend this

session.

2. A request to all resource persons to share the films in their

possession with the workshop participants.

3. Form an online forum for networking and sharing of ideas and

expertise.

4. Find platforms to take special classes with students and invite

teachers as observers.

5. A one day Editing Workshop to be conducted in September

2010.

6. A Follow Up workshop to be conducted in November or

December 2010.

7. A special course on Film Appreciation for teachers to be

organised during the Summer vacation 2011.

Dr. Zutshi had said in his introductory session, “somebody puts in

the money, somebody rolls the camera, somebody performs in

front of the camera, somebody puts it all together on the editing

table and cinema breathes with a life of its own. It asserts an

autonomous existence.”

We wish the same thing for Tools in Schools as we take on new

initiatives India wide.

Participants in the workshop

he group of 49 participants at the workshop was indeed

heterogeneous, across boards, from urban to semi urban

schools, from principals to primary teachers, from art teachers and

Ngo trainers to teacher trainers.

Among the teachers, 10 were from 6 ICSE schools,11 from 6 WB

Board schools,17 from 2 + 6 (KV) CBSE schools, 3 from 2 teacher

training colleges,6 from 4 NGOs, 1 from an international school and

one Montessori teacher.

T

DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOOLS/INSTITUTIONS

English medium ICSE

1. Akshar-2

2. Childrens Foundation-3

3. DPS, Mega City-1

4. Loreto Dharamtala-2

5. Shaw Public School-1

6. Usha martin Group-1

English medium CBSE

1.Birla High (boys)-2

2.MB Girls HS-2

3. KV, Ballygunj-2

4. KV, Fort William-2

5. KV, Salt lake 1-3

6. KV, Command Hospital-2

7. KV, Dumdum-2

8. Kv,Cossipore-2

WB Board Bengali Medium

1. Loreto Sealdah (eng medium)-3

2. Gonipur Shitala HS-1

3. Bethune Collegiate school-2

4. Behala HS-2

5. Nripendranath Girls HS-2

6. Baidyabati Charushila Balika Bidyalaya-1

NGO

1. DRCSC-1

2. CLPOA-1

3. IPER-2

4. CRY-2

Teacher training institutes

1. Teacher training college, Loreto House-1

2. Satyapriya Roy College of education-2

The Cambridge School (A Level)-1

Little Palms( Montessori)-1

Total No of Participants: 49

Participants’ feedback

Feedback forms received: 41

he feedback form was designed to gauge which sessions they

had enjoyed the most, which ones they felt were relevant to

their classes and if the group work to design a lesson plan for the

classroom situation was useful. From the analysis of the feedback

one can deduce that the workshop in general was enjoyed and

appreciated by all, save for a couple of sessions which some of

them felt was relevant as a teacher in general but not to their

subject, in particular. The group work most felt was extremely

enjoyable and relevant, giving them hand on experience on linking

a film clip to a teaching issue and devising ways to introduce it in

class.

The workshop was intensive, over 3 days (with tea being served

during sessions for paucity of time!), but most were happy with the

length of the workshop given the fact that that they took back

several skills at the end of the three days.

T

Session Most enjoyable Least enjoyable Most relevant

Zutshi 1 8(technical irrelevant 1

Multiple applications 5 2

history 4 2( not subj) 3

language 2 1 2

Cinematic stimulus 1 1 3

Env science 2 1

Pure science 5( not subj) 5

Curricular framework 2(repetitive) 2

database 1 1(handout instead) 5

Life skills 1 1

Interaction

adequate

Interaction

inadequate

Interaction

too much

Too

long

Too

short

Just

right

With res person 32 2 1 9 2 17

With participants 28 7 1

There was great enthusiasm at the end of the workshop to follow

up this workshop with a training session on editing, voice over,

making blurbs and putting several clips together in sequence. The

technical know how and practical hands on training on ‘readying’ a

film for the classroom, which this workshop didn’t give; an Editing

workshop is therefore the need of the day.

Another good suggestion was to have an Online forum to

exchange ideas among the teachers and resource persons and to

review progress made. Requests were made to upload relevant

films on a “tools in schools” site. There were also requests for the

names of some editing software, while some teachers asked for

copies of the clips shown during some of the sessions (Muted

Music, The Hand, The Boy, The Slum and the Pan’s Lids, Home

Alone, etc)

With regard to the group activity, the opinions were diverse.

Some felt the subject groups were too disparate to work together

(for e.g., EVE, Geography and Life Science was one group) while

others felt the group divisions should have been on the basis of the

personality 3

Group work 6 4

presentation 1

all 4

board and not the classes taught. Still others felt that the workshop

itself should have been separate for primary and secondary

teachers! A valid observation was that the group size may have

been smaller to elicit responses from all members instead of just a

few but this was not possible given the overwhelming response by

the schools.

Looking into the future, suggestions were for involvement of

students during the presentation, like a mock classroom situation;

others felt teachers should be asked to work with their own clips. A

few asked for a list of Subject related films /list of movies as

examples which may be used in class, particularly relevant regional

films.

All these suggestions are being considered as valid requests to be

met with in the near future. The best time suggested for the follow

up was pre vacation time in winter while the editing workshop was

requested as soon as possible , while the memory of the workshop

is still fresh in their minds.

Some Special comments: Serving tea in the room disturbing!

Conference room without natural light and air not condusive!

Principal was made a student again!

Filmi Chashma name is ridiculous for such a serious activity.

- Report prepared by Subha Das Mollick, Devika Kar

- With inputs from Debasish Mandal, Bubla Basu, Malini

Mukherjee, Sunita Biswas

Filmi Chashma

TOOLS IN SCHOOLS, KOLKATA

Profiles of resource persons

DR. SOMNATH ZUTSHI: A psychiatrist by profession and with a

passion for cinema, Dr. Zutshi is reverred as one of the foremost

film scholars in the city today. However, his interests extend

beyond cinema to the burning social issues of the day. His essay

NATION, WOMEN AND THE OUTSIDER in the anthology

INTERROGATING INDIA and his book BIOLOGY IN POLITICS:

EVOLUTION OF AN IDEA IN MODERN TIMES, are acknowledged as

seminal woks on gender and racism. Dr. Zutshi has also translated

works of Bengali literature into English.

Contact: dr.s.zutshi@gmail.com

SUBHA DAS MOLLICK: A media teacher and a documentary

filmmaker, Subha Das Mollick switched her career from teaching

Physics to teaching media more than 15 years ago. She has been

the head of the Film Studies and Mass Communication Deptt. at the

St. Xavier's College, Kolkata and nurtured the twin departments

during the initial formative years. She has to her credit a series of

20 video lectures on script writing, based on which an online script

writing course – the first of its kind in India, was offered by the

University Grants Commission. Presently an independent filmmaker

she engages herself with projects related to alternative approaches

to education. Contact: subha.dasmollick@gmail.com

AMITA PRASAD: An alumnus and currently also a teacher/middle

school coordinator of Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata, Ms

Prasad has taught at different levels, more or less continuously

since 1985. Co-author of ‘Time Travel’ – a delightful series of

History text books for Classes III, IV and V (OUP), she is involved

with the editorial work of ‘Teacher Talk’ –the Teachers’ Centre

Kolkata magazine.

Using audio – visual material has been a regular feature of her

history classes ever since she began teaching. With improved

facilities being made available in school, films are used as a part of

curriculum transaction for the last few years in History and Value

Education classes; with her wide experience, she has guided

colleagues in the use of films in English, Environmental Education

and other subject areas and can be contacted at

amitapras@gmail.com.

BUBLA BASU: A senior English teacher, Bubla has taught in

Kolkata, Delhi,Pune, A.P., Bangalore and is currently Senior English

Teacher/Consultant at The J.B.Petit High School for Girls, Mumbai.

She has authored several children’s books apart from scripting for

Childrens Film Society and BBC World. Films have always been an

area of interest for this part time drama teacher and she has

conducted several workshops on film appreciation and script

writing. Contact: bubla@rediffmail.com

ANJUM KATYAL has been Chief Editor, Seagull Books, Calcutta

and Editor, Seagull Theatre Quarterly. As a Trustee with Seagull

Foundation for the Arts, she has been closely involved with

conceiving and initiating PeaceWorks, a youth-focused programme

that uses the arts to tackle socio-political questions of inclusion,

difference, identity and communalism. A published poet, she also

edits Art and the City, a web journal on the contemporary arts in

India, sings the blues, does translations, reviews books and writes

on theatre and the visual arts. She is currently working with

Saregama-HMV. anjkat@hotmail.com

SUMITA MAZUMDER, a History major from Delhi Univ, she has

been conducting creative, interactive classes for children in the age

group of 6-16 in which viewing and making film clips is an integral

part. sumita.majumdar123456789@gmail.com

DEBASISH MANDAL: A senior Biology teacher of The Oriental

Seminary School, he also runs his own group “Empathy” through

which he works for environment education and quizzing. He is a

state resource person in the life skills education program and

conducts quizzes on parliamentary affairs. contactdebs@gmail.com

S V RAMAN: A civil engineer by educational qualification, popularly

known as Raju Raman, he decided over three decades ago to make

a career out of his passion for languages and the arts, being

associated with the German Cultural Centre, Max Mueller Bhavan

from which he retired as Programme Director and Deputy Director

in April’10. A keen debater since his schooldays, he also dons the

mantle of quiz-master and anchor-person for talk-shows, panel

discussions and other events on stage and on the small screen. He

served as the all-India General Secretary of the Federation of Film

Societies of India from 1988-92, when Mr Satyajit Ray was its

President. A guest lecturer for Film in the Mass Communication

courses at Jadavpur University and BILAMS, Mr Raman also

regularly contributes as a free-lance journalist to newspapers and

periodicals in India and abroad. rajusvraman@gmail.com

RUPALI SACHDEV: teaching in Mahadevi Birla Girls School since

1987, she studied film studies at Chitrabani in 1989-90, under

Father G. Roberge. She has started a film club in her school and

may be contacted at rupalisachdev@yahoo.co.in on 9830477891,

between 5pm-7pm.

MITA PRAMANICK: senior English teacher at Modern High School

for Girls,previously with Don Bosco,Park Circus, Ms pramanick uses

films not only in teaching English literature in the senior classes but

also in personality development. She was the animator of ‘Images’

a Film Appreciation and Book club at MHS.

Contact: mitapram@gmail.com

MALINI MUKHERJEE: currently coordinator for Intel Education

programmes in the Eastern Region, she has worked in the

education sector for more than 14 years as researcher, teacher and

trainer. She has also coordinated several quality improvement

programmes in schools, universities, NGOs and Govt. projects and

she may be contacted at mukherjeemalini@yahoo.co.in

DEVIKA KAR: a trained environment educator, she worked with

WWF –India’s education programme for several years during which

she wrote a teacher’s training manual, conducted teacher training

programmes and camps, and was part of the team that developed

a nature study park in the city. Today, she is a freelance education

consultant and editor, involved in the preparation of resource

material, conducting teacher training programs, field visits,

corporate training, and organising events.

Contact: devikakar@gmail.com

TOOLS IN SCHOOLS List of participants

BITM, Kolkata August 19 to 21, 2010

NAME SCHOOL SUBJECT CLASS 1. Jeenu George Loreto Dharamtala All Primary iv

2. Ipsita Dutta Loreto Dharamtala Comp, math, science, V to viii

3. Suranjana Chaudhuri Childrens Foundation Eng,soc stidues, math,GK

Primary ii-iv

4. Ishita Banerjee Childrens Foundation hist,geog Primaryiv

5. Rita Paul Childrens Foundation Eng,hist vi-viii

6. Roshni Dasgupta Loreto Sealdah Eng/value ed vi-ix

7. Rhitu Roy Loreto Sealdah Phy sc ix-xii

8. Celine Halder Loreto Sealdah All primary

9. Maitreyee Das Shaw Public All librarian

10. Shuvashree Mukherjee DPS Mega City Geog vi-viii 11. Sutopa Basu KV Ballygunj Math hindi eve primary 12. Lipika Biswas KV Ballygunj Science vii-x 13. Abira Sen Bose MB Girls Eng ix-xii 14. Gargi Datta MB Girls History ix-xii 15. P.Premela KV, Fort William English vi-x 16. Sikha Das KV Fort William Env studies Primary iiii-v 17. Rita Sarkar KV1,Salt Lake All Primary 18. Pushpendra K Pandey KV1,Salt Lake Soc sc vi-x 19. R Roy KV1,Salt Lake Physics 20. Sadhana Das KV Cossipore Eng Primary iii-v 21. Arup Ray KV Cossipore Supw vi-xii 22. S Basu KV Dumdum All Primary 23 Bhabesh C Sarkar KV Dumdum BIO vi-x 24 Rupa Mukherjee KV Command Hospital Science vi-xii 25 Ram Pukar Mahto KV Command Hospital

Math, EVS Primary i-iv

26 Dr S Kar Gonipur Sitala HS Geog v-x 27 Kaushik Saha Gonipur Sitala HS Hist v-x

28 Dulal Mondal The Oriental Seminary School Math ix-xii 29 Nilanjana Adhikari Bethune Collegiate School Beng vii-xii 30 Arunima Sanyal Bethune Collegiate School Eng vii-xii 31 Dr. Bera Behala HS Principal(eco/eng) viii-xii 32 Parta Sarathi Gayen Behala HS Eng viii-xii 33 Ruma Bagchi Nripendranath

Girls HS Math ix-xii

34 Seema Sengupta Nripendranath Girls HS

Eng/eco xi-xii

35 Arundhati Bhattacharya Baidyabati CharushilaBose Balika Bidyalaya

Eng/math/eve v-viii,xi-xii

36 Bharati Mukherjee primary 37 Kaberi Banerjee DRCSC Life skills primary 38 Sunita Biswas Cambridge School History ix, x 39 Shoma Chakraborty TTC Loreto House Value ed,eng,psycho TTC students 40 Udita Sen Satyapriya Roy College of

education Pol science xi-xii

41 Rajarshi Pal Shibpur Dinabandhu Institution

English vii-xii

42 Swapan Das CRY Life skills Ngo 43 Kriti Majumder CRY Life skills NGO 44 Bharati Sood Akshar All Primary 45 Leena MaryAnn Francis Usha Martin Group All primary 46 IPER Ratna Bhattacharya Life Skills NGO 47 IPER Shakuntala Dutta Life Skills NGO 48 Birla High School for Boys Sharon D’Souza All ? Primary 49 Birla High School for Boys Jayanti Srikant All ? Primary 50. CLPOA Prosenjit Roy Chowdhury Non formal

Abstracts of sessions held at the Tools in Schools workshop

at Birla Industrial & Technological Museum, Kolkata from

August 19 to 21, 2010

How a movie makes meaning (Session 1: Aug 19)

A number of people contribute to the making of a movie.

Somebody gives money, somebody writes the script, some body

else acts out the script and somebody photographs it. Yet, when a

movie is completed, it gets a life of its own. The light and shadow

world of the movie is an autonomous world, separate from the real

world. It is a world of illusion and yet, the spectator willingly enters

this world. The spectator strikes a unique equation with the movie

and makes his own meaning. The meaning emerges in the

individual moving images and in the juxtaposition of the images. In

this session, the meaning making process of a movie is

demonstrated through the Odessa Steps Sequence of Battleship

Potemkin and an animation film from Czechoslovakia “Darkness

Light Darkness”.

Dr. Somnath Zutshi

One Film Multiple Applications (Session 2: Aug 19)

‘Muted Music’ is a film about hearing and deafness, about friendship

and envy, about frustration and reconciliation and much more. In a

span of 15 minutes the film touches upon music and noise, modes

of sublime communication – all under the intense gaze of

Beethoven looming large in the background. A viewer would be

touched by this film as if by a magic wand. A teacher of science,

literature or life skills can show this film in class to win the hearts of

the pupils and then initiate a discussion on the mechanism of

hearing, or on coping with a physical disability or on the meaning of

true friendship. This session demonstrates how the same film can

be introduced in different ways to different groups of children. The

children can then be taken to a higher level of understanding and

realization through a focused discussion along a chosen track.

S Das Mollick

Teaching History Through Films (Session 3: Aug 19)

A teacher of History faces a number of challenges.

• A subject which deals with the past needs to be brought

alive in the classroom.

• Students need to feel that a study of the subject is relevant

– especially since there is a widespread impression that only

Mathematics and the Sciences are “important” subjects.

• History teaching does not merely entail the imparting of a

certain quantum of information to the students. Through

the teaching of History, the teacher needs to develop in the

pupils certain skills – the ability to reason, analyze, and

draw logical conclusions (there can be more than one

conclusion for a given set of data).

• To give the students an understanding of a particular period

in the history of a country, the teacher needs to emphasize

not only political developments but also social trends.

• The teacher needs to cultivate in the students a sense of

wonder and appreciation of the heritage of mankind –

heritage in terms of art, architecture and culture.

• Students need to become acquainted with the art of

interpreting historical sources.

The list is not exhaustive. Suffice to say that the task of the History

teacher appears to be a daunting one. The text books that are

available to History teachers fall far short of what is required and

the teacher has to rely on a variety of other materials to help her

fulfill this onerous task. Films are a valuable resource available to

us and, if used judiciously, can go a long way to fulfill our goals.

This workshop will attempt to look at how the above mentioned

objectives can be achieved through the use of films.

Some of the film clips that will be used to demonstrate this process

include:

• Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi

• History of the Cellular Jail

• Purva Uttara: a series of short films on historical sites of

India (Marg Publications)

• You tube video clips

Amita Prasad

Films and teaching language (Session 4: Aug 19)

An English teacher does not and cannot only teach English as a

language. It is the thread that binds together all possible areas of

living and it is thus a tool and a skill for life. It is the world

language that encompasses the events of past and present, the key

to exploring discoveries that have brought us to where we are in

our civilisation on this planet.

In India, we are still trying to understand the value of English

beyond grammar and punctuation. The only way in which we

possibly can do this is by using English in specific contexts before

we use it independently. We learn to look at a whole, and then its

parts. The best way is surely through the careful choice and use of

cinema where pictures are the language that everyone can follow.

This session will draw from visuals re: 1955-1960's in America. Film

clips will be used from:

1. RFK -The American Experience

2. We Shall Overcome

3. A Moral Journey with Robert Coles

The session will be an example in which substitution and not

duplication will be emphasised.

Bubla Basu

Cinematic stimulus in the class (Session 5: Aug 19)

A movie is full of connotations. Everytime you watch a movie you

discover something new and one may even say that every movie

has something for everybody. So how would children respond to a

short film like The Hand by Jiri Trinka? Even though it is an

animation film, the message is rather dark and gloomy. And even a

5000 word interpretation may not be enough for this 10 minutes

long film. So teachers watch this film and then work in groups to

discuss what kind of discuss and exercises can be generated from

this film in classes ranging from class 2 to class 12.

Anjum Katyal

Life science and films (Session 7: Aug 20)

Being outside the confines of school and syllabus is an enviable

position to be in. And that is exactly what Sumita Mazumdar has

chosen for herself. However, most of her activities with her “Electric

Imagination” group are take offs on the school curriculum and the

syllabus. In this session she will discuss her method of guiding her

group through a project. She triggers the imagination and curiosity

of the group with bits and pieces of information, with anecdotes

and stories. Then she shows them a film that tells them more on

the subject, at the same time leaves them hungry for more. Once

the children get motivated to learn more, there is no stopping

them. They go on the Net, read books and also often do activities

under her guidance. The children record their observations not with

pen and paper, but with mobile phone cameras or simple digital

cameras. A project that begins as an EVS project may meander into

History or Geography. The project may carry on for months and

often culminates in a short film compiled with visuals downloaded

from the Net or captured by their simple gadgets.

Sumita mazumdar

Science In Popular Films (Session 8: Aug 20)

Why should a maths teacher or a science teacher show a film in

class? Isn’t it much better to do hands on experiments than show a

film? Perhaps that is true. But a film, after all, is a magic wand. It

can yield results way beyond the expectation of the teacher. So

what kind of films can a maths or physics teacher show in class?

Biographical films to inspire the students? Why not?

Films that make abstract concepts tangible?Certainly.

Films that can initiate a debate on the burning issues of the day –

big dams, nuclear energy, climate change, human gene mapping

and much more?A definitive yes!

A film can also be used to show activities that cannot be done live

in the classroom.

A film gives a human face to science and sprinkles the dry concepts

with a little emotion.

This session illustrates how a science teacher may turn to popular

blockbusters to cull out superbly crafted sequences that

demonstrate some of the basic concepts in the science text books.

S Das Mollick

Films in the scope of the national curriculum (Session 9: Aug 20)

The guiding principles of the National Curriculum Framework are

• Connecting knowledge to life outside the school.

• Learning shifted away from rote methods to constructivist

methods.

• Curriculum provides for all development of children

rather than remain text-book centric.

Debasish Mandal’s presentation will show how appropriate use of

films in the classroom can help fulfill the above guidelines.

Debashish Mondal

Audio-Visual Communication / Film Appreciation (Session 10:

Aug 20)

We are living in an era of media revolution and moving images

engage our attention for quite a few hours every day. But the

question is: What kind of moving images are we exposed to,

particularly young formative minds? It is mostly what is dished out

on the various channels of television or the excessively hyped

versions of Bollywood films in the name of entertainment. This

results in a kind of colonising and blunting of the mind, luring it to

an addiction for only a certain kind of moving images, whereas the

scope extends far beyond.

Pioneers of the film society movement like Satyajit Ray,

Chidananda Gupta and others managed to create for at least three

decades after Independence an aesthetic taste for good cinema

among viewers, which somehow seems to have got eclipsed by the

onslaught of television and mainstream cinema. The average age of

viewers attending screenings of good films arranged by film

societies is an alarming 60+, revealing the fact that subsequent

younger generations have not at all been exposed to meaningful

and thought-provoking moving images.

It is proposed that an effort be made to bridge this gap by exposing

young minds at the high school level to the tremendous power and

possibilities of audio-visual communication as an extra curricular

activity. By showing them excellent shorts, documentaries and

even meaningful feature films followed by discussions, one can not

only create a general awareness but also motivate them to apply

their minds to look at and read films differently and involve

themselves deeper with the issues addressed.

S V Raman

Life skills (Session 11: Aug 21)

Many of us may be subject teachers , but are often asked to take

classes In Moral Science/ Value Education/ Life Skills/ Health

Education / General Studies, but may not know how to use cinema

in these periods. This presentation is focused on meeting these

needs.

Children are basically sensitive, enthusiastic, energetic, idealistic

and with a strong sense of justice. We should provide them with

space for expressing these aspects of their personalities. The films

we choose to screen may also open up their worlds and channelize

their energy and indicate paths in which they can travel, in future.

All of us who have been working with children may have noticed

the increasing influence of cinema not only in the way students

dress up or behave, sing or dance, but also the way they think and

act. The primary source of ideas, opinions, facts, attitudes and

values is, very often, the films they watch. Realising that using this

medium in the classroom, would make them more aware, sensitive

and beautiful human beings, a film club was started in our school.

For the last few years, students of class 9 have been taking active

part in weekly screenings and discussions of films.

We will see a few clippings so that the qualities children have

always had - sensitivity, a sense of fair play, love for beauty - find

expression. We shall show them films on issues which are not

discussed in details in their text books, we shall show them people

made invisible in most books and cinema-but without whom, we

would not lead such comfortable lives- tribals , farmers, labourers.

Children can then, see for themselves marginalised sections of

society and issues made invisible, and begin to ask questions about

the system of which they are a part. That’s the first step taken.

After this, we can leave them alone, to find themselves, and if they

wish, and if we can, guide them in their journey.

Rupali Sachdev

English literature / Personality development (Session 12: Aug 21)

In her first presentation, she uses video clips from two films ‘Troy’

to introduce ISC students to the Homeric world of legend, alluded

to in W.H.Auden’s poem and ‘ All Quiet on the Western Front’ which

depicts the killing fields of modern warfare.

The second film presentation, ‘The Riceplate’ has been used to

explore the ideas of Prejudice which prevail in Indian society.

Mita Pramanik

TOOLS IN SCHOOLS Group works

The participants were divided into the five groups:

1. English History group

2. Life Science, Geography, Environmental Science group

3. Maths and physical sciences group

4. The primary school teachers’ group

5. Life Skills group

The following brief reports give an indication of the group dynamics

that worked within each group and how they arrived at the lesson

plans they finally presented.

Planning for the presentation: a report from the English-

History group

The English and History group watched the last 20 minutes of the

film The Diary of Anne Frank. After an initial period of debating

whether to have two separate English and History lessons it was

decided to merge the two together, with two teachers co-teaching,

for the presentation. So it was planned that the lesson would begin

with the History teacher picking up from a previous discussion

about Hitler’s Jewish policy and the horror of the holocaust, which

ran parallel to the Second World War. After the class had watched

the film the teacher would ask questions to gauge whether the

students were able to comprehend and connect the Jewish “policy”

they had learnt about, with the actual and chilling incarceration of a

group of Jews and their fate after being discovered. Then the

importance of Anne Frank’s diary as an original/primary source of

history would be explained. From this point the English lesson

(presented by an English teacher) would take over with an exercise

on diary writing. Then there would be a creative thinking exercise

where the students would be asked to think about times they have

been in hiding, what were the possible things one could feel the

need to hide from, is it not true that everyone has something to

hide or is hiding from something. As an extension activity

connected with the themes of war and peace, hate and hope a

poem on peace would be read out by the teacher.

- Sunita Biswas

Lesson plan development for EVE/Life Science/Geography

group

The 9 members of this group were S Chadha, S Mukherji, L Francis

and M Das (Librarian) from ICSE board and P Pandey, S Das, L

Biswas, C Sarkar and R Mukherji from KVs (CBSE). The latter 2

were bio teachers while the rest were EVE and Geography teachers.

The lone teacher from WB Board who was to be in this group was

absent.

The clipping shown to the group was from the film “Beautiful

People” and the sequence was about animal life in semi arid regions

showing a glimpse of animal behaviour pertaining to an ostrich

family (the mating ritual, the care of the eggs, predators,

protective instinct, etc)

After viewing the clip, the group was asked to refer to the group

activity sheet and note down the following details:

• Which part of the clip could be used to excite a class?

• Which topics/themes (for class VI-X) came to mind when

they viewed the clip?

• Which class/level would this be most appropriate for?

• What other activities could be linked to this lesson?

Since we were in the conference room along with the eng/history

group whose film took 20 minutes to view, we did lose out on time

so moved to another spot to discuss our lesson plan.

It was decided that the bit about the man trying to steal the ostrich

eggs would be not only amusing but could also be used to generate

discussions on mans interference in the natural system, predation,

camouflage, etc in EVE while in Geography one could discuss

adaptation to arid conditions: feet, long neck, wart hog burrowing;

in Biology, the topics could be camouflage, parental duties in birds,

display plumage, predation.

We then returned to the conf. room to re view the clip to mark out

the portions to be shown and then plan forward. In the group of 9

there seemed to be only 2 or 3 who were vocal and sharing ideas.

The others were ‘happy to help’!

I must confess that I left the group to their own devices soon after

as they seemed to be moving in the correct direction. (It seems the

biology group sat separately and planned their lesson as they felt

that the level/topics didn’t match their syllabus, something I was

told only the next day when it was too close to the presentation to

change things around.)

The presentation on the final evening, however, was totally

different from what was initially decided and it would be interesting

to see what was documented during the discussion of the group to

cause this change.

Personally, I feel that though the group understood that they were

to prepare one lesson, they were (like some other groups too) keen

to show the rest during the presentation how much they could link

to this one clip and hence the presentation was not really well

structured for one class/period. Since they were all strangers I

don’t think they had much time (or inclination) to discuss the

lesson after the session and it was pretty much left to the

presenters’ own devices.

Given the limited time and communication within the group, the

presentation, though not an ideal lesson plan by any means, at

least showed that they had exploited the potential to develop a

lesson around a film clip, which was what they had set out to do.

An immediate exercise for us, the organizers, would be to generate

a list of useful films for all subjects, with their sources to enable

them to start experimenting with using films in their classrooms.

- Devika Kar

How the Primary Science group developed its lesson plan

The primary Teachers group had a mix of 12 teachers from

Kendriya Vidyalayas and private schools . All , except one, were

lady teachers and hence the male teacher practically did not

participate. Interestingly, all teachers were from English medium

schools.

2 films were shown to the group:

A Sunny day – a small 4 minute funny animated film on how the

sun rises up in the morning, gears up for the day, looks for a friend

but his attempts are thwarted by everyone, digs into icecream on

the sea beach, and ultimately gets recognition when people on the

beach admire his setting colours.

A Turtle’s adventure – a 15 min film shown at BITM auditorium .

Traces the journey of a little turtle from the time it hatches from

the egg, to his underwater voyage where he meets several

underwater creatures, till he finds his mate and journeys back to

lay egg. Interim

The group decided to take up both the films, A Sunny Day for the

preprimary and the Turtle’s Adventure for the upper primary , as

they found both of them interesting. To identify the objectives,

there was a random jotting down of concepts and skills , which

could be covered by the films. There were too many ideas coming

up. Some are given below:

A Sunny day –

Concepts:

• Colours

• Opposites- Night and day, light and shade, happy and sad etc

• Solar bodies- sun, rainbow, stars,etc

• Friendship- why do we need friends?

• Routine- What do we do in the morning? What do we do

before we go to bed?

• Different time of the day

Skills:

• Observation and inference

• Comprehension

• Expressing ideas

• Reproducing images seen through drawings or role plays

• Identifying colours

(See A Sunny Day)

A Turtle’s Adventure-

Concepts:

• Underwater life

• Land and water life

• Food web

• Responsibility, helping attitude

• Fear and how to overcome it

• Journey/Adventure

Skills:

• Observation and inference

• Comprehension

• Expressing ideas verbally and in writing/creative writing

• Reproducing images seen through drawings or role plays

• Categorising, Comparing

Teachers debated if all of these could be taken up. Some advised

that the few important concepts could be taken up which could be

covered in a week’s time. There were also debates on whether

children would be able to retain the film after seeing once, and

continue to work on it for a week’s time. It was decided that

immediate tasks with reference to the films can be given on the

very day, but tasks derived from the films, but which does not

require immediate reference like discussions on issues like

friendship, role playing, rhymes, creating aquarium could be taken

up gradually. Many activities were suggested to cater to the films.

See Lesson plan on Turtles film.

Interestingly, teachers could relate both films to poems and texts in

CBSE syllabus.

They also found 2 rhymes which could be taught. One teacher

brought from home a suggestive craft that could be done by

children.

However, many activities were typical of a primary classroom.

Attempts at innovating new activities were rare. One teacher

suggested that only worksheets would suffice. Suggestions of

having a small aquarium in the class and asking children to bring

any aquatic life was not acceptable as, some thought, it was not

practical. Also using the film as an audio visual experience with

emphasis on experiencing the underwater sound or 3D experience

and generating discussions around it were initiated but were not

taken forward. Teachers also avoided any activities catering to a

Bengali medium class.

The assessment sheet could have been shared with teachers at the

beginning to bring their discussion to track. Many ideas emerged,

but there need to be some more encouragement on unusual

interesting activities, as classes as these are rare within a school

curriculum and teachers need to make the most of it.

The enthusiasm was high. All 11 lady teachers participated. There

were a lot of debates, arguments, but in a good spirit. Task was

distributed. Teachers wanted to learn from each other and accepted

ideas. They took each others contact address. Overall, there was a

very positive energy in the group.

- Malini Mukherjee

How the Maths Science group developed its lesson plan

The maths – science group was the smallest group of the workshop

consisting of 7 teachers from different boards – West Bengal Board,

ICSE as well as Central Board. Thus, even though the group was

small in size, it was hardly homogeneous. The heterogeneity was

compounded by the fact that the teachers taught at different levels.

Yet, it goes to the credit of the group that they could arrive at a

consensus about the presentation.

The film shown to this group was “Donald Duck in Mathemagic

Land” – the first two sequences of the film, where Donald Duck

learns about the Pythagorean series and the musical scale from the

Greeks and then about the ‘golden rectangle’. He discovers the

golden rectangle in works of art and architecture and in nature and

learns to draw the spiral using golden rectangles of successively

diminishing sizes.

Even though the film is highly entertaining, it holds some highly

sophisticated ideas which can be expanded and worked upon in a

number of successive classes. The ideas in the first part of the film

about the Pythagorean series can be introduced in the Physics class

on musical scale, octaves, harmonics and musical instruments. Yet,

the group did not take up that idea for presentation, perhaps

because there was only one Physics teacher in the group. After

some initial debate, the group chose to work on the golden

rectangle. Their decision was perhaps guided by the fact that they

watched the film in the mathematics gallery and there is a

prominent display on the golden rectangle in the same gallery. One

must mention here that inspired by the beginning of the film where

Donald Duck gets lost in the mathemagic forest, initially some of

the teachers discussed creating a mathemagic forest in their class;

but quickly this idea got sidelined in favour of the golden rectangle.

As a post screening activity, the teachers decided that the children

should draw the spiral that emerges by joining the corners of the

golden rectangle.

The teachers admitted that the idea of the golden rectangle was

new to them. It was definitely not a part of the syllabus and they

asked me in which part of the syllabus it could be contextualized. I

suggested to them that it could be incorporated either in the basic

geometry lesson on rectangles or in the lesson on ratio and

proportion. One of the teachers came up with the idea that the

students could be made to work in pairs and discover the golden

ratio in their body parts – say, the length from shoulder to elbow

and then from elbow to wrist. With these lengths they could draw

the rectangles and then further sub divide these rectangles into

smaller rectangles. Another teacher came up with the idea of using

India’s national flag to introduce the concept of rectangles of fixed

ratio of sides. Thus developed the lesson plan – first the flag to

introduce the concept of proportionate rectangles with a fixed ratio

of sides, then the film to introduce a very special rectangle, then a

classroom activity to draw the golden rectangles and the spiral

either on graph paper or with coloured papers, depending on the

class and finally, as an extended activity or a project after class,

identifying golden rectangles in nature and art and taking pictures

of these objects with a mobile phone camera and sharing them with

e - pals.

The teachers agreed that the idea of the golden rectangle could be

introduced in primary classes as well as higher classes – right upto

higher secondary classes where the concept of irrational numbers

are introduced. In each class the golden rectangle could be

explored to different depths. The time was too short for the

teachers to understand the concept fully and then adapt it to the

class lesson. They did not get an opportunity to view the film a

second time. Nor did they get time to try out certain activities

hands on. In spite of that, they managed to develop a workable

lesson plan and give a decent presentation.

With more time, the potential of the film could have been explored

further.

- Subha Das Mollick

Workings of the life skills group

There were 12 participants in the Life Skills group.

We were shown a short film “FRIEND” in which a boy( Orgil)about

18 years but of mental age of 13 years had a friendship with a boy(

Baatar) of 10 years. Orgil was bullied by his peers. But his friend

Baatar is not like it at all. He gets beaten when he tries to make a

protest. One day he tries to teach the the bullies a lesson by using

pepper replacing nicotine in the cigarette and tries to pursue them

to have a smoke. When the trick is found out, Baater gets beaten

by the peers. In the meantime Orgil appeares and attacks the boy

with stone in his hand. This leads to imprisonment for Orgil. Baatar

is broken hearted.

Participants came down to the level of class 9-10 and watched the

movie with utmost eagerness. The facilitator asked some pointed

questions like:

Whether you have any friend like this

What are the necessary characteristics of friendship you would

look for in your friend

How do you feel when you are bullied

What do you do when you are furious

Whether you can recognise your emotion

Which are those emotions you recognise today

How many of these are controlled by you and how many are not

How do you resolve your anger

How do you say ‘no’ to smoke

After this interaction, multiple interpretations were generated. Then

these interpretations were scaffold by the facilitator by performing

different types of activities like role play, brainstorming, games

etc.. All these activities were performed through collaborative

approach. Through those activities using this film participants got

some idea about the core generic life skills like self awareness,

critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, creative

thinking, interpersonal relationship, interpersonal communication,

and empathy, coping with stress and coping with emotion and

assertive skill.

At the end of this session participants were able to recognise the

life skills and connect those life skills in their own life situations.

Hence multiple manifestations of different life skills were observed.

Then our teachers (participants) prepared an outline of lesson plan

design using this film on the basis of observation,

conceptualisation, cognitive apprenticeship, collaboration,

interpretation construction, multiple interpretation and multiple

manifestations. After the observation of that film, students can

construct their own knowledge, unlearn some misconceptions and

relearn some good findings through the help of a teacher facilitator.

See Life Skills Education lesson plan

- Debasish Mandal

A SUNNY DAY

This film had been chosen as a lesson for the Pre-primary children.

The plan is as follows:

ENGLISH

1. Comprehension

2. Creative writing – a day in the Sun’s life, a day at a sea beach,

a day when the sun overslept

3. Concepts of day & night, before & after, hot & cold, sad &

happy, seasons, friends

4. Sequencing

5. naming words, doing words

EVS

1. punctuality & routine

2. colours in the sky, beach, rainbow

3. categorization – observation skill

4. co-ordination – motor skills development

5. drawing

Lesson Plan

(activities for a week)

Age group – 8 to 10 years

Movie – The Adventures of the Turtle (3D Movie)

Note – This film can be used in teaching various subjects.

Objectives – It will help develop

• Observation skills

• Listening skills

• Speaking skills

• Comprehension skill

Concepts of the following will be understood better:

Science

• Life under water

• Adaptation in animals

• Mammals

• Migration

English

• Collective nouns

• Creative writing

Value Education

• The value of friendship

• Caring

Introduction to the Film- One week ahead I would start

advertising the film. Posters with words like ‘splash’ ,’crack’, ‘swim’,

etc would be displayed. They would be asked to bring a shoe box, a

stick, chart paper and colours. Introduction to the film-Let us watch

the story of a dear little turtle

Points along which classroom discussion will take place:

SCIENCE

• Which were the animals that you saw living in water?

• Is there any name that these animals are known by?

• How do you think they breathe?

• Do you think that the dolphin and the whale is a fish?

• What are mammals?

• We first saw the turtle on land then in water. Is the turtle an

aquatic animal? Why?

• Are there predators in the water?

• Could you see a link (who eats what?)What is this link called?

• Why do you think the animals were moving in big groups?

• Were they migrating?

For language

While doing Collective Nouns(school of whales, shoal of fish , flock

of birds) I will go back and connect it to migration.

Creative writing- You were under water throughout the film. In

reality you are always above water. What is the difference in

experience?

Value Education

How would you feel when you are in danger. Imagine travelling to a

new place.

How would you help someone in danger? We saw the turtle help

another turtle caught in a net.

How would you feel if your mummy and daddy returned home late

one day?

They can make posters, slogans and write poems – to save turtles

Activities – these can be done over a span of one week.

Some of us like maintaining an aquarium. How do you think man

got the idea of an aquarium?

With the help of the shoe box an aquarium will be made. Later

children may search and write facts behind each creature made.

Children may act as plants, fish, turtles, sharks and dramatize the

food chain.

Regards,

Jeenu George

Loreto Dharamtala.

Subject: Life Skills Education

Objective : The lesson aims at helping children to interpret

situations and acknowledge the role of vital life skills like empathy,

self control, communication, decision making and assertive skill in

acceptance of differences; dealing with challenges like stress,

isolation, anger, frustration and depression; and appreciation of the

universal nature of human emotions, challenges and methods of

accepting or dealing with them.

Age group : 15 years, class IX

Duration : 3 periods

Starter Activity:

The class begins with a game in which all students participate. The

teacher asks the students to form a circle by joining hands. She /

he asks a volunteer to step out of the circle. This ‘outsider’ is then

asked to try to make his / her way into the circle. The ‘insiders’

defend their space while the ‘outsider’ fights to make a place

among them. The volunteer is then called back into the circle and a

new volunteer is asked for. This may be repeated twice/thrice. It is

interesting to note the behavior of the ‘insiders’ towards the

‘outsider’ and vice versa (before and after the latter is reinstated)

as well as that of the first ‘outsider’ (once he/she has been

reinstated in the circle) towards the next.

Once the game is over the students take their seats. Any follow-up

discussion is avoided at this stage. They are simply asked to hold

on to what they felt while the game was in progress.

Observation and individual work:

The teacher draws the students’ attention to the audio visual input

for the lesson and introduces it simply as a short film from distant

Mongolia without divulging any detail regarding the theme,

characters or plot. The selected film is then shown.

After the viewing the students are given a few minutes for quiet

reflection to think about what they have just seen –the characters

and their lives, the incidents and twists the story takes and the

dominant feelings and attitudes which emerge from the various

interactions in the film.

Group work or collaboration:

The class is then divided into groups of 5/6 students and asked to

respond to a number of questions. These may either be put up on a

board or handed out in the form of questionnaires. Each group is

asked to select a group leader who records the responses of the

group members. These responses are collected from the groups by

the teacher after completion. Questions for this part of the lesson

may be selected from the following:

• What feelings emerge from the following relationships- Batar

and Orgil, Batar, Orgil and the bullies, Batar and his parents,

Orgil and his parents.

• Why is Orgil referred to as ‘stupid’ or ‘foolish’ by Batar’s

parents and the other boys? Is his behavior more foolish than

that of the other characters?

• Do you think Batar should have obeyed his father and not

befriended Orgil? Why or why not?

• What do you think Orgil and Batar felt at the following points-

their first meeting, their first and second encounter with the

bullies, after hurting the child and finally while Orgil is being

taken away by the police.

• Which characters, according to you, did the right thing and

who were wrong? Why?

• Was crime and punishment evenly balanced in the film- for

Orgil and the little boy whom he assaulted?

• Did you like the ending? Could the film have ended differently?

How would you have liked it to end?

• For your desired ending which characters should have behaved

differently? What should they have done?

• What would you have done if you were in Batar and Orgil’s

place?

• What would you have done if the cigarette was offered to you?

• Which characters need to change in the story and how?

• What do you think will happen to the characters after this?

• What did you enjoy in this film? Suggest a title for it.

• Relate this to any real life or fictional friendship between two

apparently unlike people you may have experienced,

witnessed or read about.

At this stage it may be mentioned that the teacher should be

prepared for the fact that the film is likely to generate multiple

interpretations .

The following responses are among the few which may be

generated:

• Orgil was right in hurting the boy. The boy was wrong and

needed to be punished and the revenge taken was justified.

• Orgil was a true, loyal friend. I would have done the same

thing in his place. He should not have been punished for it.

• Batar was wrong in rousing Orgil’s anger.

• The cigarette trick was funny and Batar was smart to have

thought of it.

• The police should not have arrested Orgil.

• Batar’s father should have been more understanding and his

mother should have been more assertive.

Presentation or group sharing:

The groups are then asked to make a presentation based on their

interpretations by selecting any one of the following activities. The

teacher should ensure that each option is selected by at least two

groups:

• Present a role play showing how similar incidents may occur in

a class room situation or in the playground and people’s

responses in such a case.

• Prepare and present interviews of the following characters -

Batar , Orgil, the boy who is hurt, his friends, the parents of

Batar, Orgil and the boy he assaults, an onlooker who

witnessed the arrest of Orgil.

• Act out the alternative / desired ending to the story of Orgil

and Batar.

• Imagine that Batar manages to sneak out and go to prison to

visit Orgil. Act out the meeting and the conversation that will

take place between them.

Consolidation and conclusion:

After the presentations an open house discussion takes place about

the story. Teacher consolidates the day’s lesson by focusing mainly

on the acceptance of those slightly different from us, the

importance of friendship, the importance of communication in

breaking down barriers and important life skills which may help to

avoid such situations and how to exercise self control when life

throws up a variety of challenges.

To end the lesson the teacher gives the students a few minutes to

reflect on the oneness of humanity, the universal nature of human

emotions irrespective of time, place or demographics. He/she asks

them to quietly remember the times when they have been

insensitive to the plight of others or have lost control over

themselves and done something which they regret. Finally they are

asked to make a promise to themselves that they will try to be

more sensitive and matured next time they face a trying situation

and also make a note of it.

Opinions

Principals and educationists came to the Tools in Schools workshop

as observers. Some of them stayed on for an entire day, some

stayed for just a couple of sessions and some of them evaluated

the presentations of the groups on the last day of the workshop.

Here are opinions of some of the honoured guests who graced Tools

in Schools

he Three-Day-Workshop on Use of Films in learning lesson at

School level at BITM from 19th.- 21st. August,2010 has

opened a new dimension specially to the teachers of the Bengali

Medium Government Aided Institutions. Being the Principal of a

Higher (Senior) Secondary School,stepping into 125th. Year, I think

if the class-room teaching is imparted with the clippings of popular

films it will have an overwhelming impact on the mind of young

learners. The use of movies in the class-room can substitute the

board-work and repeated lecture, make the abstract tangible and

manifest the unspeakable with different point of view on different

subjects. If this system is introduced in Bengali Medium School

undoubtedly learners can learn their lesson with much enthusiasm

and interest forgetting the monotony of the traditional class-room

situation and enjoy the lesson as it becomes less and less like

T

lesson and more like entertainment. – Dr. D Bera (Principal, Behala

High School)

t is an effective and emerging mode of teaching learning

process.Now a days media plays a important role in our society.

So using films in classroom situation is necessary to create interest

in teaching learning process. It is quite tough to implement this

process in our system due to lack of computers in schools. But

through this process we can easily generate joy and fun among the

pupils and the pupils learn the subject joyfully. - Dr. Swapan Kr

Sarkar (David Hare Training College)

eachers cannot follow the same pedagogical methods year

after year. The teaching learning methods should evolve and

improve through research. This method of using films in the

classroom, demonstrated in the workshop, is a very interesting one

and can get the student interested in the subject. We have started

applying this method in our school. – Dr. Manoj Bhattacharya

(Principal, The Oriental Seminary School)

fter Taare Zameen Par, it has become so much easier to

explain to our students what learning disability means. 3 Idiots

has beautifully illustrated the advantage of learning by

understanding over rote learning. In Bengali films you will find

teachers with varied personalities. Thus our popular films can be

very effectively tapped as resource material – not only for B.Ed

classes, but for all subjects. – Dr. Subir Nag (Principal, Satyapriya

Roy College of Education)

I

T

A

Our team

E Islam (Director, BITM)

Devika Kar (Workshop co-ordinator)

Gautam Seal (BITM)

Veronica Kayal (Assistance)

Debasish Mandal (Core group)

Bubla Basu (Core group)

Malini Mukherjee (Core group)

Amita Prasad (Core group)

Rupali Sachdev (Core group)

Sumita Mazumdar (Core group)

Digvijay Mishra (Photographer)

Arijit (BITM)

Satinath Mukherjee (BITM)

Subhash (BITM)

Chandita Mukherjee (Director, Comet Media Foundation)

VP Jacob (Comet Media Foundation)

Subha Das Mollick (Project co-ordinator)