Films about the Jewish Experience: Classroom Toolkit

During Jewish American Heritage Month or other times during the year, organize a Jewish Experience Film Festival and together watch and discuss films about Jewish people and the Jewish experience.  

• You can show a film every week during the month, have students watch films on their own, or do a school-wide film festival and show several films each week.  
• To engage students and others more actively in the process, create an organizing committee of students, families and staff where they decide on the films, set the schedule and publicize the event.

For elementary students: select age-appropriate films, watch the film together as a school community and debrief/discuss the film focusing on Jewish identity and importance of conversations about diversity. 

As a class, create a film rating assessment rubric to use when rating films and then use the rubric when viewing a film from the Common Sense Media list. Engaging students in creating a rubric will help them consider and analyze criteria for rating films.  

• First, decide on five overall categories for which you will rate the films (e.g., Portrayal of the Jewish Experience, Visual Effects/ Cinematography).
• Then divide students into five small groups, assigning each group one of the categories.  
• In their groups, explain to students that they are going to create the explanation for what each of the 1-5 ratings should look like for their category. (1: unsatisfactory, 2: needs improvement, 3: meets expectations, 4: exceeds expectations and 5: outstanding/excellent).
  • For example, if the category was “Portrayal of the Jewish Experience” a 1 would be that it depicts stereotypes and offers very little insight into the Jewish experience, and a 5 would be that it shares different perspectives and nuance to highlight the complexity of the Jewish experience.
• After each group creates their scale, reconvene the class and allow each group to share the categories they came up with. Invite comments and additional suggestions before finalizing the rubric.  
• Then, use the rubric to rate a selected film from the Common Sense Media list. Consider opportunities to improve the rubric OR opportunities to improve the content of the film.

For elementary students: Either create a rubric yourself to utilize when watching and evaluating films about the Jewish experience, or create categories and guide students through the process of creating an evaluative tool for evaluating the films.

Have students explore characters in a film by working together in pairs to craft questions and responses for a mock interview.  

• As a class, create a series of interview questions for characters in the film. (Push students to generate questions that will reveal values, personality traits and perspective).
• Pair students up and assign students a character from a film (or allow students to select a character). Explain to students that they are going to use what they learned about the character from watching the film to generate their responses to the interview questions.
• If time allows, have students share their mock interview with their classmates.

For elementary students: prepare a list of questions in advance that will focus on values and personality traits. In either small groups or as a class, talk through how different characters from the selected film would respond to those questions. For younger students, have students illustrate  

As a class, analyze the collection of films about the Jewish experience.  

• First, compile a list of films (beginning with the movies on the Common Sense Media website) but consider other sources like IMDB as well.  Continue to add to the list until you’ve got 40-60 films in all.  
• Then using movie blurbs and descriptions, categorize the list into several categories such as (1) film genres (i.e., comedy, romance, drama, action, science fiction, animated, etc.), (2) decades the films were produced, (3) whether they were directed by a Jewish director, etc.  
• If time permits, invite students to delve deeper and have them each read reviews of 1-2 of these films to learn more about the film, including how the film portrays the Jewish experience and to what extent tropes and stereotypes are perpetuated in the film.  
• After compiling all of this data, discuss the list of films and examine to what extent the films as a whole portray the Jewish experience in its complexity, what the films are missing and what additional films are needed to make it complete.

For elementary students: the teacher pre-screens and shares a starter list of 10-15 age-appropriate titles pulled from Common Sense Media (filtering for elementary-appropriate ratings) such as animated films, holiday specials, and family movies that feature Jewish characters or traditions. Send a simple "movie survey" home: "Ask a grown-up or family member: what is a movie or TV special you know that shows a Jewish character, family, or holiday like Hanukkah or Passover?" Students bring answers back to class. As a class, add these suggestions to a shared list on a chart or whiteboard. Aim for 20-30 titles total. 

The Concentric Circles protocol is best for grades 6-12. In this discussion protocol, young people form 2 circles and rotate to speak to different partners about a specific question. 

The Save the Last Word protocol is best for grades 6-12. In this discussion protocol, students are in small groups, in which they select a quote or moment from the film, others respond first, and the student who chose it speaks last; this protects against dominant voices shaping the conversation too early. 

The Fishbowl protocol is best for grades 6-12. In this discussion protocol, a small group discusses while others observe silently, then roles switch; useful for modeling respectful dialogue on a sensitive topic before opening it to the full class. 

The Socratic Seminar protocol is best for grades 6-12. In this discussion protocol, students facilitate their own text/film-based discussion aimed at shared understanding rather than debating to win. 

The Head, Heart, Conscience protocol is best for grades 6-12. In this discussion protocol, students are given reflection prompts that separate emotional reaction, intellectual understanding, and ethical judgment. Such an approach is useful for processing weighty content without collapsing into debate. 

The See, Think, Wonder protocol is best for grades K-5. This discussion protocol presents a simple critical-viewing entry point (what do you see, what do you think it means, what does it make you wonder) good for younger students or shorter clips. 

Encourages students to draw personal connections between themselves and a film.  

• The writing can be a poem, short essay, song, spoken word, etc.  
• Prompts might include: What does this remind me of in my life? How is this similar to my life? How is this different from my life? Has something like this ever happened to you? How does this relate to my life? What were my feelings when I saw this? 

Encourages students to reflect and analyze one or more of the films they watch.  

(Consider beginning by sharing professional movie reviews as an example, and explore together construction, details, omissions, etc.)  

• Once students have written their reviews consider how to share/display them: online platforms, bulletin boards, a class binder, etc. 

Invites students to identify what they found compelling, concerning or noteworthy about a film.

• Option 1: Have students rewatch a scene from the film (either independently or as a class). Then, instruct students to change the scene by writing a short script for their new version.
• Option 2: Have students consider a scene that they felt was missing from the film, and write a short script for this added scene.

If time allows, have students share their scenes with the class. 

Encourages students to compare and contrast two films of the same genre (like comedy, drama, action, etc.) that were produced approximately 20 years apart.

• In their writing, prompt students to consider how Jewish people and the Jewish experience are portrayed, cinematic features, messages/themes of the films, character development, etc. 

Encourages students to think creatively about the existing films on the Jewish experience, and gaps in the field.

• Brainstorm those ideas and then have students develop a concept paper or outline for the film that includes the theme, plot, characters, cinematic elements, message, etc. 

If time permits, have students begin to create a summary/pitch for their imagined film.