Our Adult Secondary Education (ASE) diploma program meets in a storefront community learning center in Hull. The class, made up of 16- to 23-year-olds, has trouble focusing and staying "on task" for an extended length of time. Their ability to comprehend written material varies widely. They do have good oral skills and are often very outspoken and critical about assignments given. Popular films have proven to be an excellent teaching tool in this class, especially for those students who have learning disabilities and prefer visual and oral material.

Using Movies
Because movies are considered fun and entertaining, all the students have heartily embraced learning through popular films. They feel it's so much more interesting because you can "get the point" without having to read all the time. Even though feature films may seem quite nontraditional in an ASE curriculum, I have foundthey can easily satisfy many of the learning strands in the ABE social studies curriculum frameworks.

Of the eight students in the class, five are Caucasian from working class backgrounds. One is Latino, but adopted into a Caucasian family. He is very curious about his origins. One woman is a Filipina who currently lives with her boyfriend's Cambodian family.

Some of the Caucasian students in the class had expressed prejudices about people from other cultures.They expressed fear that immigrants were causing white Americans to lose desirable jobs. These students tended to view other people as stereotypes. As these students have to work and go to school with people from diverse cultures, it was clear that their prejudices created a barrier between themselves and others. The Latino and Asian students in the class were obviously hurt and angry that the majority of the class had so little respect for other cultures.

Immigration Theme
The goal of our exploration about immigrants was designed so students could gain a better understanding about cultural differences, to see how other cultures relate to work, to examine immigration law, and to learn how immigration affects the workplace. The students generated this topic. It grew out of a discussion about their job experiences, and it fit in well with the learning strands in the social studies frameworks.

Since most of the students were very visual and auditory, they groaned at the idea of learning social studies from a textbook. That's when I got the idea of using a feature film to teach this topic.

The students initially anticipated being tortured with textbook chapters, charts and graphs, and perhaps one of those dreadful educational films about immigration. When I told them that this time we were going to watch a regular movie, the sighs of relief were audible. Chuckling to themselves, they thought they were really "getting one over" on the teacher. Little did they realize how much they were about to learn.

Setting a Context: Examining Stereotypes
Several days before I showed the movie, I designed an activity to help them explore stereotypes. I wrote a list of several ethnic groups on the blackboard. The students were told to write down something that they thought was true about each group.

By examining the lists the individual students had made about different cultures, we saw that we all view other ethnic groups through both fact and prejudice. Many heated debates, refutations, and personal experience stories grew out of the discussion about the student lists. In this way, the students themselves helped to break down many of the prejudices other students held. Some of the listed beliefs surprised the group, especially the belief that Asians in Boston often cooked and ate cats.

This class also offered me a good opportunity to discuss ways to distinguish facts versus beliefs and to reveal to the students how easy it is to make faulty assumptions if they are based on weak premises and lack of knowledge.

Looking at History
Besides discussing personal experiences, I wanted to introduce something about immigration history. I gave the students a handout that explored the role Chinese workers played in helping to build the railroads in America.

By reading about the way the Chinese immigrants labored to build our American railroad system, the students realized some of the difficulties immigrants faced when they first came to America. They were especially struck by the large number of Chinese deaths. They were impressed with the Chinese workers' ability to persevere under terrible working conditions. The reading about Chinese immigrants gave the students a better understanding of the positive effect immigration had in settling America.

Watching the Film
Before viewing El Norte, I told the students that the movie dealt with immigration and the way other cultures worked and lived. I shared my experiences living in Mexico, and one of the students discussed his time as an exchange student in Nicaragua. He brought photos to class, and we all passed them around, asking him a lot of questions about his experiences there. Then we located all these countries on the map. I assured the students that El Norte was a very true depiction of life in Guatemala and I reminded them that often this is not the case with romaticized Hollywood films.

Finally, the students were shown the film El Norte in two segments, each lasting one hour and eight minutes each. The students had been told to take notes on anything they found interesting or curious about the film, but I also handed out a short list of teacher generated questions to help focus their attention. Some of these questions included: What was different between life in the US and life in this country? What was the same? What was admirable about the people shown in the film?

After the complete showing of the film a discussion period based on the student notes and the teacher-generated questions followed. Finally, the students were requested to write a five paragraph essay on the one aspect of the movie that affected them the most.

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Changes in the Students
As they watched El Norte I could actually see their perspectives begin to change. They developed a more empathetic position toward the culture they were experiencing. The students were about the same age as the young people in the film. This helped them identify strongly with the main characters.

There is no question that the students gained an enormous amount of understanding from viewing El Norte. A new respect for another culture is easily seen in the more respectful way they talk about people from other countries. They seem less ethnocentric and want to learn more about other cultures.

Connection to Curriculum Frameworks
The following learning standards that were covered in this activity are located in the Social Studies ABE Framework:

Environment and Interdependence

• Learn patterns of interdependence in our world;
• Geographical features can determine an area's economic health, political stability, and historical significance.

Production, Distribution and Consumption

• The relationship between patterns of production, distribution, and consumption;
• The influence of production, consumption, and distribution on individual decision-making.

Perspective and Interpretation

• The difference between fact, opinion, and interpretation.

Cultures and Identities

• How cultures vary and change;
• How cultures affect identity and change.

• Look at the way other cultures view life in America;
• Create empathy for immigrants; learn to appreciate cultural differences;
• Be able to compare and contrast social, political, and ethical differences;
• Understand how immigration has traditionally helped our labor force;
• Develop a better appreciation for our American systems of work and law;
• View how families in other cultures relate to one another;
• Learn about materialism and how it affects individual lives;
• Begin to know the difference between myth and fact;
• Learn to question their own beliefs;
• Learn what symbolism and metaphor means.

Resources for teaching video:
Allen, Margaret. (1985). Teaching English With Video. Essex, England: Longman.
Stempleski, Susan, and Barry Tomalin. (1990). Video in Action: Recipes for Using Video in Language Teaching. New York: Prentice Hall.
Summerfield, Ellen. (1993). Crossing Cultures Through Film. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press,

Carole Ann Borges, a published journalist and poet, teaches in the at the Wellspring Adult Learning Center in Hull, MA. She can be reached by e-mail at caroleann1@yahoo.com