Discussing Films in Class with Slack

Apr 9, 2021 | Composition Concepts, Quick Tips

by Kristen Figgins

What is the context for your activity or resource? What problem are you solving, or what concept are you addressing/teaching? 

It’s Pandemic 2021, and I need my students to watch a film during class time. This is a task that I can’t trust to Zoom. So, do I scrap the activity? No! I use Slack to have my students respond in real time to a film. This worked out so well that I will continue to do it in the post-pandemic times.

How did you use the activity or resource in your class? Consider creating steps or instructions that another TA can follow if they decide to use this activity. 

  1. Create a Slack account and share it with your students. I share the link with my students during class time, and it’s very simple for students to sign up. In addition to being great for activities like this one, I take advantage of Slack to do discussion boards, make announcements, and DM conversations, so it’s not like you’re making them sign up for a service for just one activity.
  2. Create a channel for your activity. Slack uses channels, which are basically just like discussion boards. I created one for a viewing of #little-shop-of-horrors.
  3. Ask students to start the film all at the same time at home. I asked students to do this during class time, but you could also do it during a specific time as homework.
  4. Sit back and enjoy the discussion. Because Slack lets students react with emojis, share gifs, and comment, it’s easy to sit back and let them guide discussion. My students loved this feature of Slack, which basically let them live Tweet the film… they even asked for me to do it again.
  5. Or jump in! I also periodically asked questions of students, so that they were doing more than just reacting to the film. You can also respond to the student comments in threads, so that you can take their casual comments and probe them for deeper thinking.

How did students respond, and what did they seem to gain from the activity or use of the resource? 

Students loved it! I had multiple requests from students to do this activity again (which, alas, we did not have time for). I loved it, because it seemed to provoke much deeper discussion from the students. I will definitely do this again in IRL classes, and am even considering making it an “extra credit” activity in the future.

Kristen Figgins is a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Arkansas. Her specialization is nineteenth-century British literature, critical animal studies, and adaptation. Her current research involves tracing how developments in natural science and animal rights philosophy are adapted in transhistorical literature.