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
The Great Gatsby , 2013 version
Rating: PG:13 Running Time: 2hr 23min
Pair With: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Quick Tip: Follows the book closely, so it’s great for summarizing and setting the context with fashion and feel of the 1920s.- Ashley, 11th grade ELA Blogger
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Movie Music worksheet to analyze how the soundtrack creates mood and immerses viewers into the plot. If you want more Gatsby ideas, check out these posts: Meaningful & Fun Activities for Teaching The Great Gatsby, Ideas for Your Great Gatsby Classroom Party, 5 Unique Pairing Activities for The Great Gatsby
Paul’s Boots REI Documentary, 2016
Rating: No official rating, but estimate PG Running Time: 37 min
Pair With: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer or any “person vs nature” themed book.
Quick Tip: Heartwarming documentary that can be used with any outdoorsy “journey” theme. It’s set up as a frame story so you hear lots of individual tales from different “characters.” – Ashley, 11th grade ELA Blogger
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Theme Theater worksheet to help students make connections between themes in the documentary and book. If you want more Into the Wild teaching ideas, read more here: Meaningful & Fun Activities for Teaching Into the Wild
Rating: PG Running Time: 30 min
Pair With: Lord of the Flies (Keep reading here for more LOTF ideas!)
Quick Tip: This is my favorite way to end our Lord of the Flies unit! In true Simpsons style, this episode makes for a fun satire of Lord of the Flies themes. You can find the single episode here. – Ashley, 12th grade ELA Blogger
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Showbiz Satire worksheet to have students analyze the use of satire in the episode.
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1hr 47min
Pair With: The Odyssey
Quick Tip: Follows the original text closely as a retelling of the story, but this adaptation is set in the Deep South in the 1930s. – Sarah, 9th grade ELA Teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Showbiz Satire worksheet to help students analyze the parody element of the film.
Rating: No official rating, but the content is very graphic and heavy Running Time: 32min
Pair With: Night by Elie Wiesel or other Holocaust-related text
Quick Tip: This is a very jarring look into the horrors experienced during the Holocaust. The documentary film would provide a closer look inside concentration camps and give students context for any Holocaust unit. While heartbreaking and devastating, this film can help build essential empathy for the victims of the Holocaust. – Sarah, 10th grade ELA Teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Angle Analysis worksheet to analyze how camera angles and even certain still-shots add deeper meaning to the film and affect the viewer’s point of view.
Rating: PG Running Time: 2hr 8min
Pair With: Selected poetry of your choice; @lizzyannburnett also suggests pairing with A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Quick Tip: An encouraging look at poetry as a form of self-expression. This film helps to create buy-in from students while studying poetry. While the poetry in the film is more dated and classic, teachers can feel free to pair with more contemporary poets to expose students to a variety of poetry. – Lizzy, 10th grade ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Angle Analysis worksheet to analyze how camera angles add deeper meaning to the film and affect the viewer’s point of view.
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 2hr 17min
Pair With: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Quick Tip: This film has very similar themes to the book, both following characters who are wrongly accused and the lawyers who defend them. The film gives injustice a face, and makes this story both relevant and relatable to students. Students can analyze the different impact that point of view has in both the book and the film, as Lee’s novel is told from a young girl’s point of view as she comes of age in 1930s Alabama, while the movie follows Bryan Stevenson, a defense lawyer in the 1980s. The 50 year difference can also be a point of discussion as students discuss what has (or hasn’t) changed in the criminal justice system in that time. – Sarah, 9th grade ELA teacher (@justacupofteacher)
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Theme Theater worksheet to help students compare and contrast books and movies with similar themes.
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 2hr 8min
Pair With: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Quick Tip: This film follows the original text closely and provides a thought-provoking look at the self-reflection, friendship, life lessons, and courage explored in the novel by Hosseini. – Sarah, 10th grade ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Book vs Big Screen worksheet to help students compare and contrast this film adaptation to the original text.
Best Stand Alone or Sub Day ELA Movies
Rating: PG Running Time: 1h 30m
Pair With: Satire and/or Fairy Tale Elements
Quick Tip: Students will be familiar with the Shrek movie due to the witty comedy and allusions. However, have students analyze the way Shrek satirizes the traditional fairy tale elements and expectations for their characters.
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Showbiz Satire worksheet to have students analyze the use of satire in the film. Aaron, 9th grade ELA teacher
Rating: PG Running Time: 2h 5m
Pair With: Hero’s Journey
Quick Tip: This film works great if you want to analyze the steps in the hero’s journey, without using more common and well-known film choices. Students might need some explanation when it comes to the characters and different cultures featured in the film, such as spirits. However, students will be able to understand the steps in the hero’s journey without the explanations. Paula, high school ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Animation Analysis worksheet to have students better analyze an animated film.
Rating: PG Running Time: 1h 43m
Pair With: Dystopian Unit
Quick Tip: You have just finished reading a dystopian text and you want your students to analyze a film with dystopian elements, this is the film for your class. Students will notice satirical elements in the film, but it is important for them to focus on the dystopian elements that the main character faces and his lack of freedom in his own life, which has been cultivated to create views. – Paula, High School ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Theme Theater worksheet to analyze the elements of dystopia in the film and a text that they just finished.
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1h 53m
Pair With: Characterization or Author’s Voice
Quick Tip: This film is a great choice if you want to analyze characterization, not for the main character but the author. It is also a great film if you want your students to examine the author’s voice. Not many films or books focus on the author’s writing process or thoughts, unless it is a film about an author’s life. Ideally, this film can work for either choice, depending on what you want to focus on with your students. – Paula, High School ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Movie Music worksheet to analyze how the soundtrack is used to further the plot and help the audience understand the character’s interactions with his own thoughts and feelings.
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 2h 22m
Pair With: Unreliable Narrator or Historical Allusions
Quick Tip: Your students have just learned about narrators or narration in texts, have them learn about unreliable narrators using Forrest Gump. This film also works if your students are struggling with allusions. The various historical events and references will help students better understand the skill of including allusions in their own writing. – Paula, High School ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Movie Music worksheet to analyze the music from different decades in Forrest Gump’s life. This will help students gain more of an understanding of Forrest Gump as a narrator.
Best Shakespeare Adaptations for ELA
Rating: G Running Time: 1hr 24m
Pair With: Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
Quick Tip: Teaching Shakespeare to 9th graders can be challenging, but this lighthearted animated version of a classic love story helps them visualize the conflicts Shakespeare presents. The use of puns in the film is a great tool to compare the play to this adaptation. – Cody, 9th grade ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Animation Analysis activity to help students analyze this animated adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. If you want more Romeo and Juliet ideas, check out this post: Romeo and Juliet Activities, Teaching Ideas, and Lessons
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 2hr
Pair With: Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
Quick Tip: This modern reimagining of Romeo and Juliet follows the original play and uses the language, but the style of the film is funky and puts a contemporary twist on the fated lovers’ tale with warring mafia families. -Casey, 11th/12th grade ELA teacher, @wildflowerandweeds
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Book vs Big Screen activity to help students compare and contrast this adaptation to the original play. If you want more Romeo and Juliet ideas, check out this post: Romeo and Juliet Activities, Teaching Ideas, and Lessons
Rating: R (for violence and gore, no nudity or profanity) Running Time: 1hr 45m
Pair With: Macbeth, William Shakespeare
Quick Tip: This adaptation is the newest Macbeth film to be released, featuring Denzel Washington as Macbeth and Frances McDormand as Lady Macbeth. This version is gory and intense, so be sure to discuss this with students before watching as the story is bloody and contains violence. -Casey, 11th/12th grade ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Movie Music activity to help students consider how the movie’s soundtrack adds deeper meaning to the film. If you want more Macbeth inspiration, check out this post: Meaningful and Fun Activities for Teaching Macbeth
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1hr 46m
Pair With: Hamlet, William Shakespeare
Quick Tip: This fairly new adaptation of Hamlet provides a different perspective and allows students to focus on the importance of point of view in avoiding a single-story perception of events. By focusing on Ophelia’s viewpoint, this film provides space to analyze the “seen and unseen” in this film compared to the original play in its depiction of Ophelia and other female characters. -Casey, 11th/12th grade ELA teacher, @camillevaz and @mandismiles81, High School ELA
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Angle Analysis activity to help 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.
Rating: G Running Time: 1hr 28m
Pair With: Hamlet, William Shakespeare
Quick Tip: Students may be surprised to learn that The Lion King is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but once this is pointed out to them the connections will be abundant. This animated film is the perfect lighthearted addition to any Hamlet unit and allows students to analyze Hamlet’s and Simba’s journey to leadership. Students can also compare and contrast the differing endings for each main character. -Casey, 11th/12th grade ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Animation Analysis activity to help students analyze how the film compares and contrasts to the original play.
10 Things I Hate About You, 1999
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1hr 37m
Pair With: Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare
Quick Tip: Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew is not commonly taught in ELA curriculum, but this 1999 adaptation of the comedy is an accessible version for students to compare with the original play. This film modernizes the comedic tale of love and heartache. -Casey, 11th/12th grade ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Book vs Big Screen activity to help students compare and contrast this contemporary version to the original play.
Best Animated ELA Movies
Rating: No official rating but estimate G Running Time: 8 mins
Pair With: Beowulf
Quick Tip: This is a super cute short animated film that helps students analyze the story of Beowulf through Grendel’s perspective. –Dr. Jenna Copper, 12th grade ELA
Suggested Movie Guide: The Animation Analysis worksheet will help students analyze this animated film. If you want more Beowulf inspiration, check out this post: Meaningful and Fun Activities for Teaching Beowulf
Rating: G Running Time: 1hr 40min
Pair With: The Odyssey and/or The Hero’s Journey
Quick Tip: Students can track the journey Marlin takes to find his son, Nemo, and make comparisons to Homer’s character, Odysseus. This will make a great preview to the elements of the hero’s journey as a pre or post-assessment. – Jaime, 7th grade ELA Teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: The Animation Analysis worksheet will help students analyze this animated film.
Rating: G Running Time: 1hr 28min
Pair With: Conflict and Figurative Language
Quick Tip: Students can analyze the types of conflict that appear in the story. Additionally, the songs do well to showcase figurative language as an independent student review of those elements. – @sbrunn2
Suggested Movie Guide: The Movie Music worksheet will be a great support in helping students to locate and identify figurative language, which then adds deeper meaning to the story of Mulan.
Rating: G Running Time: 1hr 28min
Pair With: Argumentative Writing
Quick Tip: While some use this animated film to compare to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, an alternate task for middle or high school is to prepare a defense for Scar as the leader of Pride Rock. Middle school students flip out over this task because Scar is such a villain, but they are also forced to form creative arguments that they otherwise would not have considered. -Jaime, 7th grade ELA Teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Pair this film with the Movie Music worksheet to identify the tonal shift when looking at Simba as the rightful heir versus Scar’s sinister scene with the hyenas.
Rating: PG Running Time: 1hr 47min
Pair With: Characterization and Archetypes
Quick Tip: Work to identify the types of characters used to create a dynamic story. Explore how Maui is an example of a round character. You can also have students work together to justify which character is the Creator, which is the Caregiver, and which is the Explorer. -@aimee_walton0414
Suggested Movie Guide: The Theme Theater worksheet will be an excellent tool to use after looking at the characters in this movie to show students how character and plot development showcase theme.
Rating: PG Running Time: 1hr 48min
Pair With: Animal Farm or any other allegory
Quick Tip: This film can be used in the middle school setting to study real life connections to theme. Additionally, this movie would be a great introduction to a high school unit about explicit and implicit messaging, as well as social justice. -@teaching.with.mccova, 12th grade Senior Lit
Suggested Movie Guide: Pair with either the Theme Theater worksheet or Showbiz Satire activity. If you want to know how Ashley (Building Book Love) uses this movie, read more here: Teaching Animal Farm Like It Is Your Civic Duty
Rating: PG Running Time: 1hr 45min
Pair With: Any Hero’s Journey text or theme
Quick Tip: A vibrant and touching movie to teach archetypal story lines and The Hero’s Journey
Suggested Movie Guide: Students can enjoy this film and analyze it using the Animation Analysis worksheet.
Best Historical ELA Movies
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1h 56m
Pair With: Night by Elie Wiesel or other Holocaust literature
Quick Tip: This movie is a great example of the human spirit. Watching it can help cure apathy about this serious topic in the classroom! -Shannon; 9th grade ELA teacher and Erin; 10th grade ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Theme Theater worksheet to compare themes across texts or the Historical Hollywood worksheet for students to analyze the historical context.
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 2h 12m
Pair With: Narrative Writing
Quick Tip: This is a powerful story in American history. Based on a true story, this movie would be a great addition to any narrative writing unit. – Kourtney; high school ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Angle Analysis worksheet with this movie in order for students to analyze how directors use camera angles to add different storytelling elements in film.
Rating: PG Running Time: 2h 9m
Pair With: Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Quick Tip: This movie is a great addition when teaching Esperanza Rising. It captures the same spirit as the novel, and kids love it! – Jennifer; 6th grade ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Theme Theater worksheet with this movie. Have students watch it after reading Esperanza Rising, and compare the themes!
Rating: TV-MA Running Time: 1h 40m
Pair With: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam, Dear Justyce by Nic Stone, or other novels related to incarceration
Quick Tip: This is an in-depth documentary on incarceration in America. It gives great context to this subject matter to build background knowledge before reading Just Mercy. – Olivia; high school ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Historical Hollywood worksheet with this documentary in order for students to analyze the documentary and gather historical context.
Mighty Times: The Children’s March
Rating: no official rating, but estimate PG-13 Running Time: 40m
Pair With: Any human rights/injustice unit
Quick Tip: This would be an easy addition to any thematic unit for injustice, change, human rights, etc. Use this short documentary to inspire students to make a difference in their community! Children can, in fact, change the world! – Kamrin; 8th grade ELA teacher
Suggested Movie Guide: Use the Historical Hollywood worksheet with this documentary and have students analyze the context of the time period.
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What a great list!! Thank you!
It was fun to put together! Thank you!
I love showing the princess bride for hero’s journey as well!