13 hours ago
Students head to the movies in Massachusetts for opportunity to learn new lessons from films
Middle and high school students in the Boston area are leaving their classrooms to learn lessons at the movie theater.
The Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline just wrapped up its first year of the Coolidge Classroom. The program, created with local teachers, is designed to enhance classroom lessons, highlighting everything from social studies to science to language.
"Teachers value this program," said Sophie Blum, the director of education at the theater. "We didn't know when we launched this program what the response would be."
Enhancing classroom lessons
During the pilot year, Coolidge Classroom welcomed more than 2,000 students, showing six films over the course of six months.
"It's a change of pace. I feel students want to learn some real life content," said Xiaoxu Jing, a Mandarin Chinese teacher at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.
"I think good movies have very good educational value, similarly to how good books have good educational value," said senior Neva Vuletic.
Jing's students screened "The Farewell," written and directed by Boston College alumna Lulu Wang. The movie, about a Chinese-American woman who learns her grandmother has a terminal illness, features both English and Mandarin.
"It was really good for us to know Chinese to watch this movie," said freshman Hugo Shiung. "There's, like, two layers to the movie, if you know another language. The English layer with the subtitles but also there's a whole other language with slightly altered meanings."
Connecting with each other
After watching the film, Blum helps lead the conversation, engaging the students as well as their teacher.
"The goal of Coolidge Classroom, beyond curriculum, is to give students who wouldn't necessarily have an opportunity to connect with each other something to talk about," said Blum.
"Everybody should get the chance to not only see an interesting movie but see with their classmates," said junior Naveen Tuio.
Everything, from the lunch and popcorn to the transportation, is free for the schools and students.
"The breadth of dialogue that you can get in a program like Coolidge Classroom that you can't get if you just stay in your own classroom, in your own school, in your own neighborhood," said Blum. "That's been my favorite part of the program so far."
There are already eight movies scheduled to be screened for the upcoming school year, including the Academy Award-winning film "Flow."
