Best Movies for High School and Middle School ELA
Ashley Bible
Seeing a giant TV cart rolled into my classroom is a core memory for me. As a child, there was nothing more exciting than my teachers breaking their routine and surprising us with a movie. As a teacher, I was equally excited for movie day in my high school ELA classroom because that meant I ... Read More about Best Movies for High School and Middle School ELA
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Building Book Love
Seeing a giant TV cart rolled into my classroom is a core memory for me. As a child, there was nothing more exciting than my teachers breaking their routine and surprising us with a movie. As a teacher, I was equally excited for movie day in my high school ELA classroom because that meant I could catch up on grading or take a no-stress sub day off from work. Also, when paired with effective movie guides, ELA movies make fantastic teaching tools!

In this ELA collective post, I’m going to share the best ELA movies for the high school and middle school English classroom recommended by myself and other English teachers around the country. If you want to ensure that your students are engaged and your admin are happy, consider pairing any of these movies with a movie guide template from this pack: Movie Guides for ANY Movie

For your reference, I’ve organized these high school and middle school ELA movies into categories: Book and movie pairings, Standalone or sub day ELA movies, Shakespeare adaptations, Animated ELA movies, and Historical ELA movies.

Though this movie guide pack is editable to fit your needs, I also provide suggested worksheets for each movie.

Movie Guide Worksheets Choices:

Angle Analysis- Helps students consider how camera angles add deeper meaning to the film such as empowering or depowering a character or giving the reader an omniscient point-of-view. Can be used with a book and movie comparison or with a standalone movie.

Movie Music- Helps students consider how the movie’s music soundtrack adds deeper meaning to the film. Can be used with a book and movie comparison or with a standalone movie.

Seasonal Cinema– Helps students consider how the movie’s seasons, weather, or time of day add deeper meaning to the film. Can be used with a book and movie comparison or with a standalone movie.

Theme Theater- Helps students compare and contrast movies and books with similar themes. Can be used with a book and movie comparison.

Book vs Big Screen – Helps students compare and contrast any book to film adaptation. Can be used with a book and movie comparison.

Animation Analysis- Helps students better analyze any animated film. Can be used with a book and movie comparison or with a standalone movie.

Historical Hollywood – Helps students better analyze or summarize historical movie adaptations or context films. Can be used with a book and movie comparison or with a standalone movie.

Showbiz Satire – Helps students better analyze satire in movies. Can be used with a book and movie comparison or with a standalone movie.

WARNING: Please note that I have not personally vetted all these movies. However, all of the ELA movie recommendations do come from fellow ELA teachers. It is your responsibility to know your school’s movie policy and you can read more about legally showing movies in class here. Ok now that is out of the way, pop some popcorn and let’s get started!

Best Book and Movie Pairings for ELA

In recent years, I’ve tried to shift away from showing and recommending movie versions of books read in class. I personally don’t have any misgivings about it, but admin (and state testing) do. To add more rigor, many English teachers are encouraged to do thematic pairings rather than show direct film adaptations. For example, in my Into the Wild Unit, I recommend showing a poignant hiking documentary rather than the Into the Wild film adaptation to better: “Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.2)

However, there is one film adaptation I will forever and always recommend showing and that is The Great Gatsby. Just like the book, I think Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film adaptation is a masterpiece. From color symbolism to music choice, there’s just so much you further analyze when you show the movie version in tandem with the book. Also, I fully endorse using the movie as a summarizing tool for lengthy parts of the book so that you can make room for rich Harlem Renaissance pairings in your unit.

So, whether you are pairing a movie version with the book or doing thematic movie pairings, here is a curated list to get you started!

Secondary ELA Movie and Book Pairing List

Best Stand Alone or Sub Day ELA Movies

Best Shakespeare Adaptations for ELA

Best Animated ELA Movies

Best Historical ELA Movies