I like to use analogies where possible in my profession. It generates discussion and keeps my class on their toes.

Students often ask me how much they need to write for a response to a given question. My answer is almost always the same -

“It's your barbecue.”

A squint of the eyes and then it comes my way -

“You what? That's not an answer.”

Oh, but it is. A good response is one that's well structured and communicates to the reader the ideas presented in a succinct and well researched manner.

Now consider the analogy of a barbecue. You need the coals to be white hot instead of still burning or else you'll not only lose heat quickly, but the flames will char the food rather than cook it through. The coals are therefore your research – have you researched your topic thoroughly? If not, you'll likely create content that's somewhat unfinished and you'll run out of steam before the end.

Then consider the placement of the grill – too low and your food burns. Too high and your food might not cook through enough. This is your time factor. Manage your time efficiently so you provide a full response. A response that is well balanced, covering the topic evenly. You don't want a strong introduction only for the main body of it to be anaemic, lacking in substance.

You have your coals right where you want them and the grill in the correct position – you're all set to go right? Not quite. What are you planning to cook? Typically, burgers and sausages tend to be the staple of any British barbecue. But is that what you really want in a response? Typical? Typical is average. You're competing against other students across the country from other centres. Unfortunately there's a percentage of top grades awarded and the boundaries are adjusted accordingly thereafter. If you want to be in the top band then you need to think differently from your typical set up.

I want to read responses that have substance to them. I want a steak or skewers of meat, not a burger that's blackened on the outside. Chicken drumsticks that's raw in the centre? No thank you. This is you retaining your knowledge. How good is it? Are you able to articulate your learning on the page to engage the reader? Did you take notes in class and have you done your revision? Offer a discussion that's palatable – one that evaluates the effectiveness of any of the academic ideas you're looking to apply. Argue the question or statement and encourage critical thought. Give me steak I say.

At the end of the day, my students say they want to do well and achieve the high grades, but when it comes to it, it really is their barbecue. If you want burgers, fine. But so do the majority of others. It better be the best burger ever or else suffer the prospect of being washed out by the encroaching storm clouds. Whatever the question or topic is, the response needs to have the right balance of a barbecue.

The same can also be said of teachers – have we considered the curriculum and sequencing of topics in a way that sets up our barbecue correctly? Do we have enough resources to fully engage and deliver to our students? We're the supposed specialists with the subject knowledge, but sometimes that's just not enough. There needs to be a strategy in place that's well planned. How prepared you want to be is up to you – it is after all your barbecue.

As a content creator are you happy with what you're dishing up? Let's continue the conversation on Twitter or Facebook, and share your barbecue habits. Do you reinforce or challenge concepts with a meat or veg option?

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Header by Vincent Keiman on Unsplash

For those of you with a subscription please continue for a peek at one of my curriculum 'one sheets' and the assessment map. I briefly outline the various topics covered across an academic year along with some details on the content students need to learn about.

Did I tell you I love film? I really do, to the point where I take their life lessons and look to apply them in my classes.

It’s often important to have an overall appreciation of long term goals. As a teacher, we plan our curriculum and sequence a variety of topics in the order we deem to be in the best interest of our students over an academic year. If it’s done correctly then progress should be sustained.

On one occasion I had a student approach me – for purposes of anonymity we'll call her Jane – with their paper after I’d given it a borderline ‘E’ grade. It really should have been an 'F', but I didn’t want to completely deflate her so soon into the course – it was her first assignment after all. She wasn’t happy and stressed how she can’t be given these grades.

Film requires a new language to be learned. If you’ve read any of my analyses you will have come across terminology associated with filming techniques. They need to be understood first if you’re to apply it to a film with the intention of acquiring meaning from it.

A series of sessions to explore the basics is essential for long term gain. As Film is very much a modern subject to these students, and only offered at the time as an A Level, it makes sense then that their first attempts would be of low quality.

Explaining this to her, I asked her to trust my methods. I gave her a prediction right there that she would eventually end up with an 'A' grade in her exams.

Roughly a quarter of the way into a two year course, some of the students questioned my methods once more. Calm as you like, I asked them what they were so aggrieved about. They felt they weren’t prepared for any of the pre-public examinations we were running, which were less than a month away.

They felt they hadn’t done any learning of film, and were unable to understand the messages and values in them so they could confidently answer any of the questions. They were an impatient lot!

So I began to tell them of a story of a young boy who wanted to learn karate. His teacher wanted him to literally paint the fence. Paint the house. Wax the car. Sand the floor (I did this in a more engaging way than it sounds). Until he questioned his teacher. He was aggrieved, much like some of my class were. You have to understand, The Karate Kid was made in 1984. This particular year group weren't born until 1998 / 99, so they hadn’t even heard of the film, let alone recognised the analogy I was pitching to them, of which you can see in the clip below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzEhrB4sZbw

So I did the equivalent and proceeded with an impromptu pop quiz – I wanted to prove a point and I wanted to do it with the most vociferous of dissidents. Question after question, I got Jane to fire back the answers. And fire them back she did. They never questioned me after that. And that class ended up achieving in the top 10% of the country for Film Studies that year (quite an achievement since we don't cherry pick students on the course like many others do) I gave them my Miyagi nod of approval when they came in for their results.

Entering a contest or a challenge and working your way through to a final is akin to a student undertaking a series of subjects, culminating in having to take exams to determine your knowledge. And just like an illegal move to the back of the knee, which is like opening the paper and being taken aback by the wording of a question and it not making sense, instead of becoming flustered, gather your thoughts and reach back to your learning and give that exam paper a crane kick to the face!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCenGKkj3YQ

Jane did just that, much like Daniel LaRusso did to Johnny Lawrence! She ended up with the 'A' that I said she would. She listened and she worked hard for it. She fully deserved it. Patience to learn, and to build on your knowledge through repeated practice is essential for improvement. Her training from an A Level perspective was complete. But much like in sequels, there is so much more to learn.

Header banner courtesy of Robin Worrall

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It’s strange that I should be posting my first Super Sunday Showdown between two Disney products. Let me briefly explain my position before announcing the winner of this battle.

Originality and choice are two things that go a long way with me. I do not want restrictions imposed on the content on offer. With that being said, we are very much beholden to media conglomerates with regards to the content we receive.

www.trekmovie.com

Do you notice AT&T buying up Time Warner? How about Disney acquiring Twenty-First Century Fox? What's happening here is that conglomerates are becoming more and more powerful while reducing in numbers. Our choices are not only being minimised, but so too are the messages we receive and are influenced by. Each division owned by the parent company will send out the same message – they are creating a brand after all.

Fox gave us Die Hard. Anyone who's seen this will tell you how much of a marker it set in terms of genre. Die Hard on a bus – Speed. Another corker and a Fox film again. Both original films (well, Die Hard was based on a novel and was set to star Frank Sinatra, but he acknowledged his age being a barrier for the project and turned it down) But the point is, do you think Disney will make a Die Hard type of film, or a Speed for that matter? Home Alone was a Fox film... oh wait, Disney are remaking that – but it's for kids! Who knows what else they'll get their mitts on?!

Disney weren't always like this – they had what was known as Buena Vista (BV) – they still do. It's basically, Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures now. Ever seen Con Air? The Rock? They're Disney films – certainly not the kind of content you'd associate with family friendly audiences (graphic violence and sex). But that was back then. Disney have changed direction. They have essentially found a formula that clearly works for them and have let the brand set in.

Box Office Mojo

In 1995, a variety of film distributors occupied the box office chart. As you can see, Crimson Tide, Dangerous Minds and While You Were Sleeping were all released under the BV banner. These are live-action films reaching out to an adult demographic only. 5 out of the top 18 films belonged to Disney.

Compare how many Disney films occupy the 2016 chart.

Box Office Mojo

In 2016, four of the major Hollywood studios occupied the top ten grossing films of that year. Take into account that Disney have now acquired Twenty-First Century Fox, and you will detect that Disney control 7 out of 10, or doubled their hold in comparison to just over ten years prior.

Box Office Mojo

Isn't it ridiculous that Disney have the top 8 grossing films of 2019? I say it is because where on earth is the originality and choice? This is stifling. They are all part of a franchise or live-action 'cash grab' (cough-cough), I mean, reboot.

Consider SWIFT controlling all banks. Isn't that ridiculous? Don't you think it's good to have disruptors like Ripple? Why should this be any different then?

At least in the past I could respect what Disney were about – encouraging new content and originality, much like the other film studios. But now, the Mouse House has become the monster its films look to dispel. Their films feel hollow – they lack substance, instead focused on churning out near shot-for-shot remakes of their animated classics. Or a rehash of previous trilogies, repackaged with better effects. Hardly pushing the boundaries of originality. They are the 'ready-meal' of the film world!

As media conglomerates consolidate and control a larger percentage of what we read and see on our screens, it becomes all the more clear that we are under an illusion of choice.

It seems as though if I want something different I must look to Netflix or Amazon. They let filmmakers and writers thrive without interfering in the creative process. Every film studio passed on Scorsese's The Irishman. Netflix came in and gave him whatever the resources he needed to make it his way. Is it any wonder why streaming sites are so popular? Scroll through Netflix and see the abundance of 'originals'.

It’s not just about the price of a cinema ticket and the concessions that come with it. It’s about originality and choice. Take either of those two away and the cinema going experience becomes a creche.

Critics often bemoan the lack of originality from studios and castigate them in reviews, and yet they often praise Disney for their films, seemingly giving them a ‘pass’ on each occasion irrespective of them lacking originality. It does make me wonder about a film critics’ integrity sometimes.

Beware the power of conglomerates – consider the source of information you come across. A positive review might be a result of the publishing house belonging to the same business that produced the film.

So, just to be clear, I'm not a fan of Disney, which is why I started this edition with initial trepidation.

Imagery featured in header banner from IMDB

My intention with these Super Sunday blogs is to explore a showdown featuring a variety of topics. Some will be singular posts, such as this, whereas others might require a number of parts to whittle it down to uncover the ultimate winner of the topic being covered.

Please feel free to comment on Twitter about any of the Super Sunday Showdowns featured in the blog... let battle commence!

To find out who won this edition of Super Sunday Showdown, sign up to Coil here. For just $5, you too can enjoy ad-free exclusive content and enjoy the benefits of a supportive writing community.

Reflecting on my experience as a teacher having undergone numerous quality assurance procedures, I'm reminded of the importance to consider our starting positions before accepting any form of defeat.

In the UK we have what is known as OFSTED, an external body acting on behalf of the government responsible for regulating education. The dreaded 'O' word. It sends fear into the very hearts of teachers around the country.

The school I work at has been on the receiving end of an 'RI' – Requires Improvement three times on the bounce. The ramifications of which are extreme.

To learn more about my experiences as a teacher, sign up to Coil here. For just $5, you too can enjoy ad-free exclusive content and enjoy the benefits of a supportive writing community.

There comes a time when you need to step back and reassess.

Working as a teacher holds many challenges. One of those is to ensure you have the necessary resources to engage, motivate and inform your students.

I devised a lesson whereby my sixth form students (16-18 age group) would work on whiteboards I'd secured up on the walls around the room. Instead of being seated on their chairs at their desks, I'd encourage them to be up on their feet in small groups. I called these sessions,

I'd pose a question or statement for all groups to consider (in some cases, a single word) and I'd let them explore it 'live'. They would interact with each other and share their findings, writing any comments or ideas as they came to mind.

This was particularly good for me because it meant I did less work. Now that's not to say I was being lazy, to my mind the student needs to put more effort into their learning than the teacher, or else how are they ever going to learn to develop their independence?

In essence, this was about them applying their critical thinking skills, whilst reducing the negative effects of cognitive overload. By working in groups, students share the workload instead of individually tackling each topic on their own.

Film Studies carries heavily weighted exam questions worth 40 marks per topic on the whole. As such, students are required to hold a discussion with an extended written response if they are to do well. See the subscriber section for a typical exam paper.

Each group would feedback their ideas from their boards to each other. We would share findings to the point where all the necessary material needed for a thorough response becomes accessible to all.

The whiteboard workshops were going great – I'd be using it for nearly every lesson. The students were loving it – they were interacting instead of being talked at. Have you ever been in meetings where you've been lectured to the point of nodding off? Why would students be any different? They would leap out of their chairs and grab a board marker ready to have at it.

But then after a while, there'd be the audible groan when they'd see me pull out the the box of board markers ready for the session. I'd basically saturated the hell out of the practice to the point where students were just fatigued by it.

So, I spaced out the sessions at various points within each topic, and came up with other novel methods of interactive teaching so sessions like whiteboard workshops still feel fresh as they did the first time round.

A teacher requires an arsenal of resource materials and styles to deliver lessons in order to engage, motivate and inform their students. In some way, I've found my blogging experience much the same – there comes a saturation point where as a writer it makes sense to utilise a range of ideas and methods in which to communicate to your readers, or else lose them for becoming somewhat stale.

To what extent am I mixing it up? I'm unsure – I'm still feeling my way around. I'd like to think I'm learning, and have looked to space my film content and intersperse them now with musings such as these where I can draw on my professional experiences as a teacher. In addition, I have looked to offer a different medium of content through my experimental filmmaking exploits on Cinnamon, of which I've thoroughly enjoyed so far, and urge others to dive in if they haven't already done so.

How do you feel about your content on the platforms you're interacting with? Are you mixing it up while remaining relevant for your audience? Let us know on Twitter by sharing in your good practice.

Header from Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

To learn more about Film Studies, and to see what a typical exam paper consists of, sign up to Coil here. For just $5, you too can enjoy ad-free exclusive content and enjoy the benefits of a supportive writing community.