BFI

Information

Subject Areas

Citizenship,

 

BFI provides a guide which explains how television can be used to cover Citizenship topics.

Learning and Teaching Resource

The British Film Institute provide a free guide on using television as part of the Citizenship curriculum. The use of television can give insights into local, national and global issues and it maintains the interest of the pupils as they are learning from a different source. 

The vast majority of the population watch television and bringing this into the classroom can be a very motivational way of teaching and fostering children’s engagement with the world around them. Using shows that they know and watch as examples (or evidence) will help them remember the information being taught. The lesson plans from this site are aimed at KS3 and KS4 Citizenship.

Guide and Information

The British Film Institute provide a guide about television broadcasting and genres. This is useful background information for teachers who are preparing to use television as a tool for teaching. This information could also be used to produce materials that are age-appropriate for children and develop their understanding of a media that is more than likely commonplace in their everyday lives. As part of the guide, teachers are given information on possible ways of structuring lessons using television.

There is a timeline of the key moments throughout television history which can educate both teachers and pupils; also each year can be used as a basis for a lesson. Public service broadcasting and commercial television are also covered. Production companies, time-slots and programmes are mentioned in this guide as they are quite important when it comes down to what we see and when we see it. A list of downloadable files are also available that exemplify teaching Citizenship using television broadcasts.

There are some links listed on the site that you can use to aid your Citizenship lessons such as the B.A.R.B site which contains lots of relevent data.