Tools in Schools workshop

Held at BITM, Kolkata from August 19 to 21, 2010

A summary report

O
ne day, sometime in the early part of the 20th Century,
Hiramba Maitra, an educationist famous for his puritanical
views, was walking along a narrow lane in north Calcutta. He
noticed a movie poster stuck on the wall of the lane and the frown
on his brow deepened. “Bioscope!”, he muttered, “This new craze
will be the ruin of today’s youth!’He was deeply disapproving of the
growing popularity of this new medium of entertainment in India
and considered three hours spent in the sinister darkness of a
movie hall to be an utter waste of time. Movies were addictive, he
thought, and should be shunned like dope.

Just then, a young man bumped into him and asked him the way to
Roopabani Cinema – the movie hall where the movie announced in
the poster was playing. Hiramba Maitra turned away from him in
disgust. “I don’t know,” he snarled. But then after walking a few
paces, he realised that he just lied to the young man. And because
he considered lying a graver vice than watching a movie, he hailed
young man who had turned a corner. “Hey!” Hiramba Maitra
shouted, “ I do know the way to the movie hall, but I won’t tell
you!”

Even in the 21st Century, one comes across teachers suffering from
the Hiramba Maitra syndrome, who believe that education is
serious business while movies are entertainment and “never the
twain shall meet”. But just think about it. When we come out of the
dark movie halls after watching other peoples’ lives for three hours,
aren’t we all a little wiser? Aren’t we a little more knowledgeable
about the ways of the world? We know that a well made movie
stays with us for a long time and may influence our thoughts and
actions.

Movies are integral to a child’s growing up. So why should a

teacher shy away from discussing movies with students? And
should movies not be brought into the classroom?

Why cinema in the classroom

A
group of enthusiastic teachers, who have been exploring
alternative approaches to learning, gathered in Kolkata and
organised Tools in Schools - a workshop to encourage teachers to
bring cinema into the classroom. Cinema can be very effectively
used as a pedagogical tool to initiate classroom discussion, to
illustrate certain parts of the text book, to
draw students’ attention when a topic is
Cinema can be very
effectively used as a
boring or difficult, to make the abstract pedagogical tool to
tangible and to seep some emotion into dry initiate classroom
and dusty logical arguments. discussion, to
illustrate certain
Over and above, cinema itself can be a parts of the text
topic for discussion in the classroom – why book, to draw
the students liked the movie they watched t d t ’ tt ti
over the weekend, which parts of the movie touched them the
most, what the message of the movie was, whether they agreed or
disagreed with the message and whether they had an alternative
message to offer …
Tools in Schools Kolkata

A
t the Tools in Schools workshop held at the Birla Industrial &
Technological Museum at Kolkata (August 19 to 21, 2010),
teachers who use cinema in the
classroom shared their experiences
It grew
and expertise. They demonstrated the
apparent that
use of cinema in the classroom and
clippings of
popular movies
illustrated how lesson plans could be
could be used to
constructed around a movie clipping.
teach history,
It grew apparent that clippings of
geography
popular movies could be used to teach history, geography, physics,
life science and most importantly, life skills. Often, as the teachers
illustrated, the same film could be used in different classes to
generate different levels of discussion and initiate diverse activities.

Day 1

T
he workshop began with an introductory session on film
appreciation conducted by Dr. Somnath Zutshi. A teacher has
to realise that a movie can charge a student’s mind and a movie
can open many worlds at the same time with knowledge,
imagination and wonder. In the subsequent session, taken by
Subha Das Mollick, the participants watched a charming short film
“Muted Music” (Courtesy Prix Jeunesse Foundation) about a child’s
loss of hearing. One of the teachers found it just the right film for
discussing non verbal communication, while another said that this
film should be used for teaching life skills such as anger
management and coming to terms with a disability. For science
teachers this is a great film for initiating a discourse on hearing and
the human ear. The teachers’ responses to this Icelandic film
exemplified multiple possibilities even in a different culture and
context.

The 50 participants were teachers who teach in classes ranging

from Class 2 to Class 12 (see List of Participants for details),
functioned as active listeners for 12 sessions (See Abstracts), each
more exciting than the other.

Amita Prasad gave valuable insights into the teaching of history

with the aid of film clips. Exquisite clips from the Poorva Uttara
series made the grandeur of the Qutub Minar, the Taj Mahal and
other Islamic edifices part of a journey through the ages instead of
mere words in a text book. Clips from Richard Attenborough’s
Gandhi immediately took us to the shores of another India, where
the power of civil disobedience was captured in a fistful of salt from
the sea. This clipping triggered off a heated discussion among the
teachers on Gandhiji’s philosophy of non violent resistance.

Bubla Basu began her English session with the reading of a poem
‘Mebula Ramasandra’ by Valerie Noble. The poem, obviously about
racial prejudice, was complemented by clips from a PBS
documentary, A Moral Journey (etc) giving actual news footage of
the 1960’s in America and introduced Robert Coles, a child
psychiatrist who counseled 6 year old Ruby Bridges, the first Afro-
American child to attend a previously All-White school and the
impact that this created –on her and those around her. The class,
one of input and opinion, is one after which the exercise given to
the children is “ That morning, I looked out of my window and ….”.

The final presentation was by Anjum Katyal who screened the

Czech animation film Hand by Jiri Trinka. The group exercise
following the screening threw up a number of suggestions on the
meaningful exercises that could be generated from this film. Some
suggested students could ‘identify the hand of the oppressor
through the ages in history’, while others were more inclined to
interpret the ‘hand’ in literature and the metonymic uses of ‘hand’
in language. Other teachers said that they would play the game of
‘persons’ and ‘non persons’ in class after the screening of this film
and thus identify the oppressor and the oppressed in society. Still
others suggested that they would go one step further and explore
ways to resolve the conflicts suggested in the film.

On that enthusiastic and charged note Day 1 came to an end.

Day 2

D
ay 2 began with a refreshing session by Sumita Mazumdar on
how an atmosphere of freewheeling and self motivated
learning can be created outside the confines of the classroom. All
that is needed is to arouse the curiosity of children with some
snippets of information, anecdotes, movie clippings etc and they
can independently source and research content, even download
images from the Net and line them up to make a film of their own.
Technology today is literally at the fingertips of our children and
they are capable of recording the germination of a seed with a
mobile phone camera or recording their thought process on the
mobile camera mike.

Science teachers prefer live demonstrations or blackboard

/whiteboard diagrams to showing films in class. But the world of
cinema offers spectacular possibilities that can never be replicated
in real life. Subha Das Mollick suggested that a lesson on simple
machines could be revved up with a sequence from the popular film
Home Alone .It could be followed by a serious discussion on how
Kevin managed to glide to the tree house from his bedroom. The
spectacular sequence of tapping the power of lightning in Back To
The Future could fuel a discussion on the power of lightning,
harnessing power and the impending energy crisis. Any chase
sequence in cinema can generate a discussion on conservation of
energy and momentum and only Hollywood can produce sounds
powerful enough to blow away a human being. Popular films can be
used to dispel the fear of science and generate enthusiastic class
discussion.

The National Curricular Framework drawn up in 2005 underlines the

importance of a pupil centric learning
The National
environment, where the teacher is a
Curricular
facilitator. It states that all alternative
ramework
concepts or ALCONS should be weighed drawn up in
out before discarding them. It erases the 2005 underlines
boundary between the curricular and the the importance
extra curricular. Very little of the NCF has yet been put to practice
as it is not easy to shake off the inertia of decades. At the session
dedicated to the NCF, Debasish Mandal demonstrated how using
films will make it easier to follow the guidelines of the NCF.

A session on sourcing sharing and cataloguing films was conducted

by S.V.Raman. To recharge the participants for this last session of
the day, he screened two films – The Passenger and The Boy The
Slum and the Pan Lids. There were discussions on the meanings
connotated in the visuals of these films, both of which were without
dialogues. A list of useful websites and names of organisations
were given out to the participants at the end of Day 2.

Day 3

D
ay 3 began on the chimes of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times
illustrating the point of man turning into machine. Rupali
Sachdev initiated a discussion on our dependence on machines and
how this most unfortunately has led to our materialistic values. In
the same session, a music video by Anand Patwardhan was shown,
where an optimistic popular song sung by Kishore Kumar on the
soundtrack contrasted with the images of nuclear holocaust on the
screen. This session triggered off an animated discussion on the
defence services, a borderless world and whether being offensive in
self defence was morally right.

The final session of the workshop was taken by Mita Pramanik who
illustrated “The Shield of Achilles” by W.H Auden, concerning
heroism in ancient Greece could be made more relevant using film
clippings. Worksheets were given to participants to show how the
clippings could be integrated into the lesson plan. In the same
session a short film called Rice Plate was screened to generate a
discussion on a deep seated prejudice in our society. As part of a
‘personality development’ class, such a film can help the students
become more sensitive to individual differences in religion and
society.

Group work

P
erhaps the most exciting part of the workshop was the group
work. The participants were divided into
five groups according to the subjects they The
taught and each group was given a short film
participants
or a film clipping around which they had to
were divided
into five
develop a lesson plan. The two largest groups
groups
were the group of Primary school teachers and
according to
the group of English and History teachers. The
smallest group was the group of Mathematics and Science teachers.
The other two groups comprised teachers of Life Science,
Geography, Environmental Science and Life Skills.

The Primary school teachers gave two delightful presentations

based on the short film A Sunny Day (Courtesy Prix Jeunesse
Foundation) and the 3D film Turtles (Courtesy BITM). The other
groups, in spite of lack of homogeneity in terms of level of students
and curricula, managed to come up with interesting activities and
points of discussion around the films given. For details refer to
Group work reports.
The Life Skills group presentation was based on the Mongolian film
Friend (Courtesy Prix Jeunesse Foundation). This group designed
activities to drive home the idea of inclusion. Several issues
concerning the content of the film were discussed and questions
were raised as to what issues could be explored in the context of
the classroom.

The Tools in Schools workshop was rounded up with words of

advice from Principals and educationists, the awarding of
certificates and the promise of a Follow -up Workshop.

Road ahead
Before bringing this report to a close, plans for the immediate
future include:

1. A request to all participants to share their experience with

their colleagues and conduct a session with a film clipping. A
request that Principals try to make it convenient to attend this
session.

2. A request to all resource persons to share the films in their

possession with the workshop participants.

3. Form an online forum for networking and sharing of ideas and

expertise.

4. Find platforms to take special classes with students and invite

teachers as observers.
5. A one day Editing Workshop to be conducted in September
2010.

6. A Follow Up workshop to be conducted in November or

December 2010.

7. A special course on Film Appreciation for teachers to be

organised during the Summer vacation 2011.

Dr. Zutshi had said in his introductory session, “somebody puts in

the money, somebody rolls the camera, somebody performs in
front of the camera, somebody puts it all together on the editing
table and cinema breathes with a life of its own. It asserts an
autonomous existence.”

We wish the same thing for Tools in Schools as we take on new

initiatives India wide.

Participants in the workshop

T
he group of 49 participants at the workshop was indeed
heterogeneous, across boards, from urban to semi urban
schools, from principals to primary teachers, from art teachers and
Ngo trainers to teacher trainers.

Among the teachers, 10 were from 6 ICSE schools,11 from 6 WB

Board schools,17 from 2 + 6 (KV) CBSE schools, 3 from 2 teacher
training colleges,6 from 4 NGOs, 1 from an international school and
one Montessori teacher.
DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOOLS/INSTITUTIONS

English medium ICSE

1. Akshar-2
2. Childrens Foundation-3
3. DPS, Mega City-1
4. Loreto Dharamtala-2
5. Shaw Public School-1
6. Usha martin Group-1

English medium CBSE

1.Birla High (boys)-2
2.MB Girls HS-2
3. KV, Ballygunj-2
4. KV, Fort William-2
5. KV, Salt lake 1-3
6. KV, Command Hospital-2
7. KV, Dumdum-2
8. Kv,Cossipore-2

WB Board Bengali Medium

1. Loreto Sealdah (eng medium)-3
2. Gonipur Shitala HS-1
3. Bethune Collegiate school-2
4. Behala HS-2
5. Nripendranath Girls HS-2
6. Baidyabati Charushila Balika Bidyalaya-1
NGO
1. DRCSC-1
2. CLPOA-1
3. IPER-2
4. CRY-2

Teacher training institutes

1. Teacher training college, Loreto House-1
2. Satyapriya Roy College of education-2

The Cambridge School (A Level)-1

Little Palms( Montessori)-1
 Total No of Participants: 49
Participants’ feedback

Feedback forms received: 41

T
he feedback form was designed to gauge which sessions they
had enjoyed the most, which ones they felt were relevant to
their classes and if the group work to design a lesson plan for the
classroom situation was useful. From the analysis of the feedback
one can deduce that the workshop in general was enjoyed and
appreciated by all, save for a couple of sessions which some of
them felt was relevant as a teacher in general but not to their
subject, in particular. The group work most felt was extremely
enjoyable and relevant, giving them hand on experience on linking
a film clip to a teaching issue and devising ways to introduce it in
class.
The workshop was intensive, over 3 days (with tea being served
during sessions for paucity of time!), but most were happy with the
length of the workshop given the fact that that they took back
several skills at the end of the three days.

Session Most enjoyable Least enjoyable Most relevant

Zutshi 1 8(technical irrelevant 1
Multiple applications 5 2
history 4 2( not subj) 3
language 2 1 2
Cinematic stimulus 1 1 3
Env science 2 1
Pure science 5( not subj) 5
Curricular framework 2(repetitive) 2
database 1 1(handout instead) 5
Life skills 1 1
personality 3
Group work 6 4
presentation 1
all 4

Interaction Interaction Interaction Too Too Just

adequate inadequate too much long short right

With res person 32 2 1 9 2 17

With participants 28 7 1

There was great enthusiasm at the end of the workshop to follow

up this workshop with a training session on editing, voice over,
making blurbs and putting several clips together in sequence. The
technical know how and practical hands on training on ‘readying’ a
film for the classroom, which this workshop didn’t give; an Editing
workshop is therefore the need of the day.

Another good suggestion was to have an Online forum to

exchange ideas among the teachers and resource persons and to
review progress made. Requests were made to upload relevant
films on a “tools in schools” site. There were also requests for the
names of some editing software, while some teachers asked for
copies of the clips shown during some of the sessions (Muted
Music, The Hand, The Boy, The Slum and the Pan’s Lids, Home
Alone, etc)

With regard to the group activity, the opinions were diverse.

Some felt the subject groups were too disparate to work together
(for e.g., EVE, Geography and Life Science was one group) while
others felt the group divisions should have been on the basis of the
board and not the classes taught. Still others felt that the workshop
itself should have been separate for primary and secondary
teachers! A valid observation was that the group size may have
been smaller to elicit responses from all members instead of just a
few but this was not possible given the overwhelming response by
the schools.

Looking into the future, suggestions were for involvement of

students during the presentation, like a mock classroom situation;
others felt teachers should be asked to work with their own clips. A
few asked for a list of Subject related films /list of movies as
examples which may be used in class, particularly relevant regional
films.

All these suggestions are being considered as valid requests to be

met with in the near future. The best time suggested for the follow
up was pre vacation time in winter while the editing workshop was
requested as soon as possible , while the memory of the workshop
is still fresh in their minds.

Some Special comments: Serving tea in the room disturbing!

Conference room without natural light and air not condusive!
Principal was made a student again!
Filmi Chashma name is ridiculous for such a serious activity.

- Report prepared by Subha Das Mollick, Devika Kar

- With inputs from Debasish Mandal, Bubla Basu, Malini
Mukherjee, Sunita Biswas
 Filmi Chashma
TOOLS IN SCHOOLS, KOLKATA
Profiles of resource persons

DR. SOMNATH ZUTSHI: A psychiatrist by profession and with a

passion for cinema, Dr. Zutshi is reverred as one of the foremost
film scholars in the city today. However, his interests extend
beyond cinema to the burning social issues of the day. His essay
NATION, WOMEN AND THE OUTSIDER in the anthology
INTERROGATING INDIA and his book BIOLOGY IN POLITICS:
EVOLUTION OF AN IDEA IN MODERN TIMES, are acknowledged as
seminal woks on gender and racism. Dr. Zutshi has also translated
works of Bengali literature into English.
Contact: dr.s.zutshi@gmail.com

SUBHA DAS MOLLICK: A media teacher and a documentary

filmmaker, Subha Das Mollick switched her career from teaching
Physics to teaching media more than 15 years ago. She has been
the head of the Film Studies and Mass Communication Deptt. at the
St. Xavier's College, Kolkata and nurtured the twin departments
during the initial formative years. She has to her credit a series of
20 video lectures on script writing, based on which an online script
writing course – the first of its kind in India, was offered by the
University Grants Commission. Presently an independent filmmaker
she engages herself with projects related to alternative approaches
to education. Contact: subha.dasmollick@gmail.com

AMITA PRASAD: An alumnus and currently also a teacher/middle

school coordinator of Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata, Ms
Prasad has taught at different levels, more or less continuously
since 1985. Co-author of ‘Time Travel’ – a delightful series of
History text books for Classes III, IV and V (OUP), she is involved
with the editorial work of ‘Teacher Talk’ –the Teachers’ Centre
Kolkata magazine.

Using audio – visual material has been a regular feature of her

history classes ever since she began teaching. With improved
facilities being made available in school, films are used as a part of
curriculum transaction for the last few years in History and Value
Education classes; with her wide experience, she has guided
colleagues in the use of films in English, Environmental Education
and other subject areas and can be contacted at
amitapras@gmail.com.

BUBLA BASU: A senior English teacher, Bubla has taught in

Kolkata, Delhi,Pune, A.P., Bangalore and is currently Senior English
Teacher/Consultant at The J.B.Petit High School for Girls, Mumbai.
She has authored several children’s books apart from scripting for
Childrens Film Society and BBC World. Films have always been an
area of interest for this part time drama teacher and she has
conducted several workshops on film appreciation and script
writing. Contact: bubla@rediffmail.com

ANJUM KATYAL has been Chief Editor, Seagull Books, Calcutta

and Editor, Seagull Theatre Quarterly. As a Trustee with Seagull
Foundation for the Arts, she has been closely involved with
conceiving and initiating PeaceWorks, a youth-focused programme
that uses the arts to tackle socio-political questions of inclusion,
difference, identity and communalism. A published poet, she also
edits Art and the City, a web journal on the contemporary arts in
India, sings the blues, does translations, reviews books and writes
on theatre and the visual arts. She is currently working with
Saregama-HMV. anjkat@hotmail.com

SUMITA MAZUMDER, a History major from Delhi Univ, she has

been conducting creative, interactive classes for children in the age
group of 6-16 in which viewing and making film clips is an integral
part. sumita.majumdar123456789@gmail.com

DEBASISH MANDAL: A senior Biology teacher of The Oriental

Seminary School, he also runs his own group “Empathy” through
which he works for environment education and quizzing. He is a
state resource person in the life skills education program and
conducts quizzes on parliamentary affairs. contactdebs@gmail.com

S V RAMAN: A civil engineer by educational qualification, popularly

known as Raju Raman, he decided over three decades ago to make
a career out of his passion for languages and the arts, being
associated with the German Cultural Centre, Max Mueller Bhavan
from which he retired as Programme Director and Deputy Director
in April’10. A keen debater since his schooldays, he also dons the
mantle of quiz-master and anchor-person for talk-shows, panel
discussions and other events on stage and on the small screen. He
served as the all-India General Secretary of the Federation of Film
Societies of India from 1988-92, when Mr Satyajit Ray was its
President. A guest lecturer for Film in the Mass Communication
courses at Jadavpur University and BILAMS, Mr Raman also
regularly contributes as a free-lance journalist to newspapers and
periodicals in India and abroad. rajusvraman@gmail.com
RUPALI SACHDEV: teaching in Mahadevi Birla Girls School since
1987, she studied film studies at Chitrabani in 1989-90, under
Father G. Roberge. She has started a film club in her school and
may be contacted at rupalisachdev@yahoo.co.in on 9830477891,
between 5pm-7pm.

MITA PRAMANICK: senior English teacher at Modern High School

for Girls,previously with Don Bosco,Park Circus, Ms pramanick uses
films not only in teaching English literature in the senior classes but
also in personality development. She was the animator of ‘Images’
a Film Appreciation and Book club at MHS.
Contact: mitapram@gmail.com

MALINI MUKHERJEE: currently coordinator for Intel Education

programmes in the Eastern Region, she has worked in the
education sector for more than 14 years as researcher, teacher and
trainer. She has also coordinated several quality improvement
programmes in schools, universities, NGOs and Govt. projects and
she may be contacted at mukherjeemalini@yahoo.co.in

DEVIKA KAR: a trained environment educator, she worked with

WWF –India’s education programme for several years during which
she wrote a teacher’s training manual, conducted teacher training
programmes and camps, and was part of the team that developed
a nature study park in the city. Today, she is a freelance education
consultant and editor, involved in the preparation of resource
material, conducting teacher training programs, field visits,
corporate training, and organising events.
Contact: devikakar@gmail.com
 TOOLS IN SCHOOLS
List of participants
BITM, Kolkata August 19 to 21, 2010

NAME SCHOOL SUBJECT CLASS

1. Jeenu George Loreto Dharamtala All Primary iv

2. Ipsita Dutta Loreto Dharamtala Comp, math, science, V to viii

3. Suranjana Chaudhuri Childrens Foundation Eng,soc stidues, Primary ii-iv
math,GK
4. Ishita Banerjee Childrens Foundation hist,geog Primaryiv

5. Rita Paul Childrens Foundation Eng,hist vi-viii

6. Roshni Dasgupta Loreto Sealdah Eng/value ed vi-ix

7. Rhitu Roy Loreto Sealdah Phy sc ix-xii

8. Celine Halder Loreto Sealdah All primary
9. Maitreyee Das Shaw Public All librarian

10. Shuvashree Mukherjee DPS Mega City Geog vi-viii

11. Sutopa Basu KV Ballygunj Math hindi eve primary
12. Lipika Biswas KV Ballygunj Science vii-x
13. Abira Sen Bose MB Girls Eng ix-xii
14. Gargi Datta MB Girls History ix-xii
15. P.Premela KV, Fort William English vi-x
16. Sikha Das KV Fort William Env studies Primary iiii-v
17. Rita Sarkar KV1,Salt Lake All Primary
18. Pushpendra K Pandey KV1,Salt Lake Soc sc vi-x
19. R Roy KV1,Salt Lake Physics
20. Sadhana Das KV Cossipore Eng Primary iii-v
21. Arup Ray KV Cossipore Supw vi-xii
22. S Basu KV Dumdum All Primary
23 Bhabesh C Sarkar KV Dumdum BIO vi-x
24 Rupa Mukherjee KV Command Hospital Science vi-xii
25 Ram Pukar Mahto KV Command Hospital Math, EVS Primary i-iv

26 Dr S Kar Gonipur Sitala HS Geog v-x

27 Kaushik Saha Gonipur Sitala HS Hist v-x
28 Dulal Mondal The Oriental Seminary School Math ix-xii
29 Nilanjana Adhikari Bethune Collegiate School Beng vii-xii
30 Arunima Sanyal Bethune Collegiate School Eng vii-xii
31 Dr. Bera Behala HS Principal(eco/eng) viii-xii
32 Parta Sarathi Gayen Behala HS Eng viii-xii
33 Ruma Bagchi Nripendranath Math ix-xii
Girls HS
34 Seema Sengupta Nripendranath Eng/eco xi-xii
Girls HS
35 Arundhati Bhattacharya Baidyabati CharushilaBose Eng/math/eve v-viii,xi-xii
Balika Bidyalaya
36 Bharati Mukherjee primary
37 Kaberi Banerjee DRCSC Life skills primary
38 Sunita Biswas Cambridge School History ix, x
39 Shoma Chakraborty TTC Loreto House Value ed,eng,psycho TTC students
40 Udita Sen Satyapriya Roy College of Pol science xi-xii
education
41 Rajarshi Pal Shibpur Dinabandhu English vii-xii
Institution
42 Swapan Das CRY Life skills Ngo
43 Kriti Majumder CRY Life skills NGO
44 Bharati Sood Akshar All Primary
45 Leena MaryAnn Francis Usha Martin Group All primary
46 IPER Ratna Bhattacharya Life Skills NGO
47 IPER Shakuntala Dutta Life Skills NGO
48 Birla High School for Boys Sharon D’Souza All ? Primary
49 Birla High School for Boys Jayanti Srikant All ? Primary
50. CLPOA Prosenjit Roy Chowdhury Non formal

Abstracts of sessions held at the Tools in Schools workshop

at Birla Industrial & Technological Museum, Kolkata from
August 19 to 21, 2010

How a movie makes meaning (Session 1: Aug 19)

A number of people contribute to the making of a movie.
Somebody gives money, somebody writes the script, some body
else acts out the script and somebody photographs it. Yet, when a
movie is completed, it gets a life of its own. The light and shadow
world of the movie is an autonomous world, separate from the real
world. It is a world of illusion and yet, the spectator willingly enters
this world. The spectator strikes a unique equation with the movie
and makes his own meaning. The meaning emerges in the
individual moving images and in the juxtaposition of the images. In
this session, the meaning making process of a movie is
demonstrated through the Odessa Steps Sequence of Battleship
Potemkin and an animation film from Czechoslovakia “Darkness
Light Darkness”.
Dr. Somnath Zutshi

One Film Multiple Applications (Session 2: Aug 19)

‘Muted Music’ is a film about hearing and deafness, about friendship

and envy, about frustration and reconciliation and much more. In a
span of 15 minutes the film touches upon music and noise, modes
of sublime communication – all under the intense gaze of
Beethoven looming large in the background. A viewer would be
touched by this film as if by a magic wand. A teacher of science,
literature or life skills can show this film in class to win the hearts of
the pupils and then initiate a discussion on the mechanism of
hearing, or on coping with a physical disability or on the meaning of
true friendship. This session demonstrates how the same film can
be introduced in different ways to different groups of children. The
children can then be taken to a higher level of understanding and
realization through a focused discussion along a chosen track.

S Das Mollick

Teaching History Through Films (Session 3: Aug 19)

A teacher of History faces a number of challenges.

• A subject which deals with the past needs to be brought
alive in the classroom.
• Students need to feel that a study of the subject is relevant
– especially since there is a widespread impression that only
Mathematics and the Sciences are “important” subjects.
• History teaching does not merely entail the imparting of a
certain quantum of information to the students. Through
the teaching of History, the teacher needs to develop in the
pupils certain skills – the ability to reason, analyze, and
draw logical conclusions (there can be more than one
conclusion for a given set of data).
 • To give the students an understanding of a particular period
in the history of a country, the teacher needs to emphasize
not only political developments but also social trends.
• The teacher needs to cultivate in the students a sense of
wonder and appreciation of the heritage of mankind –
heritage in terms of art, architecture and culture.
• Students need to become acquainted with the art of
interpreting historical sources.

The list is not exhaustive. Suffice to say that the task of the History
teacher appears to be a daunting one. The text books that are
available to History teachers fall far short of what is required and
the teacher has to rely on a variety of other materials to help her
fulfill this onerous task. Films are a valuable resource available to
us and, if used judiciously, can go a long way to fulfill our goals.
This workshop will attempt to look at how the above mentioned
objectives can be achieved through the use of films.

Some of the film clips that will be used to demonstrate this process
include:
• Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi
• History of the Cellular Jail
• Purva Uttara: a series of short films on historical sites of
India (Marg Publications)
• You tube video clips

Amita Prasad
Films and teaching language (Session 4: Aug 19)

An English teacher does not and cannot only teach English as a

language. It is the thread that binds together all possible areas of
living and it is thus a tool and a skill for life. It is the world
language that encompasses the events of past and present, the key
to exploring discoveries that have brought us to where we are in
our civilisation on this planet.

In India, we are still trying to understand the value of English

beyond grammar and punctuation. The only way in which we
possibly can do this is by using English in specific contexts before
we use it independently. We learn to look at a whole, and then its
parts. The best way is surely through the careful choice and use of
cinema where pictures are the language that everyone can follow.

This session will draw from visuals re: 1955-1960's in America. Film
clips will be used from:

1. RFK -The American Experience

2. We Shall Overcome
3. A Moral Journey with Robert Coles
The session will be an example in which substitution and not
duplication will be emphasised.

Bubla Basu
Cinematic stimulus in the class (Session 5: Aug 19)

A movie is full of connotations. Everytime you watch a movie you

discover something new and one may even say that every movie
has something for everybody. So how would children respond to a
short film like The Hand by Jiri Trinka? Even though it is an
animation film, the message is rather dark and gloomy. And even a
5000 word interpretation may not be enough for this 10 minutes
long film. So teachers watch this film and then work in groups to
discuss what kind of discuss and exercises can be generated from
this film in classes ranging from class 2 to class 12.

Anjum Katyal

Life science and films (Session 7: Aug 20)

Being outside the confines of school and syllabus is an enviable

position to be in. And that is exactly what Sumita Mazumdar has
chosen for herself. However, most of her activities with her “Electric
Imagination” group are take offs on the school curriculum and the
syllabus. In this session she will discuss her method of guiding her
group through a project. She triggers the imagination and curiosity
of the group with bits and pieces of information, with anecdotes
and stories. Then she shows them a film that tells them more on
the subject, at the same time leaves them hungry for more. Once
the children get motivated to learn more, there is no stopping
them. They go on the Net, read books and also often do activities
under her guidance. The children record their observations not with
pen and paper, but with mobile phone cameras or simple digital
cameras. A project that begins as an EVS project may meander into
History or Geography. The project may carry on for months and
often culminates in a short film compiled with visuals downloaded
from the Net or captured by their simple gadgets.

Sumita mazumdar

Science In Popular Films (Session 8: Aug 20)

Why should a maths teacher or a science teacher show a film in

class? Isn’t it much better to do hands on experiments than show a
film? Perhaps that is true. But a film, after all, is a magic wand. It
can yield results way beyond the expectation of the teacher. So
what kind of films can a maths or physics teacher show in class?
Biographical films to inspire the students? Why not?
Films that make abstract concepts tangible?Certainly.
Films that can initiate a debate on the burning issues of the day –
big dams, nuclear energy, climate change, human gene mapping
and much more?A definitive yes!
A film can also be used to show activities that cannot be done live
in the classroom.
A film gives a human face to science and sprinkles the dry concepts
with a little emotion.
This session illustrates how a science teacher may turn to popular
blockbusters to cull out superbly crafted sequences that
demonstrate some of the basic concepts in the science text books.

S Das Mollick
Films in the scope of the national curriculum (Session 9: Aug 20)

The guiding principles of the National Curriculum Framework are

• Connecting knowledge to life outside the school.
• Learning shifted away from rote methods to constructivist
methods.
• Curriculum provides for all development of children
rather than remain text-book centric.
Debasish Mandal’s presentation will show how appropriate use of
films in the classroom can help fulfill the above guidelines.

Debashish Mondal

Audio-Visual Communication / Film Appreciation (Session 10:

Aug 20)

We are living in an era of media revolution and moving images

engage our attention for quite a few hours every day. But the
question is: What kind of moving images are we exposed to,
particularly young formative minds? It is mostly what is dished out
on the various channels of television or the excessively hyped
versions of Bollywood films in the name of entertainment. This
results in a kind of colonising and blunting of the mind, luring it to
an addiction for only a certain kind of moving images, whereas the
scope extends far beyond.

Pioneers of the film society movement like Satyajit Ray,

Chidananda Gupta and others managed to create for at least three
decades after Independence an aesthetic taste for good cinema
among viewers, which somehow seems to have got eclipsed by the
onslaught of television and mainstream cinema. The average age of
viewers attending screenings of good films arranged by film
societies is an alarming 60+, revealing the fact that subsequent
younger generations have not at all been exposed to meaningful
and thought-provoking moving images.

It is proposed that an effort be made to bridge this gap by exposing

young minds at the high school level to the tremendous power and
possibilities of audio-visual communication as an extra curricular
activity. By showing them excellent shorts, documentaries and
even meaningful feature films followed by discussions, one can not
only create a general awareness but also motivate them to apply
their minds to look at and read films differently and involve
themselves deeper with the issues addressed.

S V Raman

Life skills (Session 11: Aug 21)

Many of us may be subject teachers , but are often asked to take

classes In Moral Science/ Value Education/ Life Skills/ Health
Education / General Studies, but may not know how to use cinema
in these periods. This presentation is focused on meeting these
needs.

Children are basically sensitive, enthusiastic, energetic, idealistic

and with a strong sense of justice. We should provide them with
space for expressing these aspects of their personalities. The films
we choose to screen may also open up their worlds and channelize
their energy and indicate paths in which they can travel, in future.
All of us who have been working with children may have noticed
the increasing influence of cinema not only in the way students
dress up or behave, sing or dance, but also the way they think and
act. The primary source of ideas, opinions, facts, attitudes and
values is, very often, the films they watch. Realising that using this
medium in the classroom, would make them more aware, sensitive
and beautiful human beings, a film club was started in our school.
For the last few years, students of class 9 have been taking active
part in weekly screenings and discussions of films.

We will see a few clippings so that the qualities children have

always had - sensitivity, a sense of fair play, love for beauty - find
expression. We shall show them films on issues which are not
discussed in details in their text books, we shall show them people
made invisible in most books and cinema-but without whom, we
would not lead such comfortable lives- tribals , farmers, labourers.
Children can then, see for themselves marginalised sections of
society and issues made invisible, and begin to ask questions about
the system of which they are a part. That’s the first step taken.

After this, we can leave them alone, to find themselves, and if they
wish, and if we can, guide them in their journey.

Rupali Sachdev

English literature / Personality development (Session 12: Aug 21)

In her first presentation, she uses video clips from two films ‘Troy’
to introduce ISC students to the Homeric world of legend, alluded
to in W.H.Auden’s poem and ‘ All Quiet on the Western Front’ which
depicts the killing fields of modern warfare.
The second film presentation, ‘The Riceplate’ has been used to
explore the ideas of Prejudice which prevail in Indian society.

Mita Pramanik

TOOLS IN SCHOOLS Group works

The participants were divided into the five groups:

1. English History group
2. Life Science, Geography, Environmental Science group
3. Maths and physical sciences group
4. The primary school teachers’ group
5. Life Skills group

The following brief reports give an indication of the group dynamics

that worked within each group and how they arrived at the lesson
plans they finally presented.

Planning for the presentation: a report from the English-

History group

The English and History group watched the last 20 minutes of the
film The Diary of Anne Frank. After an initial period of debating
whether to have two separate English and History lessons it was
decided to merge the two together, with two teachers co-teaching,
for the presentation. So it was planned that the lesson would begin
with the History teacher picking up from a previous discussion
about Hitler’s Jewish policy and the horror of the holocaust, which
ran parallel to the Second World War. After the class had watched
the film the teacher would ask questions to gauge whether the
students were able to comprehend and connect the Jewish “policy”
they had learnt about, with the actual and chilling incarceration of a
group of Jews and their fate after being discovered. Then the
importance of Anne Frank’s diary as an original/primary source of
history would be explained. From this point the English lesson
(presented by an English teacher) would take over with an exercise
on diary writing. Then there would be a creative thinking exercise
where the students would be asked to think about times they have
been in hiding, what were the possible things one could feel the
need to hide from, is it not true that everyone has something to
hide or is hiding from something. As an extension activity
connected with the themes of war and peace, hate and hope a
poem on peace would be read out by the teacher.

- Sunita Biswas

Lesson plan development for EVE/Life Science/Geography

group

The 9 members of this group were S Chadha, S Mukherji, L Francis

and M Das (Librarian) from ICSE board and P Pandey, S Das, L
Biswas, C Sarkar and R Mukherji from KVs (CBSE). The latter 2
were bio teachers while the rest were EVE and Geography teachers.
The lone teacher from WB Board who was to be in this group was
absent.

The clipping shown to the group was from the film “Beautiful
People” and the sequence was about animal life in semi arid regions
showing a glimpse of animal behaviour pertaining to an ostrich
family (the mating ritual, the care of the eggs, predators,
protective instinct, etc)

After viewing the clip, the group was asked to refer to the group
activity sheet and note down the following details:
• Which part of the clip could be used to excite a class?
• Which topics/themes (for class VI-X) came to mind when
they viewed the clip?
• Which class/level would this be most appropriate for?
• What other activities could be linked to this lesson?

Since we were in the conference room along with the eng/history

group whose film took 20 minutes to view, we did lose out on time
so moved to another spot to discuss our lesson plan.
It was decided that the bit about the man trying to steal the ostrich
eggs would be not only amusing but could also be used to generate
discussions on mans interference in the natural system, predation,
camouflage, etc in EVE while in Geography one could discuss
adaptation to arid conditions: feet, long neck, wart hog burrowing;
in Biology, the topics could be camouflage, parental duties in birds,
display plumage, predation.
We then returned to the conf. room to re view the clip to mark out
the portions to be shown and then plan forward. In the group of 9
there seemed to be only 2 or 3 who were vocal and sharing ideas.
The others were ‘happy to help’!

I must confess that I left the group to their own devices soon after
as they seemed to be moving in the correct direction. (It seems the
biology group sat separately and planned their lesson as they felt
that the level/topics didn’t match their syllabus, something I was
told only the next day when it was too close to the presentation to
change things around.)

The presentation on the final evening, however, was totally

different from what was initially decided and it would be interesting
to see what was documented during the discussion of the group to
cause this change.
Personally, I feel that though the group understood that they were
to prepare one lesson, they were (like some other groups too) keen
to show the rest during the presentation how much they could link
to this one clip and hence the presentation was not really well
structured for one class/period. Since they were all strangers I
don’t think they had much time (or inclination) to discuss the
lesson after the session and it was pretty much left to the
presenters’ own devices.

Given the limited time and communication within the group, the
presentation, though not an ideal lesson plan by any means, at
least showed that they had exploited the potential to develop a
lesson around a film clip, which was what they had set out to do.
An immediate exercise for us, the organizers, would be to generate
a list of useful films for all subjects, with their sources to enable
them to start experimenting with using films in their classrooms.

- Devika Kar

How the Primary Science group developed its lesson plan

The primary Teachers group had a mix of 12 teachers from
Kendriya Vidyalayas and private schools . All , except one, were
lady teachers and hence the male teacher practically did not
participate. Interestingly, all teachers were from English medium
schools.

2 films were shown to the group:

A Sunny day – a small 4 minute funny animated film on how the
sun rises up in the morning, gears up for the day, looks for a friend
but his attempts are thwarted by everyone, digs into icecream on
the sea beach, and ultimately gets recognition when people on the
beach admire his setting colours.

A Turtle’s adventure – a 15 min film shown at BITM auditorium .

Traces the journey of a little turtle from the time it hatches from
the egg, to his underwater voyage where he meets several
underwater creatures, till he finds his mate and journeys back to
lay egg. Interim

The group decided to take up both the films, A Sunny Day for the
preprimary and the Turtle’s Adventure for the upper primary , as
they found both of them interesting. To identify the objectives,
there was a random jotting down of concepts and skills , which
could be covered by the films. There were too many ideas coming
up. Some are given below:

A Sunny day –
Concepts:
• Colours
 • Opposites- Night and day, light and shade, happy and sad etc
• Solar bodies- sun, rainbow, stars,etc
• Friendship- why do we need friends?
• Routine- What do we do in the morning? What do we do
before we go to bed?
• Different time of the day

Skills:
• Observation and inference
• Comprehension
• Expressing ideas
• Reproducing images seen through drawings or role plays
• Identifying colours
(See A Sunny Day)

A Turtle’s Adventure-

Concepts:
• Underwater life
• Land and water life
• Food web
• Responsibility, helping attitude
• Fear and how to overcome it
• Journey/Adventure

Skills:
• Observation and inference
• Comprehension
• Expressing ideas verbally and in writing/creative writing
• Reproducing images seen through drawings or role plays
 • Categorising, Comparing

Teachers debated if all of these could be taken up. Some advised

that the few important concepts could be taken up which could be
covered in a week’s time. There were also debates on whether
children would be able to retain the film after seeing once, and
continue to work on it for a week’s time. It was decided that
immediate tasks with reference to the films can be given on the
very day, but tasks derived from the films, but which does not
require immediate reference like discussions on issues like
friendship, role playing, rhymes, creating aquarium could be taken
up gradually. Many activities were suggested to cater to the films.
See Lesson plan on Turtles film.

Interestingly, teachers could relate both films to poems and texts in

CBSE syllabus.
They also found 2 rhymes which could be taught. One teacher
brought from home a suggestive craft that could be done by
children.

However, many activities were typical of a primary classroom.

Attempts at innovating new activities were rare. One teacher
suggested that only worksheets would suffice. Suggestions of
having a small aquarium in the class and asking children to bring
any aquatic life was not acceptable as, some thought, it was not
practical. Also using the film as an audio visual experience with
emphasis on experiencing the underwater sound or 3D experience
and generating discussions around it were initiated but were not
taken forward. Teachers also avoided any activities catering to a
Bengali medium class.
The assessment sheet could have been shared with teachers at the
beginning to bring their discussion to track. Many ideas emerged,
but there need to be some more encouragement on unusual
interesting activities, as classes as these are rare within a school
curriculum and teachers need to make the most of it.

The enthusiasm was high. All 11 lady teachers participated. There

were a lot of debates, arguments, but in a good spirit. Task was
distributed. Teachers wanted to learn from each other and accepted
ideas. They took each others contact address. Overall, there was a
very positive energy in the group.

- Malini Mukherjee

How the Maths Science group developed its lesson plan

The maths – science group was the smallest group of the workshop
consisting of 7 teachers from different boards – West Bengal Board,
ICSE as well as Central Board. Thus, even though the group was
small in size, it was hardly homogeneous. The heterogeneity was
compounded by the fact that the teachers taught at different levels.
Yet, it goes to the credit of the group that they could arrive at a
consensus about the presentation.

The film shown to this group was “Donald Duck in Mathemagic

Land” – the first two sequences of the film, where Donald Duck
learns about the Pythagorean series and the musical scale from the
Greeks and then about the ‘golden rectangle’. He discovers the
golden rectangle in works of art and architecture and in nature and
learns to draw the spiral using golden rectangles of successively
diminishing sizes.

Even though the film is highly entertaining, it holds some highly

sophisticated ideas which can be expanded and worked upon in a
number of successive classes. The ideas in the first part of the film
about the Pythagorean series can be introduced in the Physics class
on musical scale, octaves, harmonics and musical instruments. Yet,
the group did not take up that idea for presentation, perhaps
because there was only one Physics teacher in the group. After
some initial debate, the group chose to work on the golden
rectangle. Their decision was perhaps guided by the fact that they
watched the film in the mathematics gallery and there is a
prominent display on the golden rectangle in the same gallery. One
must mention here that inspired by the beginning of the film where
Donald Duck gets lost in the mathemagic forest, initially some of
the teachers discussed creating a mathemagic forest in their class;
but quickly this idea got sidelined in favour of the golden rectangle.
As a post screening activity, the teachers decided that the children
should draw the spiral that emerges by joining the corners of the
golden rectangle.

The teachers admitted that the idea of the golden rectangle was
new to them. It was definitely not a part of the syllabus and they
asked me in which part of the syllabus it could be contextualized. I
suggested to them that it could be incorporated either in the basic
geometry lesson on rectangles or in the lesson on ratio and
proportion. One of the teachers came up with the idea that the
students could be made to work in pairs and discover the golden
ratio in their body parts – say, the length from shoulder to elbow
and then from elbow to wrist. With these lengths they could draw
the rectangles and then further sub divide these rectangles into
smaller rectangles. Another teacher came up with the idea of using
India’s national flag to introduce the concept of rectangles of fixed
ratio of sides. Thus developed the lesson plan – first the flag to
introduce the concept of proportionate rectangles with a fixed ratio
of sides, then the film to introduce a very special rectangle, then a
classroom activity to draw the golden rectangles and the spiral
either on graph paper or with coloured papers, depending on the
class and finally, as an extended activity or a project after class,
identifying golden rectangles in nature and art and taking pictures
of these objects with a mobile phone camera and sharing them with
e - pals.

The teachers agreed that the idea of the golden rectangle could be
introduced in primary classes as well as higher classes – right upto
higher secondary classes where the concept of irrational numbers
are introduced. In each class the golden rectangle could be
explored to different depths. The time was too short for the
teachers to understand the concept fully and then adapt it to the
class lesson. They did not get an opportunity to view the film a
second time. Nor did they get time to try out certain activities
hands on. In spite of that, they managed to develop a workable
lesson plan and give a decent presentation.

With more time, the potential of the film could have been explored
further.

- Subha Das Mollick

Workings of the life skills group

There were 12 participants in the Life Skills group.

We were shown a short film “FRIEND” in which a boy( Orgil)about
18 years but of mental age of 13 years had a friendship with a boy(
Baatar) of 10 years. Orgil was bullied by his peers. But his friend
Baatar is not like it at all. He gets beaten when he tries to make a
protest. One day he tries to teach the the bullies a lesson by using
pepper replacing nicotine in the cigarette and tries to pursue them
to have a smoke. When the trick is found out, Baater gets beaten
by the peers. In the meantime Orgil appeares and attacks the boy
with stone in his hand. This leads to imprisonment for Orgil. Baatar
is broken hearted.
Participants came down to the level of class 9-10 and watched the
movie with utmost eagerness. The facilitator asked some pointed
questions like:
Whether you have any friend like this
What are the necessary characteristics of friendship you would
look for in your friend
How do you feel when you are bullied
What do you do when you are furious
Whether you can recognise your emotion
Which are those emotions you recognise today
How many of these are controlled by you and how many are not
How do you resolve your anger
How do you say ‘no’ to smoke
After this interaction, multiple interpretations were generated. Then
these interpretations were scaffold by the facilitator by performing
different types of activities like role play, brainstorming, games
etc.. All these activities were performed through collaborative
approach. Through those activities using this film participants got
some idea about the core generic life skills like self awareness,
critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, creative
thinking, interpersonal relationship, interpersonal communication,
and empathy, coping with stress and coping with emotion and
assertive skill.
At the end of this session participants were able to recognise the
life skills and connect those life skills in their own life situations.
Hence multiple manifestations of different life skills were observed.
Then our teachers (participants) prepared an outline of lesson plan
design using this film on the basis of observation,
conceptualisation, cognitive apprenticeship, collaboration,
interpretation construction, multiple interpretation and multiple
manifestations. After the observation of that film, students can
construct their own knowledge, unlearn some misconceptions and
relearn some good findings through the help of a teacher facilitator.
See Life Skills Education lesson plan

- Debasish Mandal
 A SUNNY DAY

This film had been chosen as a lesson for the Pre-primary children.
The plan is as follows:

ENGLISH
1. Comprehension
2. Creative writing – a day in the Sun’s life, a day at a sea beach,
a day when the sun overslept
3. Concepts of day & night, before & after, hot & cold, sad &
happy, seasons, friends
4. Sequencing
5. naming words, doing words

EVS
1. punctuality & routine
2. colours in the sky, beach, rainbow
3. categorization – observation skill
4. co-ordination – motor skills development
5. drawing
 Lesson Plan
(activities for a week)

Age group – 8 to 10 years

Movie – The Adventures of the Turtle (3D Movie)
Note – This film can be used in teaching various subjects.

Objectives – It will help develop

• Observation skills
• Listening skills
• Speaking skills
• Comprehension skill

Concepts of the following will be understood better:

Science
• Life under water
• Adaptation in animals
• Mammals
• Migration
English
• Collective nouns
• Creative writing
Value Education
• The value of friendship
• Caring

Introduction to the Film- One week ahead I would start

advertising the film. Posters with words like ‘splash’ ,’crack’, ‘swim’,
etc would be displayed. They would be asked to bring a shoe box, a
stick, chart paper and colours. Introduction to the film-Let us watch
the story of a dear little turtle

Points along which classroom discussion will take place:

SCIENCE
• Which were the animals that you saw living in water?
• Is there any name that these animals are known by?
• How do you think they breathe?
• Do you think that the dolphin and the whale is a fish?
• What are mammals?
• We first saw the turtle on land then in water. Is the turtle an
aquatic animal? Why?
• Are there predators in the water?
• Could you see a link (who eats what?)What is this link called?
• Why do you think the animals were moving in big groups?
• Were they migrating?

For language
While doing Collective Nouns(school of whales, shoal of fish , flock
of birds) I will go back and connect it to migration.
Creative writing- You were under water throughout the film. In
reality you are always above water. What is the difference in
experience?
Value Education
How would you feel when you are in danger. Imagine travelling to a
new place.
How would you help someone in danger? We saw the turtle help
another turtle caught in a net.
How would you feel if your mummy and daddy returned home late
one day?
They can make posters, slogans and write poems – to save turtles

Activities – these can be done over a span of one week.

Some of us like maintaining an aquarium. How do you think man
got the idea of an aquarium?
With the help of the shoe box an aquarium will be made. Later
children may search and write facts behind each creature made.
Children may act as plants, fish, turtles, sharks and dramatize the
food chain.

Regards,
Jeenu George
Loreto Dharamtala.

Subject: Life Skills Education

Objective : The lesson aims at helping children to interpret

situations and acknowledge the role of vital life skills like empathy,
self control, communication, decision making and assertive skill in
acceptance of differences; dealing with challenges like stress,
isolation, anger, frustration and depression; and appreciation of the
universal nature of human emotions, challenges and methods of
accepting or dealing with them.
Age group : 15 years, class IX
Duration : 3 periods

Starter Activity:
The class begins with a game in which all students participate. The
teacher asks the students to form a circle by joining hands. She /
he asks a volunteer to step out of the circle. This ‘outsider’ is then
asked to try to make his / her way into the circle. The ‘insiders’
defend their space while the ‘outsider’ fights to make a place
among them. The volunteer is then called back into the circle and a
new volunteer is asked for. This may be repeated twice/thrice. It is
interesting to note the behavior of the ‘insiders’ towards the
‘outsider’ and vice versa (before and after the latter is reinstated)
as well as that of the first ‘outsider’ (once he/she has been
reinstated in the circle) towards the next.
Once the game is over the students take their seats. Any follow-up
discussion is avoided at this stage. They are simply asked to hold
on to what they felt while the game was in progress.

Observation and individual work:

The teacher draws the students’ attention to the audio visual input
for the lesson and introduces it simply as a short film from distant
Mongolia without divulging any detail regarding the theme,
characters or plot. The selected film is then shown.

After the viewing the students are given a few minutes for quiet
reflection to think about what they have just seen –the characters
and their lives, the incidents and twists the story takes and the
dominant feelings and attitudes which emerge from the various
interactions in the film.
Group work or collaboration:
The class is then divided into groups of 5/6 students and asked to
respond to a number of questions. These may either be put up on a
board or handed out in the form of questionnaires. Each group is
asked to select a group leader who records the responses of the
group members. These responses are collected from the groups by
the teacher after completion. Questions for this part of the lesson
may be selected from the following:
• What feelings emerge from the following relationships- Batar
and Orgil, Batar, Orgil and the bullies, Batar and his parents,
Orgil and his parents.
• Why is Orgil referred to as ‘stupid’ or ‘foolish’ by Batar’s
parents and the other boys? Is his behavior more foolish than
that of the other characters?
• Do you think Batar should have obeyed his father and not
befriended Orgil? Why or why not?
• What do you think Orgil and Batar felt at the following points-
their first meeting, their first and second encounter with the
bullies, after hurting the child and finally while Orgil is being
taken away by the police.
• Which characters, according to you, did the right thing and
who were wrong? Why?
• Was crime and punishment evenly balanced in the film- for
Orgil and the little boy whom he assaulted?
• Did you like the ending? Could the film have ended differently?
How would you have liked it to end?
• For your desired ending which characters should have behaved
differently? What should they have done?
 • What would you have done if you were in Batar and Orgil’s
place?
• What would you have done if the cigarette was offered to you?
• Which characters need to change in the story and how?
• What do you think will happen to the characters after this?
• What did you enjoy in this film? Suggest a title for it.
• Relate this to any real life or fictional friendship between two
apparently unlike people you may have experienced,
witnessed or read about.

At this stage it may be mentioned that the teacher should be

prepared for the fact that the film is likely to generate multiple
interpretations .
The following responses are among the few which may be
generated:
• Orgil was right in hurting the boy. The boy was wrong and
needed to be punished and the revenge taken was justified.
• Orgil was a true, loyal friend. I would have done the same
thing in his place. He should not have been punished for it.
• Batar was wrong in rousing Orgil’s anger.
• The cigarette trick was funny and Batar was smart to have
thought of it.
• The police should not have arrested Orgil.
• Batar’s father should have been more understanding and his
mother should have been more assertive.

Presentation or group sharing:

The groups are then asked to make a presentation based on their
interpretations by selecting any one of the following activities. The
teacher should ensure that each option is selected by at least two
groups:
• Present a role play showing how similar incidents may occur in
a class room situation or in the playground and people’s
responses in such a case.
• Prepare and present interviews of the following characters -
Batar , Orgil, the boy who is hurt, his friends, the parents of
Batar, Orgil and the boy he assaults, an onlooker who
witnessed the arrest of Orgil.
• Act out the alternative / desired ending to the story of Orgil
and Batar.
• Imagine that Batar manages to sneak out and go to prison to
visit Orgil. Act out the meeting and the conversation that will
take place between them.

Consolidation and conclusion:

After the presentations an open house discussion takes place about
the story. Teacher consolidates the day’s lesson by focusing mainly
on the acceptance of those slightly different from us, the
importance of friendship, the importance of communication in
breaking down barriers and important life skills which may help to
avoid such situations and how to exercise self control when life
throws up a variety of challenges.
To end the lesson the teacher gives the students a few minutes to
reflect on the oneness of humanity, the universal nature of human
emotions irrespective of time, place or demographics. He/she asks
them to quietly remember the times when they have been
insensitive to the plight of others or have lost control over
themselves and done something which they regret. Finally they are
asked to make a promise to themselves that they will try to be
more sensitive and matured next time they face a trying situation
and also make a note of it.

Opinions

Principals and educationists came to the Tools in Schools workshop

as observers. Some of them stayed on for an entire day, some
stayed for just a couple of sessions and some of them evaluated
the presentations of the groups on the last day of the workshop.
Here are opinions of some of the honoured guests who graced Tools
in Schools

T
he Three-Day-Workshop on Use of Films in learning lesson at
School level at BITM from 19th.- 21st. August,2010 has
opened a new dimension specially to the teachers of the Bengali
Medium Government Aided Institutions. Being the Principal of a
Higher (Senior) Secondary School,stepping into 125th. Year, I think
if the class-room teaching is imparted with the clippings of popular
films it will have an overwhelming impact on the mind of young
learners. The use of movies in the class-room can substitute the
board-work and repeated lecture, make the abstract tangible and
manifest the unspeakable with different point of view on different
subjects. If this system is introduced in Bengali Medium School
undoubtedly learners can learn their lesson with much enthusiasm
and interest forgetting the monotony of the traditional class-room
situation and enjoy the lesson as it becomes less and less like
lesson and more like entertainment. – Dr. D Bera (Principal, Behala
High School)

I
t is an effective and emerging mode of teaching learning
process.Now a days media plays a important role in our society.
So using films in classroom situation is necessary to create interest
in teaching learning process. It is quite tough to implement this
process in our system due to lack of computers in schools. But
through this process we can easily generate joy and fun among the
pupils and the pupils learn the subject joyfully. - Dr. Swapan Kr
Sarkar (David Hare Training College)

T
eachers cannot follow the same pedagogical methods year
after year. The teaching learning methods should evolve and
improve through research. This method of using films in the
classroom, demonstrated in the workshop, is a very interesting one
and can get the student interested in the subject. We have started
applying this method in our school. – Dr. Manoj Bhattacharya
(Principal, The Oriental Seminary School)

A
fter Taare Zameen Par, it has become so much easier to
explain to our students what learning disability means. 3 Idiots
has beautifully illustrated the advantage of learning by
understanding over rote learning. In Bengali films you will find
teachers with varied personalities. Thus our popular films can be
very effectively tapped as resource material – not only for B.Ed
classes, but for all subjects. – Dr. Subir Nag (Principal, Satyapriya
Roy College of Education)
Our team

E Islam (Director, BITM)

Devika Kar (Workshop co-ordinator)

Gautam Seal (BITM)

Veronica Kayal (Assistance)

Debasish Mandal (Core group)

Bubla Basu (Core group)

Malini Mukherjee (Core group)

Amita Prasad (Core group)

Rupali Sachdev (Core group)

Sumita Mazumdar (Core group)

Digvijay Mishra (Photographer)

Arijit (BITM)

Satinath Mukherjee (BITM)

Subhash (BITM)

Chandita Mukherjee (Director, Comet Media Foundation)

VP Jacob (Comet Media Foundation)

Subha Das Mollick (Project co-ordinator)