Watch the Movie First- Executive Functioning and Reading Comprehension

Teachers and parents have often rewarded kids by sharing the movie version of a book after reading a book together. While this is a fun way to wrap up experiencing a book, this does not have to be the only way to read a book. Watch the Movie First and then read the book supports executive functioning and reading in the classroom. There are a few reasons why you might want to push your students to watch the movie (or TV series) first before reading a book.

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I recently had a conversation with my class about watching the movie before reading a book. One student actually scoffed and said, “but you SHOULDN’T watch the movie first. You need to read the book before watching the movie.”

This hurt to hear because it made me think of all the other students who have internalized this thought as how ‘good readers’ behave.

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We need to trust our students and give them the scaffolding that they need in order to engage and read a book.

Netflix Effect & Book Suggestions- Executive Functioning and Reading

Many great books have been discovered and devoured by my students through this streaming device. All it takes is one interesting adaptation of The Series of Unfortunate Events or The School for Good and Evil for all of my copies of the books at school to disappear into the hands of my students.

Many great book recommendations have come about from talking with students about what they are reading or watching or streaming.

If a student ever struggles to find something to read, my first question will be, “What was a movie or show you saw recently that you REALLY enjoyed?” This helps me know what types of stories students enjoy in their free time, which helps guide them to find a good book.

Seeing the latest book adaptations on streaming devices are a great way to advertise books in your library. It makes a great connection the actual book that was adapted, but its also an easy way to share connector books as well. You know the ones that complete the statement, “if you enjoyed ________ you should try _______.” This works for connecting movies to books as well.

Executive Functioning and Reading Comprehension

Students who struggle with finding a book and sticking with it most likely struggle in some area of executive functioning. These are the students who will benefit the most from seeing the movie version of the book first.

Mental Road Map

This is a successful strategy because the visual provides an outline or a mental map in which the students can rely upon to comprehend the story.

Students who struggle with executive functioning are students who are unlikely to make key inferences when reading. Executive Functioning struggles also impact reading ability.

These students are the ones who might not have a strong visual picture in their mind of what a character looks like or acts like. Seeing the movie first shows the students what the mental picture should look like as they read the book. It provides a road map for the students to understand where they are going.

Explicitly Tell Students What to Expect in a Book

For these students, this isn’t giving away the plot or spoiling the book. Instead it is explicitly telling them what they should imagine in their head as they most likely struggle to come up with the picture.

For example, if a student is left to imagine Harry Potter in their head from the details given in the book, a student who struggles with this mental picture may see a lightning bolt scar, glasses and green eyes randomly.

Unfortunately these are the students who won’t see them on the same face altogether. These are the students who need to see Daniel Radcliffe be Harry Potter in the movie in order to hold a mental picture in their mind of the Harry Potter’s character description from the books.

Provide a Detailed Summary First Before Reading

These are the students who need to be told ahead of time the summary of the book, who the good characters are and who the bad characters are and why. They are the ones who basically need the story spoiled- spoiler alert!

They need the book spoiled in order to comprehend the book.

Teachers need to provide the appropriate level of scaffolding for students to successfully read books. This includes getting out of our own identities as readers who enjoy visualizing, imagining and not having our own personal books spoiled. We need to move beyond who we are as readers and provide the supports that students need to read.

Book versus Movie- Executive Functioning and Reading

I am comfortable encouraging students to watch the movie/show first because I know without a doubt that the book will always be better. While there can be some great movie adaptations of books, there are so many limitations on the movie, namely the lack of depth due to the run time of the movie. When a movie can only be two hours long and the book takes ten hours to read, there are significant details that are unfortunately left out.

Trust your students to be captivated by the story. Let them watch the show first and then enjoy the book. They just might actually finish it this time!