Screen Education | AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

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Screen Education

Film — because it is sensory and immersive — can bring course content to life. Students can analyze visual texts much as they do written texts: They draw inferences, determine themes and trace their development, analyze characters and how they change, cite textual evidence to support their ideas and assess how point of view can shape material.

Visual literacy is valuable both in and of itself and as a bridge to developing reading skills. With greater media literacy, students can become active, empowered viewers, better able to decode their world and to express themselves. Being able to interpret visual texts may also help students develop career skills and deepen their experience of film throughout their lives.

AFI Silver’s Screen Education Program offers teachers in grades K–12 the opportunity to bring students to AFI for a free morning screening of a film to supplement classroom learning. Educators may choose a film available in our digital library or provide their own.

To learn more about AFI Silver’s Education Program and schedule a screening for your class, or to learn about supporting the program financially, please email silverevents@AFI.com.

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

AFI Silver Theatre’s Education Program offers professional development workshops on how to use film-viewing and filmmaking in the classroom. Objectives include engaging students, encouraging creative expression and teaching skills, such as critical thinking, collaboration, problem solving and/or research. The following topics can be customized to specific course units and Common Core State Standards (CCSS):

Lights! Camera! Education!

A workshop that gives teachers the fundamental skills needed to guide students in filmmaking-related projects. Teachers will learn to use current technology to plan and execute film projects appropriate for their subject and grade level.

Teaching with Narrative Film

Teachers will learn how to see film as text and connect it to their subject matter. Instructors will also cover basic film terms, the role of music in film, how to use film clips and how to ask good questions about film texts.

Teaching with Documentaries

This session will highlight the genre of the documentary form by covering different types of nonfiction genres, documentary structure and argument, and persuasion techniques.

All sessions for teachers are customizable, and a minimum of 15 teachers per session are recommended. Contact SilverEducation@AFI.com for information on pricing and availability.

EDUCATION_SCREENING

Calling all teachers! AFI Silver’s Educational Screenings Program offers free morning screenings, with discussions, customized to your students and your course. We welcome all K-12 students in the greater Washington DC region: public and private, elementary or AP, English language learners and those in specialized programs, such as magnet and Learning for Independence (LFI) students. Students of all ages and levels of proficiency can benefit from developing film literacy. Our growing program conducts well over 100 screenings per year. Since its inception, more than 150,000 students have participated.

Films can be extraordinarily inviting and inclusive class texts. Here are just a few ways they can be useful:

Film — which critic Roger Ebert called “an engine for empathy” — can powerfully represent human experiences, such as segregation or war, making course content more vivid.
Students who struggle with language can more freely practice the interpretive skills critical to Common Core State Standards with visual texts.
A roomful of students can engage with the same film according to their abilities and still be part of the same audience community.
Students often feel more confident expressing and supporting their ideas about visual texts, which can carry over to written texts.
At the same time, the language of film — how films communicate visually and through sound — is often exciting and new to students.
Film viewing can be an opportunity to discuss difficult, challenging subject matter.
Films can also explore themes such as persistence and belonging that support healthy emotional development.

AFI Silver will provide:

A free screening in one of our three theaters in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland and a tour of our historic theater, if available
An experienced educator to frame the screening with both an introduction to encourage active viewing and a post-screening discussion
Lesson support materials, including discussion questions, film terms and activities (such as a scene analysis) to use back in the classroom
For special events we can sometimes bring in a filmmaker
$200 to offset bus rental fees, if necessary

We do not provide transportation. We encourage schools to take the metro or public bus to downtown Silver Spring when feasible.

If you have questions or you would like to set up a screening for your class, contact Stephanie Hartman at SilverEducation@afi.com or 301.495.6744. We will need your desired date, film, start time (usually between 10:00 and 10:30, or earlier) and size of your student group. We can help you choose a film to suit your students and objectives.

Sample films for Language Arts/English: FENCES, THE HATE U GIVE, HUGO, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, MODERN TIMES, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, REAR WINDOW, ROMEO + JULIET, WONDER

Social Studies/History: 12 ANGRY MEN, 13TH, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, BISBEE ‘17, GLORY, HIDDEN FIGURES, I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, RBG, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

World Studies: BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM, HE NAMED ME MALALA, I LEARN AMERICA, LANDFILL HARMONIC, NOT ONE LESS, RABBIT-PROOF FENCE, UNDER THE SAME MOON, WASTE LAND

Science and Environmental Studies: THE COVE, FOOD INC, EARTH, HIDDEN FIGURES, INVENTING TOMORROW, THE MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, NAUSICAA, OSMOSIS JONES, UNDERWATER DREAMS

Math: HIDDEN FIGURES, OCTOBER SKY, QUEEN OF KATWE, STAND AND DELIVER, THE STORY OF ONE

Foreign Language: LES CHORISTES, JEAN DE FLORETTE, MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI, NOT ONE LESS

Special Education and Learning for Independence (LFI): CHASING ICE, COCO, HOLES, INSIDE OUT, KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE, LIFE OF PI, PONYO, SHERLOCK JR, SING (and many of the above)

We offer many more films. Consider the above list just as a starting point.

ANIMATION WORKSHOP

We are currently seeking funding for a week-long animation workshop for middle-school students. This workshop would be free of charge for up to 25 students to learn the fundamentals and techniques of animation, with a showcase of their work at the conclusion of the week. For information about supporting AFI Silver’s education programs financially, please contact Brandon Trainor in the Advancement Office at 301.495.6729 or BTrainor@afi.com.