Can moving image education improve literacy attainment?

PDF: Can moving image education improve literacy attainment?

Author
Gillian Wilson

Originating Organisation or Projects
EIS Action Research Grants

Introduction

In 2016 the North Lanarkshire literacy programme was introduced in my school, which has meant a change in resources used to implement literacy: a major shift has been the use of moving image.

During the academic year it has been more difficult to know if the children have been attaining, as there are no assessment materials specifically for Moving Image Education (MIE). There is also no set resource so I used a variety of short films and full length feature films as stimuli, chosen by the children.

What I noticed most was the overwhelming interest from the children so I organised a lunchtime club using feature length films. The engagement was evident: in a lunchtime club where the children were free to attend or not, there were consistently 20 children attending from the expected 25.

Throughout, they were receptive and some showed strong inference through colour and sound. Within class the children showed interest and were able to answer questions regarding the character and setting using inferential skills, especially the children who were supported in literacy.

The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation of my primary school is predominantly one, with an above average allocation of free school meals. With improvement in attainment in literacy and closing the attainment gap being key priorities in Scottish Education, it made me think about how I could change my traditional approach to reading, which children may have difficulty accessing, and engage them instead with visual aspects of text.

They still needed to demonstrate higher order reading skills, and strategies would have to be effective. I would also need to prove any impact as a result of exposure to media and conclude that an action research project would be appropriate, focussed on whether children can learn inferential skills and higher order reading strategies more easily through media, and how any attainment can be proven to be due to media.