Woelders, Adam. “Using Film to Conduct Historical Inquiry with Middle School Students.” (2007)

Woelders has always enjoyed films with historical themes as they created his love of history and inspired him to read about and study the past. He has always attempted to incorporate historical films into his classroom but admits that he used them solely to visualize the past and did not realize how the films could impact and influence students’ notions of the past. Media have influenced students’ understanding of the past more than any teacher or textbook. Woelders describes how it is imperative that teachers study the influence that film has on students’ understanding when incorporating this medium into their history classrooms.

He begins the article with a discussion of his use of film in his middle school history classroom. A study was conducted with twenty-nine grade eight social studies students of various ethnic backgrounds in his school near Vancouver, British Columbia. Through this study, he details how he could improve his use of film to teach history to middle school aged children.

The findings of the study were derived from samples of student work, focus group discussions, surveys and classroom observations. They describe how film can be used to build upon students’ current understanding and use of historical inquiry. The study seeks to fill the void in research detailing students’ experiences of using feature films, docudramas and documentaries to aid in learning history.

From this study, Woelders concludes that films should be integrated into the middle school history curriculum as it engages students to learn about history though historical inquiry. He also discusses the importance of using film to teach about history as opposed to teaching history from or through film. Other studies completed on the subject are used to bolster the distinction between the different methods of using film in the history classroom.

Woelders argues that teaching about history with film recognizes that films should be used to accomplish historical inquiry and challenge students to question, evaluate and compare and contrast different interpretations. It is through historical inquiry that students are challenged to design their own historical knowledge based on suppositions, conjecture and assumptions that are drawn from the evidence, not solely on what is taught or read in textbooks. This leads students to develop and practice an authentic notion and use of historical knowledge, evaluative and analytical thinking, and a critical ability to interpret different media and persuasive communication skills.

Woelders also details concerns about teachers using film in their classrooms to teach history. He completed a detailed review of research articles written about using film in middle school history classes and his own experiences. The results are displayed in three figures detailing the misuses of film in history teaching, inquiry based activities using film to teach history and teaching using historically themed films.

The article also discusses how the author conducted his research through the creation of different lessons using what he had learned from the abovementioned literature on the subject. He made field notes from classroom observations, recorded his own reflections, conducted two surveys and conducted two focus group interviews. The data were analyzed using teacher action research and coded and analyzed to identify themes and recurring patterns. Three main themes emerged: misunderstanding or confusion because of the use of film, evidence of historical understanding from the use of film, and evidence on the impact of students’ viewing habits.

There were eight important themes that emerged from the data that Woelders felt should be considered by other middle school history teachers when incorporating film into their classroom. Within each section, Woelders uses student rhetoric to enhance his findings. Firstly, film can be used to motivate students to be inquisitive and compare film to other resources. Secondly, film can enhance students’ understanding of how interpretive historical inquiry can be. Next, film can be used to aid students to recognize and become critical of their viewing habits. Fourthly, film can also be used as historical inquiry and encourage students to compare their sources of information. The fifth and sixth themes are that film may also aid students in more effectively deciphering text-based historical resources, and graphic organizers that are well constructed can engage students and help them build upon their understanding of historical films. The seventh theme is that historical inquiry through film compels teachers to obtain first-rate resources. Lastly, when developing their lesson plans, teachers should consider the stance of the film.

Woelders also experienced limitations to using film in the history classroom, many of which he did not expect to encounter. Firstly, the planning and delivery of the lessons he completed took longer than he anticipated. Also, it was limited due to the fact that film storylines often progress quickly and assume that the viewer has a lot of prior knowledge on the subject. The author included a figure detailing how to decide if a film is suitable for classroom use. Thirdly, the author’s use of ranking and comparing and contrasting textbooks, primary sources and films inadvertently led students to rank films as less reliable and hold the textual based sources as more accurate. Lastly, students detailed fact-finding worksheets as being the second most useful learning activity in the classroom. This detailed the significant differences between what students deem to be useful exercises for learning.

Woelders concludes the chapter by describing how the use of film is one tool that can be used by middle school history teachers to engage students in the explanation of differing representations of the past. Nonetheless, films need to be incorporated into high school curricula in order to have a significant impact on students’ thinking beyond the school walls. Lastly, Woelders reiterates how teachers can use films to teach about history, the impact it will have on students’ learning and how film should be considered as one of the many tools used in history classrooms.