We recently decided to show a movie to our 6th, 7th and 8th grade students on the last day of school. But when we started brainstorming ideas we had some difficulty coming up with movie titles that (a) the students would like and (b) we thought would be worth showing.
Listed below are the movies we came up with after consulting a variety of experts including: current middle school students, former middle school students, middle school teachers from across the country, lots of family movie websites, and random people on twitter and facebook.
Do Your Homework
Don’t Take My Word For It. Always preview any movie before you show it. Just because a movie appears on this (or any other) list doesn’t mean that it works in your situation. For instance, I included Stand by Me in this list and it is rated R. If I were actually going to show it, I would look for an edited for television version. If a movie is rated PG or PG-13, offer some guidance to the students before you watch it. Explain to them what good things they can take away from the movie even though there might be some language that isn’t appropriate at school.
Incorporate it into the curriculum. We’ve shown The Karate Kid when we’re talking about bullying as a school. One teacher shows Newsies in social studies classes when she’s talking about immigration and industrialization. I’ve shown Searching for Bobby Fischer before I teach students how to play chess.
Stay Legal
You may be required to obtain a Public Performance License to show your movie. Movie License USA offers these guidelines for schools to use when determining if they need to purchase a license. Generally, you do not need a license if:
- A teacher or instructor is present
- The showing takes place in a classroom setting with only the enrolled students attending
- The movie is used as an essential part of the core, current curriculum being taught. (The instructor should be able to show how the use of the motion picture contributes to the overall required course study and syllabus.)
- The movie being used is a legitimate copy, not taped from a legitimate copy or taped from TV
Movie License USA also serves a clearing house for many movie studios, so it is a good spot to look to obtain a license if you need one. They offer single license for $75.00 which is good for one showing of a single movie on a specific date.They also offer site licenses that are good for all of the studios that they represent for one year (as many showings as you’d like). Site license prices are based on the number of students in your school.
About the List
The list is sortable. Click on the heading to sort it by run time, rating and so forth. The title link goes to the Internet Movie Database listing for the movie and the rating link goes to the IMDb Parents Guide for the movie. Additions to the list are welcome. There aren’t actually 50 movies listed yet, so feel free to suggest some in the comments below. If you think a movie on the list is especially good or bad choice to show at school, lets hear that as well.
The List
What do you think?
- Suggest another movie? (what did we miss)
- Any poor choices on the list? (you can’t show that in school)
- What are your top 3? (two thumbs up)
- Suggest another movie? (what did we miss)
- Any poor choices on the list? (you can’t show that in school)
- What are your top 3? (two thumbs up)
We just let our 7th & 8th graders watch The Day After Tomorrow. They LOVED it! We have a pretty tough group and it really kept their attention.
There are two reasons why I would hesitate to add The Day After Tomorrow to the list. One is that it is just and action/adventure movie. I tend to think that if I’m showing it in school that it should have some worthwhile message for the students.
The second reason is that I wouldn’t want to put myself through the wrath of our science teachers by showing a movie with such bad science.
Great list! What about A Knight’s Tale? It’s got fun music, is visually interesting, and has a good message. For the girls, there’s a romance, and for the boys, there are swords and jousting. Plus it’s got some great humor.
Oddly enough, I’ve never seen the whole movie. I’ve seen parts of it on several occasions, but not the whole thing. I don’t think it came up in any of the discussions we had. Probably an oversight. Maybe it can be one of the movies that round us out at 50.
Knight’s Tale is great, but the full rear view scene would have caused so much chaos if they showed it in my old middle school.
The Knights Tale may be a little objectionable due to the naked Geofry Chaucer scene. Just a thought.
I don’t see “The Nightmare Before Christmas” on your list. I always get a good response with that one.
I know why The Nightmare Before Christmas isn’t on the list. We were originally trying to come up with a movie to show on the last day of school, and so it just didn’t occur to us.
I would consider that a “standard” as well.
How could Stand and Deliver not be on this list? Also does anyone know an Aztec/Maya movie. I don’t think Apocolyto is appropriate for grade 7. Is it? Keep in mind school should not be a Cinaplex.
Yeah, that’s a good suggestion. In fact, we don’t have any movies that are like it on the list. I wonder why that is. Are there any other similar movies that were missed.
I agree that Apocolyto wouldn’t be a good choice. Apart from the nudity, I didn’t think it was a good movie.
Every time I have an opportunity to show a movie as a reward or something like that I always bring in a few choices. By far the one that has stood as the “crowd pleaser” is Napoleon Dynamite.
I think I’d have a little trouble showing it to middle schoolers. It’s mostly harmless, but the breast enhancing cream bit just doesn’t seem like the right direction to go in middle school.
My students loved Lean On Me!
Hey, that’s not me. Or is it? I do have dementia, y’know. Lean On Me is a great movie. A great song, too.
At our middle school, the whole eighth grade reads Freak the Mighty, by Rodman Philbrick…the kids love the book for it’s wonderful plot, excitingly characterized narration, and overall themes. The movie based on it, The Mighty, is also very well done…they love both!
is Nacho Libre safe?
I haven’t seen it, and I wouldn’t show anything that I haven’t seen. But judging from the parents guide at IMDB and parentPreviews, I don’t think previewing it would be a waste of time. Maybe someone who’s seen it can offer more specific advice.
I wanted to show my students “Radio”.
Would that be safe and appropriate for middle school/