The film Billy Elliot was directed by Stephen Daldry and is rated M. It is to be used in the Standard HSC English course and is part of the Texts and Society module in accordance with the NSW Board of Studies.
Overview: Billy Elliot realistically presents Billy's growth as he struggles to find his place in the world and acceptance from his family and the community. The story challenges viewer's attitudes towards issues such as gender sterotying and class.
The above ICT aids the VISUAL learner because it stimulates their primary mode of learning allowing them to "see" a concept in action for example, the issues surrounding a typical Northern Irish mining community in the 1960's. The film media accomodates the learner's imagination allowing them scope to explore multiple possibilities (in this case the focus would be on the various life transitions of the characters and setting). The ICT of film also allows the visual learner to use mental images as a mnemonic device. Use of this ICT potentially increases recall, helps the learner to use the content appropriately and to effectively address issues raised in the film.
EXISTENTIAL learners require a big picture perspective as they seek to make connections accross the curriculum. A discussion about the context of the film, for example the era in which Billy Elliot was set, might prove useful to the existential learner when contextualising knowledge in a history subject. This is particularly relevent to Vygotsky's zone of proximal development. The existential learner synthesises ideas through previously constructed knowledge as well as a sharing and discussion of that knowledge. Similarly to the INTERPERSONAL and INTRAPERSONAL learner, existential learners often need to feel as though they are a part of something bigger.
INTERPERSONAL and INTRAPERSONAL learners acquire understanding of the issues in the film this helps the learner to develop social empathy including an awareness and concern for others as well as skills for relating to peers and adults. Vygotsky emphasises the importance and value that social interaction has on cognitive and emotional development. In order to make a judgement on the issues in the film the students must first examine their personal morals, values, attitudes and feelings. In this sense the ICT of film supports both inter and intrapersonal learners. The ICT of film gives the student access to a form of expression that differs from literature. It offers some variety of media and a basis of comparison between what a film is capable of portraying that a book cannot and vica-versa. A class discussion on this could lead to students sharing and contrasting their own experiences to situations and/or settings that characters in the film find themselves in.
RHYTHMIC learner stimulates their primary mode of learning. Rhythmic learners are particularly drawn to sound and respond to cadence in language as well as music. They enjoy moving to rhythms. With all this in mind the ICT of film and more specifically Billy Elliot is an obvious choice for the learning style of these students. The music and movement in the film will help these students associate strongly with the issues in the film. They will be better equiped to internalise and recall concepts. It is important to note here that the use of this specific ICT (Billy Elliot) might prove more beneficial for this particular learning style than a less rhythmically inclined film. However, for our purposes, the ICT supports the style of the rhythmic learner.
LINGUISTIC learner this type of learner would benefit from film, specifically Billy Elliot, because they exhibit a keen appreciation of the context of language. The "Irish speak" is lyrical and incompasses sayings that may not be familiar to the student thus appealing to their learning orientation.
Hattie emphsises the role that the teacher plays in students learning - clearly an important and substantiated topic as we heard in the news this week - effective teachers are reportedly able to cover material twice as fast and effectively. Thus the way the teacher chooses to implement the lesson is important - as this ICT caters for the highest number of learning styles it is clearly an effective cognitive tool. Exploitation of this ICT means it is possible to reach the evaluation stage of Blooms Taxonomy although it is more likely to invoke a synthesis / analysis level of learning.
Resources:
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/annotations_texts_04_07.doc.
http://hsc.csu.edu.au/english/standard/texts_and_society/world/3244/billy_elliot.html#consider
Blooms Taxonomy http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/researchskills/dalton.htm
Gardner Multiple Intelligences http://surfaquarium.com/MI/
Hattie, J (2005). What is the Nature of Evidence that makes a Difference to learning? www.acer.edu.au/workshops/documents/HattieSlides.pdf
Vygotsky http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/step/ep301/Spr2000/Jenna-B/zpd.html
