As part of my journey toward a Certificate in Media and Technology for Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education, I am taking a 4-week course called Deeper Than Edutainment: Taking Books and Their Film Adaptations Seriously. This blog post is to walk you through my experience in the course. I’ll check back in at the end of each week and add updates on how the course is going! 

I am taking the course out of personal interest and to challenge my understanding of the relationship between books and their film adaptations. Here we go!

Week 1. 

My Motivation

The weather is getting colder here in Brooklyn, and I’ve been feeling a bit sick lately, so I am glad that I signed up for this course for the month of November, as I think I will be mostly staying close to home and it will keep me focused and busy. Also, is there anything cozier than sitting down with a cup of tea, a laptop and a notebook on a chilly night? I love learning, and feel so nourished when I take courses in my free time. So, note to self: good choice!

First Impressions

My first impression of the course is that the focus is on building community with peers. There is no facilitator feedback. In the last HGSE course I took, peer feedback was incredibly helpful, so I am looking forward to that. Although I hope this time to make more lasting connections with my classmates, because after the last one I didn’t keep in touch with my classmates on social media. I’ll try to be more outgoing this time around, and not be afraid to connect with people outside of the course. The focus on peer feedback puts some of the responsibility and pressure on the participant, and positions us all as experts with valuable options and insights to share. So what we miss out on in terms of facilitator feedback we make up on with peer connections.

The course is organized in a fluid way. There is great flow, and I could imagine modeling my own online courses after this one. It is very easy to find each of the four modules, the syllabus, due dates, and the discussion forum. 

Getting Started

My first step was to enter all of the suggested due dates into my calendar. Then, I reviewed the guide for best practices for online learners. The course designers do an excellent job of establishing a welcoming and open learning environment, and everything is easy to find. Well done, HGSE!

Learning Framework

Let’s jump into the content! In two simple and brief videos, the facilitators explain that we will analyze books and films through a ‘cross-media framework’ —through the lenses of:

1. aesthetics

2. ethics  

3. academics 

They emphasize that all stories are equal and that we should challenge our tendency to compare and contrast books with their film adaptations. Instead, we can look at them as stories told in different ways. 

Contemporary Media Connections

There are some fascinating analyses of the new Netflix series, The Baby-Sitters Club—namely, a recording of a Zoom call between HGSE and Naia Cucukov of Walden Media, and a clip from Henry Jenkins and Colin Maclay’s podcast, How do you like it so far?, with Sue Ding as a guest. 

My Reflection

Week 1 made me think about the ease of publishing one’s own content in recent years. It has never been easier to produce content! As an artist, I have tools in my pocket at all times, on my phone, that allow me to create, remix and respond to the visual world around me at a moment’s notice. Since I’ve been using a smartphone, my work has expanded into areas I wouldn’t have necessarily thought to explore before, allowing me to make connections between video, painting, sound and photography. Creating content has become more flexible in may ways. Also, accessing content is easier and more democratic than ever before, and we are all, to some extent, curators of our own media worlds. We can easily choose our news stories, social media, art, film, music, etc., and this ability to create an incredibly customized world for ourselves empowers our students! Young people today know what they like, and pursue their preferred genres, concepts, and aesthetics with abandon. This is excellent for them. It gives them agency over their own media experiences, and it’s all because so much content has become so accessible to so many people. I find this exciting, and each week, I can’t wait to see what my students create! 

Week 2.

This week, we began to analyze media through the lens of aesthetics, or how a story’s form, content and structure can exist in synergy with its content. When a work’s form matches its content, we can engage with the media in more meaningful ways. The same applies to visual art—a work’s form can be the vehicle through which the content is delivered (“form follows function”), and something magical happens when the two agree.

We had a choice to interact with one of two stories: Pinocchio or Little Women. I went with Pinocchio because it is considered a ‘classic’ and I haven’t interacted with the story since I was a child.

So, I read a few chapters from the Collodi novel (1883) and watched some scenes from the Disney movie (1940).

I'll start by saying I'd forgotten just how grotesque and strange the story is, and I agree with the many parent reviews on Common Sense Media stating that it is just too much for contemporary audiences, or kids in general.

To circle back to what we learned about last week, I found myself instinctively looking for differences between the book and the movie. I will need some practice in looking at them as equals. Maybe because I was so scared of the movie as a child, I am biased toward the book because it felt less terrifying to read about the scenes than to see them.

That being said, here is my attempt to see them as equal stories.

Instances in both stories of form and aesthetics conveying meaning

In the movie, the shadow of the man herding the donkeys tells a clear and memorable story in and of itself. The verticality of his shadow looms larger than the entire group of donkey-boys combined, even with their pointed ears standing upright in fright. The music and the cracking of the whip evoke fear and terror in the donkeys and in the viewer. The heartbreaking call, 'Mama!,' evokes empathy for Lampwick, an otherwise unlikeable character. Strangely, Pinocchio and Lampwick, who are supposed to be very young, have wrinkles on their faces like grown men. I remembering thinking this was very strange as a child, not to mention Lampwick's smoking and drinking. What is going on?!

There is so much vertical motion happening in the movie. Everything looks shadowy, as if illuminated from below, creating an ominous, frightening tone.

Jiminy Cricket moves the plot along with his small stature which allows him to zip around quickly with ease and resolve complex issues in the blink of an eye.

As for the novel, the visual world I imagine from the text is more like a fable, a watercolor. It isn't as highly visual as the movie, and feels more didactic than cinematic. Collodi really tries to teach a moral lesson of resisting vices and pleasures. The narrator's tone and words reinforce this when they make strong causal connections between the boy's errors and their consequences. At times the narrator seems to almost take delight in the boys' troubles. For example, on page 102—-'Another surprise awaited Pinocchio!' …

Disney seemed to want an entirely different message. The color palettes, so to speak, of both donkey scenes are very different. Where the scene in the novel is more acerbic, the movie scene shows emotional excess in a scary, Hollywood kind of way. It is just so over the top and frightening in a way that is more demanding on the viewer than the novel excerpt.

I honestly don't think I would show this to a group of children at school. It’s too scary and they might not all be able to process it in constructive ways. Maybe it's okay for preteens, but who knows if they'd be interested in it. I would consider showing Pinocchio if I were teaching an Arts Education course and had students find their favorite elements of both stories and come up with a new one for contemporary audiences.

Me, wishing I'd chosen Little Women instead because Pinocchio is too terrifying (lol): https://media.giphy.com/media/LixHIuUnP0r5e/giphy.gif

All things considered, stories like Pinocchio might be continuously retold due to their moral messages. Stories that get kids thinking about what is considered ‘right’ or' ‘wrong’ might be appealing to parents and teachers who want to instill a strong moral character in their children. As always, with all art and literature, more work can be done to select exemplary texts from a variety of voices to be included in the canon. It is an ongoing concern for art historians as well.

I’ve started working on my final project, which will be a unit plan exploring identity through the lens of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis and the 2007 film of the same name, directed by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud.

Week 3.

In Week 3, we examined cross media stories through a lens of ethics—-how do characters deal with conflicts? How is justice conveyed? How are ethical dilemmas resolved? The options to study that week were The Hate U Give and The Watsons Go to Birmingham, and I chose the latter. The course facilitators said Watsons was read widely in schools in the 1960s, and I curiously asked my parents if they were familiar with it and they were not.

I would talk about The Watsons Go to Birmingham with middle schoolers by first sharing some information about the history and context, and preparing them for the difficult topics that will come up in the story. I think it is important to hold space for students to ask questions and reflect on what they are learning about the United States in the 1960s, and the events of the Civil Rights Movement. We could talk about the importance of learning this history, and how racism and injustice continue to be a part of life today. I would ask students to think about how they can make things better in their home, their school, their city, their country and their world. It is important to me that students feel empowered to live a life that rejects injustice of any kind. When having these difficult discussions, I would make space for student reflections in art, writing, and even community activism. For 8th graders, I would have students make character study portraits where they try to capture the personalities and emotions of the characters in the story. These could be based on what they look like in the film, or what the students imagine them to look like from the text. Examining art through an ethical lens prompts us to, as Robert L. Selman and Randy Testa write in What is a Teacher Without Stories? Teaching with Cross-Media Stories to Deepen Professional Ethos, "know the goodness and fairness of human actions and how to conduct oneself in social relationships and society." Stories like these help us realize our profound connection to, and responsibility toward, one another. Stories like this are reminders of the deep well of humanity that unites us all.

This week's readings and videos have been illuminating. The ethics surrounding the Civil Rights Movement, January 6, mass shootings, and justice in general are challenging to talk about with students, but these conversations are essential. I believe strongly that schools should focus on character development, and I think one of the most authentic ways of helping a young person develop a sense of who they are is to talk about real issues. I'm developing my cross-media project for upper middle school and high school students, and think that any of the topics we've learned about this week could (and should) be shared with students in this age group, as long as the learning experiences are tailored to support them in difficult conversations and help them with meaning-making, in a totally open and non-judgmental way. I appreciated reading how teachers helped their students make sense of January 6, especially in the high school civics and government class, where the teacher set aside their lesson plan on McCarthyism and instead turned on the news and talked about it with their students. If students can see real events playing out in real time, and have a teacher who will help them process what they are seeing, they may feel more empowered to ask themselves and their leaders difficult questions regarding ethics. In this sense, I believe civic engagement can be taught, as teachers can encourage students to care about the broader issues that affect their lives. Stories will help students feel more connected to the events and issues they want to learn more about. Cross-media can help students develop more nuanced understandings of complex stories.

Week 4.

In doing a double take of the 2020 TV adaptation of The Baby-Sitters Club, I've been able to better understand the value of the differences in the stories. The TV show reveals that Claudia's beloved grandmother Mimi was forced into a Japanese Internment Camp as a child. This was not mentioned in the books, and provides an entry-point into an academic study of the camps in the U.S. during World War II. Similarly, gender issues not addressed in the book are present in the TV show, when Mary Anne and Dawn discuss a new transgender child they are babysitting. Dawn empathetically explains to Mary Anne that the child is expressing herself in the way that feels most authentic, and Mary Anne shows understanding and respect for the child. These issues promote deep comprehension and critical thinking because the characters are so relatable, the viewer cares deeply about them and wants to learn more about their lives and struggles. Maybe when we can see a small part of ourselves or someone we care about in an issue, we are more likely to educate ourselves on it. As for aesthetics, the show features vibrant music, fashion choices and colors. The characters' homes look like they could be found in Architectural Digest, and I don't believe this was the case in the books. Aside from the two mentioned above, there are many ethical issues that come up in the TV show, such as how Kristy deals with accepting her mother's new husband as part of the family, and how he eventually (spoiler alert) adopts Kristy and her brothers. I don't recall, from the summaries I've read, if this happens in any of the books, but the TV show handled it with care and had me wondering how I would have reacted if I were in Kristy's shoes at that age.

Summary

I'd like to see more opportunities for kids to think beyond the story and relate what they are learning to their own lives. Rather than repeatedly re-creating scenes from the story, I find myself asking, how would I open this up to be more far-reaching, and to get kids to relate the text to their own lives? Maybe they could create their own stories, with similar themes, or develop their own characters. This might allow for more creativity. Maybe kids can make their own story outlines or develop their own characters. They could even do some art related to their ideas, such as making portraits of their new characters and imagining what they would look like, what type of clothing they wear, which posters they have in their rooms, and more. To keep elementary kids engaged, I would be careful of spending too much time on a single story without opening it up to also include other relatable content.

These are the basic ideas behind my unit plan, which I would be happy to share with anyone who is interested. Just email artfuleducational@gmail.com with a subject line ‘HGSE Project’ and a brief message, and I will send it to you.

I would highly recommend this course to any teacher or parent out there!