This study is about the experiences of rural high school students with watching films inside and outside of their English classes in school. It offers a rationale for the importance and benefit of thoughtfully using film as a part of English instruction. I used the viewer response framework developed by Teasley and Wilder (1997) to classify the ways in which students viewed and engaged films. Through student surveys and a few individual student interviews, I collected qualitative data about the practices students engage in when watching a movie either in school or outside of school. When I analyzed the students’ responses, I found that students were responding to film mainly on a literary level, but occasionally on a dramatic or cinematic level as well, as defined by Teasley and Wilder. Regardless of the classification of their response, all students are active viewers with an interest in films. Their engagement and interest in viewing films point to wide implications in the field of English instruction as we advance further into the 21st century.
