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I need a middle school movie…

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We needed to fill up a little time on the last day of school. There’s an awards ceremony and closing devotion in the morning and a little roller skating in the afternoon. We decided that we would show a movie for the kids who were done with all of their homework, and make anyone who wasn’t finished work on their missing assignments in the office. But we don’t know what movie to show. I looked at a bunch of lists of movies and came up with these as possible ideas.

I’m looking for some help to get this list down to about a dozen. Which ones do you think would be best for 6th, 7th & 8th graders? If you have another movie idea, throw it in the ring. If you know a reason that I shouldn’t show one of these, lets hear it. Once we get down to about a dozen movies that I like, We’ll let the kids vote on them.

Update:

This post gets lots of hits, so I decided to make a slightly more useful version. At 50 Best Movies for Middle School you can sort the movies by release date, run time and rating. There are also links to the IMDb entries for each movie as well as the Parent Guide.

50 Best Movies for Middle School

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We recently decided to show a movie to our 6th, 7th and 8th grade students on the last day of school. But when we started brainstorming ideas we had some difficulty coming up with movie titles that (a) the students would like and (b) we thought would be worth showing.

Listed below are the movies we came up with after consulting a variety of experts including: current middle school students, former middle school students, middle school teachers from across the country, lots of family movie websites, and random people on twitter and facebook.

Do Your Homework

Don’t Take My Word For It. Always preview any movie before you show it. Just because a movie appears on this (or any other) list doesn’t mean that it works in your situation. For instance, I included Stand by Me in this list and it is rated R. If I were actually going to show it, I would look for an edited for television version. If a movie is rated PG or PG-13, offer some guidance to the students before you watch it. Explain to them what good things they can take away from the movie even though there might be some language that isn’t appropriate at school.

Incorporate it into the curriculum. We’ve shown The Karate Kid when we’re talking about bullying as a school. One teacher shows Newsies in social studies classes when she’s talking about immigration and industrialization. I’ve shown Searching for Bobby Fischer before I teach students how to play chess.

Stay Legal

You may be required to obtain a Public Performance License to show your movie. Movie License USA offers these guidelines for schools to use when determining if they need to purchase a license. Generally, you do not need a license if:

  • A teacher or instructor is present
  • The showing takes place in a classroom setting with only the enrolled students attending
  • The movie is used as an essential part of the core, current curriculum being taught. (The instructor should be able to show how the use of the motion picture contributes to the overall required course study and syllabus.)
  • The movie being used is a legitimate copy, not taped from a legitimate copy or taped from TV

Movie License USA also serves a clearing house for many movie studios, so it is a good spot to look to obtain a license if you need one. They offer single license for $75.00 which is good for one showing of a single movie on a specific date.They also offer site licenses that are good for all of the studios that they represent for one year (as many showings as you’d like). Site license prices are based on the number of students in your school.

About the List

The list is sortable. Click on the heading to sort it by run time, rating and so forth. The title link goes to the Internet Movie Database listing for the movie and the rating link goes to the IMDb Parents Guide for the movie. Additions to the list are welcome. There aren’t actually 50 movies listed yet, so feel free to suggest some in the comments below. If you think a movie on the list is especially good or bad choice to show at school, lets hear that as well.

The List

Title Release Date Run Time (min) Rating
Babe 1995 89 G
Back to the Future 1985 117 PG
Bend It Like Beckham 2002 112 PG-13
Bridge to Terabithia 2007 96 PG
Clue 1985 94 PG
E.T. 1982 113 PG
Edward Scissorhands 1990 105 PG-13
Ella Enchanged 2004 96 PG
Enchanted 2007 107 PG
Facing the Giants 2006 111 PG
Freaky Friday 2003 97 PG
Hairspray 2007 117 PG
Holes 2003 117 PG
Hook 1991 144 PG
How to Eat Fried Worms 2006 98 PG
James and the Giant Peach 1996 79 PG
Journey to the Center of the Earth 2008 93 PG
Labyrinth 1986 101 PG
March of the Penguins 2005 85 G
Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium 2007 93 G
Newsies 1992 121 PG
Night at the Museum 2007 108 PG
Nim’s Island 2008 96 PG
Pirates of The Carribean 2003 143 PG-13
Remember the Titans 2000 113 PG
Rudy 2003 116 PG
School of Rock 2003 108 PG-13
Searching for Bobby Fischer 1993 110 PG
Secondhand Lions 2003 109 PG
Simon Birch 1998 114 PG
Sky High 2005 100 PG
Stand By Me 1986 89 R
Swiss Family Robinson 1960 126 G
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 1988 126 PG
The Chronicles of Narnia 2005 143 PG
The Goonies 1985 114 PG
The Karate Kid 1984 126 PG
The Parent Trap 1998 127 PG
The Princes Bride 1987 98 PG
The Sandlot 1993 101 PG
The Secret Garden 1993 101 G
Time Bandits 1981 116 PG
Whale Rider 2002 101 PG-13
Willow 1988 126 PG

What do you think?

  • Suggest another movie? (what did we miss)
  • Any poor choices on the list? (you can’t show that in school)
  • What are your top 3? (two thumbs up)