Would it be precious to raise this with the teacher?

[LynetteScavo]

Just turned 15yo has talked non stop since she got home about a Netflix program she watched in a lesson today. DD obviously enjoyed it, but at the same time is a little bit shocked and has obviously needed to talk about it, to process it. My older DC also had this teacher, and knowing her teaching style DD will be shown a programme in the series every other Friday for the rest of this term with no follow up discussion. I've included the certificate of the program for context.

I certainly don't want to suggest the program isn't shown to the class, but do want to raise that DD has been quite affected by it.

DD attends a small school, teachers tend to know the DC quite well, although DD has only just moved into this set, and staff are very open to receiving emails.

I don't want to look precious, though. I'm now bracing myself for the next instalment in two weeks time.

I would have no issue with DD watching it, if there was a follow up discussion relating to the GCSE syllabus.

I say this as a teacher - it’s not a massively appropriate use of teaching time to be showing full episodes of TV shows that aren’t directly linked - so a 2 hour adaptation of an English text is fine in conjunction with reading the text , and there are plenty of half-hour shows that might go well in a SoW but I thought the days of “sticking on a video” were long over! And I teach Film and Media! My students are often shocked by how little we watch TV shows in class, but it’s just a time-filler quite often. Surely the same purpose could be achieved through the judicious use of clips? (Easy in these YouTube days. I often use 3/4 clips in a lesson of 5 mins or so each. But with discussion and questions alongside them).

Why is the teacher playing videos? I am playing one film of a set text which is 90 mins in conjunction with reading. Anything else they watch at home.

Yeah, I would have an issue with why the teacher thinks it's okay to let them watch TV instead of teaching them him/herself. Especially as they're not discussing it. How will they know what the teacher wants them to take from it specifically? It's literally just watching TV.

I wouldn't have an issue with the certification.

I would question whether regularly watching whole episodes is an effective use of lesson time and would probably be raising my concerns.

As a teacher, it really annoys me when other teachers try to be the cool teacher with lots of extended film/TV watching. Either
A) watching the videos is excellent teaching, in which case is should be department policy and written into schemes of work
Or
B) it's not excellent teaching, in which case the teacher stop showing videos and get back to teaching.

How do you know there's no follow up discussion? The teacher maybe planning it for the next lesson?

pastandpresent
As a teacher I would be amazed if any teacher got enough follow up discussion from watching a TV series on a regular basis that made watching a video a better use of lesson time than actually teaching.

“As a teacher, it really annoys me when other teachers try to be the cool teacher with lots of extended film/TV watching. Either
A) watching the videos is excellent teaching, in which case is should be department policy and written into schemes of work
Or
B) it's not excellent teaching, in which case the teacher stop showing videos and get back to teaching.”

Tbf there were three films a year purposely included in the SoW for a subject I was involved at my old school. English and languages had at least one too. Making a Murderer is really interesting and I think it fits in a Beliefs and Values/RE lesson. I watched Dead Man Walking in my KS3 RE lessons at school and it’s pretty much the only bit I remember 🤷🏻‍♀️. So I think film and tv definitely can be an aid to good teaching!

I would be more annoyed at the waste of learning time. Imagine how much RE they could have got through in an hour.

I read Goodnight Mr. Tom when I was 9 or 10. Book given to me by school and endorsed by my parents and older brother. It's a book for children of that age. It really, really upset me and I still feel cold when I hear the book title now and will probably have a vivid dream about it tonight from having thought about it today.

It wasn't anyone's fault and was entirely appropriate of school and parents to let me read the book, but it affected me deeply. This is common.

Talk to your DD, OP and let her express her feelings and questions about the show.

Personally I wouldn't talk to the school. If you did, what would you say?

I'm not sure what the age certification in other countries have to do with it? In France for example the age of consent is 15 not 16 as in the UK, so I don't think it's necessary to do the 'what if we lived in a different country' comparison?

I would recommend you watching it though, it sounds like it's really captured your DD and it's great for parents to still have something to talk to our teenagers about.

Get a grip fgs!
It’s a documentary nothing awful to see, do you monitor her viewing at home?
She’s 15 not 5.

Get a grip fgs!
IIt’s a documentary nothing awful to see, do you monitor her viewing at home?
She’s 15 not 5.

For me as a teacher and a parent it is the waste of valuable learning time - especially for a subject like RE that has so little curriculum time.

It's a 15, she is 15. As long as it's being shown and then discussed to deal with any issues raised, I'd say that was fine. However I would assume that not everyone in her class is 15 given that it's so early in the school year - so really, the teacher shouldn't be showing it.

AnEleanor
Then that's covered by my first point and they're written into the scheme of work.

That's my point. Either something is good practice and educationally valuable (so it should be in schemes of work and everyone should be doing it), or it's excellent teaching and isn't helping the students excel (in which case the teacher should stop showing videos and get on with teaching).

I show full length productions of Shakespeare plays, but that doesn't mean one of my former colleagues should have been wasting hours watching countless documentaries claiming it's ideas for persuasive writing.

I echo what others have said about the programme being age-appropriate. The teacher should have watched it beforehand, and maybe given them a question sheet., and maybe pause the video every so often to discuss matters as they arise.

Video, IMO, is a great learning tool, especially for this generation. Unfortunately, there aren’t any 20-minute ‘made for schools’ programmes any more.

There might not be “schools’ programmes” but on YouTube there are 5-10 minute clips of basically everything you could ever need that are an amazing addition to a lesson! The other day, teaching the context to a film before we study it, we watched the trailer, an interview with the director, a clip of the author of the original novel reading a section aloud...all really valuable resources that were best accessed by video. But just showing an hour-long video of something vaguely related to the topic wouldn’t have been a good use of time. I think discussing the ideas behind Making a Murderer and showing clips would be valuable. But it’s lazy just to show the whole thing, if that’s what happened.

There is a lot of great stuff on YouTube, but it takes a lot of research to find the right thing. I tend to stick to “Free Science Lessons”, which are typically 3 - 5 minute clips that pack a punch.

I don’t even bother showing these, tbh, I just pop them into Google Classroom for the students to watch during their independent work time on the Chromebooks.

I do wish we had up to date Scientific Eye episodes. And yes, I would put these up to give me a breather to set up the next part of the lesson.

@TwinsetAndPearlss
OP is complaining about age appropriate not use of teaching time.

Does your dd follow the news or enjoy true crime type documentaries? I have a dd who's a bit older and does neither. She enjoys very scary movies but on the odd occasion we've watched true crime sort of things she's been a bit shocked despite watching much more gory horror movies.

If your dd was more sensitive than average (say she had ASD) then you'd have a point that your dd should be excused but it's really common for teens to be interested in serial killers and the prejudices in the US justice system is a very current topic considering BLM etc

If this is a general RE lesson then I'd be fine but if this is a GCSE RE question I would be surprised that lesson time is used like this when the threat of local lockdowns and burst bubbles are hanging over schools.

Video, IMO, is a great learning tool, especially for this generation.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any 20-minute ‘made for schools’ programmes any more.
Surely you just watch the material you think might be useful, decide if it is and then select the most appropriate clip to use?

The whole 'but videos engage the youngsters' is the sort of argument that one of my ex colleagues used to use. Funnily enough their results and books were would have been better if they'd spent less time trying to justify lengthy video watching on grounds of 'engagement' and just taught.

@LolaSmiles

Video, IMO, is a great learning tool, especially for this generation. Unfortunately, there aren’t any 20-minute ‘made for schools’ programmes any more. Surely you just watch the material you think might be useful, decide if it is and then select the most appropriate clip to use?

The whole 'but videos engage the youngsters' is the sort of argument that one of my ex colleagues used to use. Funnily enough their results and books were would have been better if they'd spent less time trying to justify lengthy video watching on grounds of 'engagement' and just taught.

Huh?

I still haven't had time to watch it, will try to this evening.

There have been a few questions raised which I don't want to answer as it would make me identifiable and this is my usual poster name and the RE teachers all have small children so could be MNetters.

If this is a general RE lesson then I'd be fine but if this is a GCSE RE question I would be surprised that lesson time is used like this when the threat of local lockdowns and burst bubbles are hanging over schools.

This thread has helped me realise that this is actually part of my concern, but on Friday evening DD jabbering on and on and on was my main issue.

Yes I do monitor what my just turned 15yo watches, as much as I can, not just because I'm her parent and she's a child, but because it's been very easy to do so during lockdown. I'm not naive enough to think that she couldn't get up and watch an 18 film in the middle of the night if she really wanted to, but Disney + is more her to thing.

I'm assume the teacher has planned discussion into a lesson, but I also don't think it will actually happen. Who knows though, I might be pleasantly surprised!

I totally agree with the poster who said it should be watched as homework, to be discussed in school, but it might be that if pupils don't have Netflix they couldn't watch at home?

Yes I'll admit I do think it might be lazy teaching, as the teacher has the class all Friday afternoon from 12:30, so why not watch an episode every fortnight? I'd probably do the same on her shoes so it's a good job I'm not a teacher