Conversation about today’s students focuses on what the pandemic caused them to miss. Let’s not forget what they’ve gained.
At a Glance (click to reveal)
- Discussions of today’s adolescents often focus on what they missed in their education during the pandemic.
- As a high school film and English teacher, Mark Fusco has seen a surge in students’ ability to create and understand video content.
- His students have used their film-based literacy to create videos that tell compelling and persuasive stories.
- Many students built their skills during pandemic quarantines, teaching themselves storytelling techniques specific to film.
- Incorporating film-based literacy increases student engagement, builds valuable skills students can use in the future, and helps them become more informed consumers of media.
One of the most exciting days of my 14-year teaching career came in October 2023 at my small charter high school in the Bronx, two years after our cautious return from quarantine. Students in my film class presented their first shorts at our fall festival. The genres covered a wide range: from a mockumentary about a stolen baby to a thriller featuring killer clones. What united them was a level of quality I had never seen.
In past years, a handful of kids produced strong films after countless hours practicing on advanced software. But in 2023, the kind of panache and polish I once only saw from outliers had become the norm. This group of 30 novices just seemed to know how to use camera angles to convey character, they understood how to incorporate visual effects, and they had a keen sense of pacing (with very few shots lasting over four seconds). Witnessing this was so exhilarating that it altered the way I thought about post-pandemic education.
Isolation and disengagement
In May 2020, when it became apparent that students would not go back to school anytime soon, there was profound concern about how isolation at home would affect their development. If the “summer slide” was a problem, what would a year or more away do to them?
That December, The Washington Post warned of a “lost generation” of students (Meckler & Natanson, 2020). McKinsey, the consulting giant, summarized the prevailing panic of the times:
The fallout from the pandemic threatens to depress this generation’s prospects and constrict their opportunities far into adulthood. The ripple effects may undermine their chances of attending college and ultimately finding a fulfilling job that enables them to support a family. (Dorn et al., 2021)
As a high school English teacher, I saw firsthand how Zoom school reduced engagement. Many students who logged on were more focused on unmasking the impostors in the online game Among Us than on contributing to discussion. And then there were those Advanced Placement (AP) Literature students who politely informed me that twice a week they would miss class entirely because it conflicted with their shifts at Chipotle. Scores (what few scores there were) plummeted.
Of course, I understood why earning an income in an unstable time felt more important than analyzing Henry James or making a short film, but I too found myself succumbing to the fear of an academic nuclear winter: a wasteland of stagnant skills and arrested literacies.
Getting the full picture
This anxiety arguably grew after the transition back to the classroom. Scholars, politicians, and parents all seemed to have the same question: Just how far behind were these kids? How much was lost?
The answers, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, are fairly predictable: Following school shutdowns, students scored lower than 2019 levels on reading and math, and recovery happened much faster for students in more affluent communities. Analysts say it will take a lot of extra work to close the achievement gap between the rich and poor (Ross, 2024). These findings confirm the assumption that students were not growing their skills at pre-pandemic rates, but they do not necessarily mean this is a “lost generation.”
Just because they may have tuned out of our Zoom lessons about adding polynomials or tracking metaphors doesn’t mean they weren’t learning.
Instead of just trying to claw our way back to the status quo, maybe we should be asking some different questions. The key question in my mind, one that my students woke me up to with their wonderful films, is this: What valuable skills did young people actually gain during their time away from school? Just because they may have tuned out of our Zoom lessons about adding polynomials or tracking metaphors doesn’t mean they weren’t learning.
This line of inquiry is not some glass-half-full intellectual exercise. More knowledge about what and how our students spend their time learning when we aren’t watching can give us a window into what they value, what new talents they bring to our classrooms, and how we might better engage them.
For me, this is urgent. My film festival in fall 2023 made it clear that, when it came to 21st century literacies, I was the one who had fallen behind.
The expanding world of visual literacy
Before 2020, a lot of literature about the integration of visual literacy in curricula focused on still images: painting, photography, and graphic design. In 2008, this very magazine published a forward-thinking article by Larry Myatt that advocated for classrooms to center more “visual modes of thought.” Myatt correctly observed that our daily activities, down to buying groceries, were increasingly transitioning from text-rich to image-rich interactions. He warned that if schools wanted to continue to reach students they would have to evolve: “We are at a pedagogical crossroads and either have to get on board with other, more expansive ideas about literacy and the related uses of technology or continue to pay the price in the loss of young minds” (Myatt, 2008). Yet when those prescient words were written, photos and graphic design were the dominant democratized forms of visual media.
Over a decade later — when even Instagram is prioritizing filmed content — young people are far more likely to take in and produce videos. The change in the types of images they primarily consume and create happened at the height of the pandemic, when they were stuck in their bedrooms.
While there is some evidence students’ ability to analyze traditional texts (novels or poems) may have taken a hit during this period, in my school at least, another form of literacy blossomed. It feels dated to call it visual literacy, and digital literacy sounds too broad. I will refer to it as film-based literacy.
How did students build these skills? And how have they used their newly acquired literacy since returning to in-person learning? The only way to shed light on these questions is to ask the students directly.
Students share their learning
I reached out to my 2023-24 film class and film club members to trace the roots of their thriving film-based literacy and to see how they perceived its value in and outside of school. These students form an ideal test group because they were in eighth and ninth grade during the shutdown. They were too young to go out and get jobs, too old (at least in our school) to be in live Zoom classes all day. This meant they had time on their hands during the pandemic. And they are now in a place where they can start to analyze their learning during that period.
Jaymarie: A quick-cutting style
Jaymarie is a high school senior. She entered my film class in 11th grade with no previous experience making movies, but she was very quickly producing funny, captivating, and original short work. One highlight was the aforementioned “stolen baby” mockumentary in which the jealous antagonist captures her rival’s newborn. Jaymarie threaded video memes throughout: a Michael Jordan PSA, two cats fighting, a clip from “The Steve Wilkos Show” (the list goes on).
These were entertaining and moved the story forward. It was a brilliant synthesis of the short video content style of TikTok and the techniques she’d learned watching more traditional documentaries in class. I had never seen anything quite like it. She said she was influenced by all the social media she took in during the quarantine period. She’d internalized the quick-cut comedic timing.
In addition, as she got more curious about making longer-form films in my class, finding the tools she needed was not daunting for her. She told me that the pandemic period made her a more independent learner, especially when it comes to film-based literacy: “Some things are better to learn on your own.”
Even though working with editing software like CapCut was new, engaging in this visual mode of thought seemed effortless for her, and it paid off.
Geoff: Angles and perspective
Geoff, who graduated in 2024, was a year older than Jaymarie during the quarantine period. He told me that he used a lot of his free time taking in video content: “I was constantly watching movies and shows to distract myself from the unimaginable reality that COVID brought to the world. While watching, I subconsciously examined how directors used angles to dictate my feelings about a certain character or scene.” “Money Heist” was a major influence, particularly for how it made viewers invest in the “bad guys.”
The following year, Geoff used what he learned during this informal study period to generate his own projects. He and his brothers started making shorts using their smartphones. He was excited to see what he could create. “The cameras would allow users to freeze frame while recording and then resume it at another location,” he explained. It was like discovering the ability to teleport. “The possibilities for young editors at this time were endless.”
For a while, they made these videos just to entertain their family and friends. But by his junior year, in 2022-23, he got permission to use his understanding of narrative (learned during quarantine) and editing (developed post-quarantine) to create a video in his AP Language class.
To tell a story through film, you have to consider both narrative and visual perspective.
The assignment called for the effective communication of a clear message advocating a specific purpose for a specific audience. While other students completed traditional speeches — largely met with polite boredom from the class — Geoff’s perfectly tailored video had the exact effect rhetoricians search for in contemporary public discourse. The audience couldn’t look away. It became a reference point (and teaching tool) weeks and months later.
By the time Geoff and his very talented younger brother got to my film class, they had “full freedom to direct, narrate, act, and edit.” They put these newly acquired skills to work, creating a dream teleportation thriller that moved at breakneck speed, packed with stunts and effects. True to his inspiration, Geoff loves to make you root for the rebels.
Geoff believes film-based literacy skills should have a place in core classes because they teach “perspective.” To tell a story through film, you have to consider both narrative and visual perspective. Creating films made him reflect on the value of knowing how to “make other people feel, think, and understand,” a useful skill in other areas, like competitive debate or writing a college essay.
Steven: An editing leader
Steven, a senior, is probably the strongest film editor I have ever taught. He took a leadership role in our film club last year because he has the visionary’s ability to fully think through his editing moves even before we start shooting.
He’s also an extraordinary problem solver. If we have a crazy idea for an effect — such as wanting a piano to fall out of the sky and crush a character — Steven will research exactly how to execute it. When the group wanted more professional sound quality for our iPhone movies, Steven convinced his church to lend him their lavalier mics for a few weeks. In Steven we trust.
“The pandemic definitely played a big role in getting me into editing,” he told me. “With all the free time, I started exploring content creation and stumbled upon video editing.” He first found a free software called Filmora, which seemed sufficiently sophisticated, but he had no idea where to begin: “I relied heavily on YouTube tutorials. I must have watched dozens of ‘how-to’ videos, learning specific techniques until they started to feel natural.”
Steven’s hours of independent learning have elevated his schoolwork and made him an irreplaceable asset to our after-school group.
The benefits of integrating film-based literacy
My school is in no way a specialized arts school. We have scant resources when it comes to creating films. But incorporating film-based literacy into core classes doesn’t require a huge financial investment. Many of our young people can make excellent video content without expensive lighting and sound equipment. And from what I’ve seen in my students, it’s well worth it.
These are a few of the benefits I’ve observed:
Engagement
Allowing students to practice and refine this literacy beyond film class can motivate them to engage in the subject matter. Gallup recently reported that teenagers spend an average of three to four hours per day on YouTube or TikTok (Rothwell, 2023). And of course, this is not some teen-only fad. Statista, a data analysis company, found that in 2023 adults spent about two hours every day on these same platforms (Dixon, 2024). Video content is how we now make meaning of our world in our free time. If we accept the philosophy that literacy is essentially “a capacity that exists within every human’s attempt to make sense of the world” (Low, 2024), then incorporating the creation and analysis of video content into school curricula will produce more literate students. To act like these ways of communicating don’t exist is to devalue a fundamental driver of modern literacy. It blinds us to a wealth of skills students could bring to our community.
Steven, who has never taken a film class, spoke about the value of getting permission to tap into film-based literacy: “Every single time that there is a project I need to do in class (history, physics, computer science, etc.) I always use filmmaking skills.” In AP U.S. History, instead of simply presenting a PowerPoint on the Vietnam War, he and his friends went to Soundview Park and shot a reenactment. He said his peers much prefer to watch filmed presentations because they merge entertainment with education.
Economic opportunity
Many concerned parties have bemoaned the diminished “prospects” of this generation. But film-based literacy is a bankable skill. According to Harvard Business Review, around 40 million people have found a way to be “economically consequential” creators on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube (Karp, Fu, & Friis, 2024). This industry is likely to grow significantly. Eric Sheridan, an analyst for Goldman Sachs, has suggested that the so-called creator economy, worth about $250 billion at the time of his analysis, could double its value by the year 2027 (Goldman Sachs, 2023).
Our sole educational mission should not be to churn out armies of influencers, but we can’t ignore this very public, very glamorized part of the future labor force. This past summer, the Biden White House hosted the first ever creator economy conference. In his remarks, the former president said, “You are the future. You are the breakthrough in how we communicate. . . That’s why I’ve invited you to the White House, because I’m looking for a job” (Picciotto, 2024).
None of the students I interviewed aspire to be career TikTok creators. Still, when I asked them to evaluate the value of film-based literacy in life after high school, their average rating was an 8 out of 10. Steven said:
Being skilled in visual media is incredibly valuable in today’s world, especially in the areas of marketing and communication and even education. With more businesses and organizations moving online, the ability to produce engaging content can set you apart and open doors in a variety of fields…someone who can create eye-catching content on social media becomes a huge asset.
If we can help this generation practice these ever-more relevant skills, we’ll certainly help raise their “prospects.”
More critical civic engagement
A report from the Center for Educational Equity at Columbia University’s Teachers College (Rogow, 2024) said it well: “If a central purpose of schooling is to prepare future generations to exercise their civic responsibilities, then educators must encourage students to investigate rather than doubt media sources. They go from being consumers to interrogators of news and information.” But we should take this a step further. If a growing amount of information is in short videos, then our students must know how to actually capture, edit, and present work in this medium.
When we help our kids become better masters of visual language, we build their immunity to unscrupulous people who abuse the form to feed conspiracies and create political chaos.
Literate creators become more critical consumers. This is the case in all literacies. It’s why, in a class like AP Language, we ask students to actually produce essays, rather than just read them. If you know your way around rhetoric, you can recognize logical fallacies and attempts at manipulation. When we help our kids become better masters of visual language, we build their immunity to unscrupulous people who abuse the form to feed conspiracies and create political chaos.
The time is now
For these post-2020 literacy skills to take a more central place in core classes, the way we assess learning will have to change. It will be difficult to include substantive film-based literacy work in a pacing chart largely dictated by high-stakes tests.
Normally this would seem an insurmountable barrier, but, after years of dormancy, the educational landscape seems to be shifting. The College Board now offers a menu of courses that culminate in portfolio work. This makes room for more customizable, visual “modes of thought” and presentation. It is the first step in acknowledging that the model of assessment, cooked up by a few psychometricians and Ivy League presidents more than 100 years ago, may be obsolete for 21st-century students.
New York, among the top states in public school enrollment, is devoting huge amounts of money and resources to center performance-based assessments over the Regents exam. Defending this about-face, Betty Rosa, the state’s commissioner of education, explained that a Regents-focused system only serves a certain portion of students. The state, she said, needs a better “composite,” a fuller picture of student learning that goes beyond multiple-choice questions and five-paragraph essays (Willard, 2024). This will enable schools to “meet students where they are.”
This is exactly the point. I have seen that meeting students where they are is not about lowering standards. In the case of film-based literacy, it actually meant pushing myself to learn. Students taught me about the latest editing software and the conventions of popular video content. This allowed me to catch up with them and then raise the bar for the work they produced.
As an English teacher, I have always believed that text-based literacies (reading and writing) empower students to be more effective communicators, which can lead to lucrative employment and higher levels of civic engagement. But, especially in the years after quarantine, it is obvious that film-based literacy is becoming ever more essential in helping them reach those goals. Now is the time for us to embrace that fact. Once we do, we can learn alongside our students. We can make curricula more relevant and engaging.
References
Dixon, S.J. (2024, June 12). U.S. users’ daily engagement with leading social media platforms in 2023. Statista.
Dorn, E., Hancock, B., Sarakatsannis, J., & Viruleg, E. (2021, July 27). COVID-19 and education: The lingering effects of unfinished learning. McKinsey & Company.
Goldman Sachs. (2023, April 19). The creator economy could approach half-a-trillion dollars by 2027.
Karp, R., Fu, C., & Friis, S. (2024, May 22). How your business should tap into the creator economy. Harvard Business Review.
Low, David E. (2024). Transgressive Humor in Classrooms. Routledge.
Meckler, L. & Natanson, H. (2020, December 6). A lost generation: Surge of research reveals students sliding backwards, most vulnerable worst affected. The Washington Post.
Myatt, L. (2008). Connecting the dots: The unexplored promise of visual literacy in classrooms. Phi Delta Kappan, 90 (3), 186-189.
Picciotto, R. (2024, August 14). Biden hosts first Creator Economy Conference for influencers to talk AI, privacy and more. CNBC.
Rogow, F. (2024, April 10). Media literacy for students in a digital age. Carnegie Reporter.
Ross, E. (2024, January 31). Despite progress, achievement gaps persist during recovery from pandemic. Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Rothwell, J. (2023, October 13). Teens spend average of 4.8 hours on social media per day. Gallup.
Willard, L. (2024, June 14). New graduation requirements proposed by NYS education department would “sunset” Regents exams. WRVO Public Media.
This article appears in the Spring 2025 issue of Kappan, Vol. 106, No. 5-6, pp. 20-24.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Fusco
Mark Fusco is the head of the English department at LION Charter School, New York, New York.
