Pedagogy Oct 2022

Film in the Composition Classroom

Zack Shaw

Abstract

AbstractInstructors of writing-intensive disciplines infrequently integrate cinematic media in composition curricula. Furthermore, when instructors use films in composition courses, they often treat films merely as supplemental texts tangentially relevant to course topics and prioritize teaching content rather than media or filmmaking. This pedagogical approach overlooks an opportunity to ask students to consider how the audiovisual rhetorical efforts can meaningfully harmonize or create dissonance with the content. In this research study, the author argues that students are active media consumers engaging frequently with media as a form of composition. He navigates the limitations of Gregory Ulmer and Lev Manovitch, whose early work stressing the primacy of media literacies in composition classrooms is nonetheless seminal to the author's larger claims of film's educational import. The author relates the results of the IRB-approved research of his composition students, who offer feedback about the use of film in the class. The author calls for greater attention to film instruction and curricula development for collegiate composition classrooms, urging educators to move beyond film's supplemental use and toward more educationally fruitful practices, including teaching active watching and basic film analysis. Film is a critical form of cultural communication and media, and the author contends that it is a pivotal part of the landscape of twenty-first century literacy engagements.

Journal
Pedagogy
Published
2022-10-01
DOI
10.1215/15314200-9859320
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism writing pedagogy writing across the curriculum teacher development multimodality literacy studies
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (28) · 2 in this index

  1. Aiex Nola Kortner . 1988. “Using Film, Video, and TV in the Classroom.” ERIC Digest Number 11. https://files.…
  2. Arroyo (2013)
    Participatory Composition: Video Culture, Writing, and Electracy
  3. Bowen (2013)
    Multimodal Literacies and Emerging Genres
     ↗
  4. Brandt (2006)
    Literacy in American Lives
  5. Bruce (2008)
    Visualizing Literacy: Building Bridges with Media
    Reading and Writing Quarterly  ↗
Show all 28 →
  1. Costanzo (1986)
    Film as Composition
    College Composition and Communication  ↗
  2. Council of Writing Program Administrators. 2014. “WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition (3.0).” C…
  3. “Creative Writing for the Media.” n.d. Northwestern Communication Society, Northwestern University. https://s…
  4. Durst Pearce . 2015. “Film in the Advanced Composition Classroom: A Tapestry of Style.” Composition Forum32. …
  5. Edgerton (2002)
    The Teacher-Scholar in Film and Television
    Journal of Popular Film and Television  ↗
  6. Edwards (2016)
    Framing Remix Rhetorically: Toward A Typology of Transformative Work
    Computers and Composition
  7. Hitchcock (1960)
    Psycho
  8. Husbye (2015)
    Composing Film: Multimodality and Production in Elementary Classrooms
    Theory into Practice  ↗
  9. Kress (2009)
    Literacy in the New Media Age
  10. Livingstone (2004)
    Media Literacy and the Challenge of New Information and Communication Technologies
    Communication Review  ↗
  11. Lu (2011)
    The Logic of Listening to Global Englishes
  12. Manovich (2001)
    The Language of New Media
  13. Marcus (2005)
    ‘It Is as It Was’: Feature Film in the History Classroom
    Social Studies  ↗
  14. Marcus (2007)
    Celluloid Blackboard: Teaching History with Film
  15. NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English). 2019. “The NCTE Definition of Twenty-First Century Literacies…
  16. Ong (2013)
    Orality and Literacy the Technologizing of the Word
     ↗
  17. Prunes Mariano , RaineMichael, and LitchMary. n.d. “Introduction.” Film Analysis. filmanalysis.yale.edu/.
  18. Reid (2017)
    Big-Data Assemblies: Composing's Nonhuman Ecology
  19. Shipka (2011)
    Toward a Composition Made Whole
     ↗
  20. Tarsa (2015)
    Emerging Voices: Upvoting the Exordium: Literacy Practices of the Digital Interface
    College English
  21. Ulmer (2003)
    Internet Invention: From Literacy to Electracy
  22. Wargo (2017)
    Tracing Academic Literacies across Contemporary Literacy Sponsorscapes: Mobilities, Ideol…
    London Review of Education  ↗
  23. Yancey (2017)
    Assembling Composition
CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Pedagogy Oct 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy advanced composition creative writing writing across the curriculum graduate education two-year college service learning teacher development technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions archival research multimodality artificial intelligence literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies literary studies editorial matter
  2. Pedagogy Oct 2024
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing writing across the curriculum graduate education two-year college service learning teacher development revision argument collaborative writing assessment writing program administration multimodality multilingual writers literacy studies race and writing disability studies community literacy editorial matter
  3. Pedagogy Oct 2023
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism first-year composition writing pedagogy writing across the curriculum two-year college teacher development collaborative writing assessment writing centers qualitative research multimodality literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies affect and writing literary studies book reviews editorial matter
  4. Pedagogy Apr 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism african american rhetorics cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing graduate education two-year college teacher development writing centers technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions digital rhetoric multimodality social media literacy studies race and writing gender and writing community literacy literary studies editorial matter
  5. Pedagogy Jan 2023
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism first-year composition writing pedagogy writing across the curriculum graduate education teacher development writing program administration writing centers digital rhetoric literacy studies gender and writing disability studies public rhetoric literary studies book reviews editorial matter