NEW THIS MONTH
MOVIES AS MOTIVATION TO READ NONFICTION:
Check with "What's new on TWM" next month when we will start "A New TWM initiative on using movies to interest students in reading nonfiction: The first guides will be to 127 Hours, Into the Wild and Mao's Last Dancer."
According to the 2010 Common Core State Standards ("CCSS"):
- Extensive research has established the need for college and career ready students to be able to independently read complex nonfiction texts;
- The majority of the required reading in worker training programs and in college is informational in nature and it is often challenging in content;
- The amount of nonfiction reading required of students in post-secondary education programs is usually greater than that required in K-12. CCSS pp. 3 & 4.
By 12th grade, the goal of the CCSS is for students to be reading in school 70% nonfiction and 30% fiction over all subject areas. See, CCSS p. 5. For ELA classes this means that perhaps 50% of the reading will be nonfiction. This new section of TeachWithMovies.com is to assist teachers in meeting these goals in a fashion that will energize kids to read the books.
UPDATED LEARNING GUIDE TO THE OX-BOW INCIDENT:
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The Ox-Bow Incident
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A frontier town in 1885 Nevada is rocked by news that a respected rancher has been murdered. The sheriff is out of town. Impatient townspeople form a posse. Three strangers are soon found herding cattle marked with the brand belonging to the murdered rancher. They claim they bought the cattle — but there is no bill of sale. One of the strangers has the rancher's gun. He tells the posse that he bought it from the rancher but again, he has no evidence. Most of the posse wants to string the strangers up immediately. A few men argue that the posse should wait and turn the strangers over to the sheriff. What will the posse do?
The TeachWithMovies.com Learning Guide to The Ox-Bow Incident has been completely rewritten and now contains a wealth of information about due process and how the posse in this film ignored this most basic value of the rule of law. The Guide will help teachers introduce in a graphic way the meaning and importance of due process and the risks of mob rule.
NOTE: An active TWM login is required in order to view these links.
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NEW LEARNING GUIDE TO MAO'S LAST DANCER:
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Mao's Last Dancer
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The TeachWithMovies.com Learning Guide to Mao's Last Dancer will assist teachers who show the movie alone or in conjunction with reading Li Cunxin's interesting autobiography of the same title.
Li Cunxin (1961 - ) is the sixth of seven sons born to a poor, hard working peasant family in China. The Li's are loving and close, enduring decades of hunger and deprivation, barely avoiding starvation. The book describes a peasant's life in China before, during and after the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976). The movie is a reasonably accurate description of Mr. Cunxin's life through about his 30th year, as described in his autobiography.
NOTE: An active TWM login is required in order to view these links.
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NEW SCIENCE SNIPPET LESSON PLANS USING THE RELIC AND DAYLIGHT
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The Relic
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Viruses and the Speed of Evolution Using The Relic
Students will experience an entertaining introduction to the topics of viruses and the speed of evolution using two film clips from The Relic. Three basic concepts of virology and one concept of evolution will be highlighted by the lesson. View the new Snippet Lesson Plan for The Relic.
NOTE: An active TWM login is required in order to view these links.
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Daylight
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Oxidation-Reduction Reactions (Redox) Using a Film Clips from Daylight
In a lesson spiced with a film clip from Daylight and two interesting YouTube clips, students will learn about real life occurrences of oxidation-reduction reactions, from paper becoming yellow, to apples becoming brown, to fire, to the most destructive explosions. They will review how oxidation-reduction reactions involve electron transfer between atoms. Finally, students will receive practical advice on fire safety. View the new Snippet Lesson Plan for Daylight.
NOTE: An active TWM login is required in order to view these links.
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SCHOOL / GROUP MEMBERSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE:
Save 50% to 62% off our regular low membership price by signing up under our School Membership Program.
Administrators: The cornerstone of any program to ensure that class time won't be wasted when students are shown movies is to give teachers curriculum materials that reveal the educational value of feature films. Then you can work with teachers to ensure that movies are used infrequently but with maximum educational return consistent with the Common Core State Standards.
Teachers: Join as a department to enrich your classes and meet curriculum standards.
Get more details on our new School Membership Program.
DECEMBER 2011
 The Wizard of OZ is a classic
example of the Hero's Journey!MOVIES AS REWARDS IN THE CLASSROOM:
Showing students movies as a reward for good behavior has its purpose.
The promise of a film as reward for tasks accomplished has always been a manipulative device favored by teachers who themselves love a good movie now and then. But reward doesn't have to mean useless or brain-dead.
Reward films are an opportunity to show students movies that are great works of art, unusual films that change lives or show a part of the world that students have never seen. It is also a reward to show students a filmed version of a book that they have read.
Finally, reward-time is a great way to expose students to foreign films.
The key is to use the class to do something different that will help students.
Click here to see our latest article about showing reward films. It includes a list of recommended movies.
NEW LEARNING GUIDES TO: Hercules & Grave of the Fireflies
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Hercules
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What do you do with a movie that, although loved by children, takes a Greek myth, changes the plot, modifies the characters almost beyond recognition, mixes in Christian theological themes, and adds parallels to a comic book hero?
One student told us about a class in mythology whose teacher had turned Hercules into a test. The prompt was simple: describe the ways in which the movie departs from the myth.
The TeachWithMovies.com Learning Guide to Hercules provides a comprehensive list of how the Disney version differs from the Greek myth.
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Grave of the Fireflies
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Grave of the Fireflies is a heartbreaking film that shows two orphaned children trying to survive the aftermath of the American incendiary bombing campaign that preceded the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It shows one example of the effects of the Second World War on civilians and provides a clear example of the tragedy hidden behind the euphemism "collateral damage." Roger Ebert wrote, "Grave of the Fireflies is an emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation." Another critic compared the movie to Schindler's List saying that: "It is the most profoundly human animated film I've ever seen." See Roger Ebert's Review in the Chicago Sun-Times.
The TeachWithMovies.com Learning Guide to Grave of the Fireflies shows how to use the film on its own or to supplement units on civilian casualties in WW II or in any war. The movie can also be used to support TWM's Mass Casualties Lesson Plan, which explores the decision to drop atomic bombs to end WW II.
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SCHOOL MEMBERSHIPS NOW AVAILABLE:
Save 50% to 62% off our regular low membership price by signing up under our Group Membership Program.
Administrators: The cornerstone of any program to ensure that class time won't be wasted when students are shown movies is to give your teachers curriculum materials that reveal the educational value of feature films. Then you can work with teachers to ensure that movies are used infrequently but with maximum educational return consistent with the Common Core State Standards.
Teachers: Join as a department to enrich your classes and meet curriculum standards.
Get more details on our new School Membership Program.
NOVEMBER 2011
The Common Core State Standards and
Feature Films in the ELA Classroom:
Feature films — carefully selected, properly introduced, shown with a movie worksheet, and followed by discussions and assignments — will inspire and interest today's students.
Some of the new Common Core State Standards refer to the use of film. Movies can also assist in meeting standards that make no reference to film.
Click here for an explanation of how a few carefully selected and properly presented movies can assist teachers in meeting the Common Core State Standards, including a complete list of the Common Core State Standards that relate to the use of film in education.
Helpful Tip: Are your school administrators resisting the use of film in your ELA classes? Give them TWM's article entitled Common Core State Standards and Feature Films in the ELA Classroom and the Common Core State Standards - Annotated & Highlighted for Films. These documents demonstrate that teachers cannot realistically meet the Common Core State Standards without showing some movies in the classroom and that a limited and judicious use of feature films can assist in meeting many standards.
Updated Learning Guide to Casablanca
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Casablanca a classic story of love and redemption through sacrifice at the beginning of World War II. It's one of the most popular films ever made. With its extended metaphor relating to the end of American isolationism, Casablanca can assist learning in both English Language Arts and social studies classes. The film is an excellent example of historical fiction. Moreover, the film can serve as an example of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey through Rick's internal quest for redemption and self-rediscovery.
The character of Rick provides an example of the value of redemption, both on a social and personal level. Watching this movie permits children to work through the issues of romantic attachment and when that attachment must be sacrificed for more important values. Because of the power of the story, Casablanca is an excellent Reward Film.
The TeachWithMovies.com Learning Guide to Casablanca provides a movie worksheet for use in ELA classes, another for an ELA class on the Hero's Journey, and a third for social studies classes (treating the film as an example of historical fiction). It contains extensive background information that will support an introduction to the film. The Guide also contains discussion questions and assignments. ...read more
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OCTOBER, 2011
TWM is proud to present its Movies as Literature Homework Project together with a new and revised Film Study Worksheet.
ELA teachers . . . . How many of your students will frequently read books as adults? Some . . . . but they'll all be watching movies!
Help students understand that movies tell stories that can be analyzed using the elements and devices of fiction. You may change the way your students look at film for their entire lives. With TWM's Movies as Literature Homework Project YOU CAN DO THIS WITHOUT A LARGE INVESTMENT OF CLASS TIME!
Social Studies Teachers . . . . How many of your students will read books about history when they are adults? A few . . . . but most will be watching historical fiction in movies!
TWM's Historical Fiction in Film Homework Project requires students to watch, outside of class, movies that are historical fiction. They are required to analyze the films for the elements and devices of fiction and for their historical accuracy and perspective. Used with TWM's revised Film Study Worksheet for Historical Fiction this homework assignment means . . . . YOU CAN DO THIS WITHOUT A LARGE INVESTMENT OF CLASS TIME!
Music Within is a biography of Richard Pimentel, one of the people responsible for passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. However, when properly supported by the information, discussion questions and assignments in TWM's Learning Guide, the film provides much more:
Health Classes: Students love the character of Art, a man confined to a wheelchair by cerebral palsy. Art's spastic movements make even the simplest tasks of daily life extremely difficult. Michael Sheen's protrayal of this real-life character is so engaging that the way students see and think about persons with obvious physical disabilities will change forever. The movie will also help students reach new levels of understanding about the effects of early childhood trauma, PTSD, and overcoming a dysfunctional family. Music Within is one of the best films for Health classes relating to disabilities.
Social Studies Classes: Music Within presents one of the five great advances in human rights in the U.S. during the 20th century: the movement to allow the disabled to integrate into mainstream society. It will show students that just a few years ago, disabled people could not get access to public buildings and could be discriminated against at work and in education. The movie also provides a window onto life in the last half of the 20th century.
English Language Arts Classes: The movie is an excellent description of the human condition as experienced in America during the 20th century. It vicariously expands students' experiences and raises important questions that are great topics for persuasive essays and othe writing projects.
Since it is strong in so many areas, the film also offers cross-curricular benefits.
How do most students and adults in the U.S. learn about history? It's from movies and film - be it Amistad or All the President's Men or A Man for All Seasons – movies "based on" historical events appear every year. These are, in fact, works of historical fiction with varying degrees of accuracy. TWM believes that an important function of any social studies class is to help students learn to critically evaluate the historical fiction that they'll be watching the rest of their lives. We have created two new teaching tools to address this need.
Before showing a work of historical fiction, require students to read TWM's Film Study Worksheet for Historical Fiction. After the movie is over, in class or as homework, ask students to provide written responses. Alternatively, hold a class discussion based on the questions in the Worksheet. This will keep students' attention on the movie and lead them to evaluate the film as both a work of fiction and a description of history.
Because class time is valuable and there are few opporunities to show an entire movie in class, TWM has developed a Historical Fiction in Film Homework Project which requires students to watch, outside of class, a certain number of movies that are historical fiction — TWM suggests four per semester — and then respond to the questions in the Film Study Worksheet for Historical Fiction.
Once you have used the Worksheet or the Homework Project, tell us what you think via email to support@TeachWithMovies.com. Our thanks to Suzanne Paulazzo, Social Studies Teacher, Leland High School, San Jose, California for sending us a lesson plan that inspired these two new products.
HEALTH
We have updated the Learning Guide and Student Handout for Super Size Me with new statistics about the obesity epidemic. TWM recommends ten other movies that will supplement and add depth to Health classes.
FIVE NEW SNIPPET LESSON PLANS — ONE IN MATH and FIVE IN THE SCIENCES
(We can count; the first one overlaps.)
Illustrate the amazing power of exponential increase and decrease, show students the reason for scientific notation, and introduce different numeral systems with Exponents, Scientific Notation, and Numeral Systems Using Powers of Ten or Cosmic Voyage. Both films have similar scenes that will leave a lasting impression on students.
Demonstrate the vast distances between stars but the relative closeness of galaxies with Interstellar and Intergalactic Distances Using Cosmic Voyage. The Guide has links to websites with amazing photographs of galactic collisions.
Show students the optics of refraction that lie behind the rare and emphemeral Green Flash. See Refraction and the Green Flash Using a Clip from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
How can harmonic motion sink a ship, break a glass, make beautiful music, or destroy a bridge? Give examples from Hollywood (fictional) to Tacoma (real) with Harmonic Motion Using Film Clips from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
The Snippet Lesson Plan on Molecular Bonds and Surface Tension Using Film Clips from Microcosmos focuses on amazing footage of ants drinking from drops of water. It will interest students in this important topic.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS — TWO NEW LEARNING GUIDES
The Old Man and the Sea is a faithful adaptation of Hemingway's Pulitzer Prize winning novella. The Learning Guide contains a Film Study Worksheet to keep students' focused on the film and the themes of the story. The Guide will assist in teaching both the book and the movie provisinginsights, discussion questions, and assignments. As almost always, TWM suggests that students read the book before they see the movie.
While The Sandlot appears on the surface to be a lightweight comedy, the movie provokes an empathic reaction in virtually all viewers. The Learning Guide to this film points out the themes of the movie and provides discussion questions. It contains assignments for middle or junior high students to practice the skills required by The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts for Writing and for Speaking and Listening.
MAY 2011
As you can see, we have a new and modernized look with new navigation tools including a search engine. Give it a drive — check it out.
We have updated the Learnng Guide and Student Handout for Super Size Me with new statistics about the obesity epidemic.
TWO MORE SCIENCE SNIPPET LESSON PLANS
JANUARY 2011
USE SNIPPETS OF FEATURE FILMS TO ILLUSTRATE PRINCIPLES OF
PHYSICS, BIOLOGY & EARTH SCIENCE
During 2011 TWM will present 12 new Snippet Lesson Plans illustrating principles of science. Combined with our current offerings, TWM subscribers will be able access more than 40 ways to use film in physics, biology and earth science classes to vary classroom routines and stimulate interest. See TWM's Science and Technology Index.
Our first new Science Snippet Lesson Plan is an Introduction to Volcanoes and Tectonic Plates Using "Volcano".
Students will learn about volcanoes,their likely locations, the factors that can lead to an eruption, the relation of plate tectonics to volcanic eruptions, and the kind of certainty that scientists can and cannot provide. They will become familiar with the way that volcanoes are classified and four of the important phenomena that happen before and during eruptions: heating of underground and surface water, lava flows, ash clouds, and volcanic bombs.
The Lesson Plan shows the difference between what occurs in nature and where Hollywood fantasy manifests itself in the film. The events of the movie are loosely based on real incidents in which a volcano suddenly surged to life in an unexpected location and when advancing lava was cooled and stopped with water. Comparison of the real events with the film will demonstrate the differences between fact and fiction in movies while providing interest and context for the lesson.
STUDENTS ARE FASCINATED BY THE HERO'S JOURNEY
— MAKE THIS MYTHICAL AND LITERARY STRUCTURE RELAVANT TO THE LIVES OF STUDENTS
— SHOW HOW IT RELATES TO STORIES OF ACHIEVEMENT AND PERSONAL GROWTH
Very few students will be involved in the situations and violence portrayed in today's action/adventure movies. However, most of them, at one time in their lives, will embark on their own quests for achievement or for personal growth. These quests often fit the paradigm of the Hero's Journey. TWM has developed four Lesson Plans to show that the Hero's Journey can be found in stories other than action/adventure movies. More Hero's Journey Lesson Plans will be published in the coming months.
Check out TWM's Stages and Archetypes of the Hero's Journey -- Introducing the Monomyth based on the insights of Carl Jung, Joesph Campbell and Christopher Vogler.
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In Fly Away Home, Amy undertakes two important quests. The first is to successfully pass through paralyzing grief arising from her mother's untimely death. She accomplishes this, in part, through her second quest, a mission in which she and her father work together to teach her orphaned geese how to migrate from north to south. Both of these quests fit the paradigm of "the Hero's Journey," |
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The "The Wizard of Oz" is another Heroine's Journey. In the process of finding her way back home, Dorothy grows in self-confidence and matures. |
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The Hero's Journey can also be found in rommantic comedies as shown by the Lesson Plan for "Big". In this case, Josh makes an internal Hero's Journey and learns that despite his desire to be big, he is not ready for the world of adults and that childhood is a time to be enjoyed. |
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The Hero's Journey lesson plan for "Departures" shows a Journey of personal growth and development in a foreign film. |
In each of these lesson plans, students will be asked to describe the stages and archetypes of the Hero's Journey. By completing one or more of the suggested assignments, students will employ and perfect the writing skills required by ELA curriculum standards.
TeachWithMovies.com Learning Guides are designed to assist teachers in creating lesson plans. Each Learning Guide contains sections on Helpful Background, Benefits of the Movie, Possible Problems, Discussion Questions, and Assignments.
Snippet Lesson Plans are made from short subjects or from "film clips," "movie clips," or "video clips." The video segments of these lesson plans are ideal for classroom use because they are less than 40 minutes long.
Movies and films make the events they portray come alive. TeachWithMovies.com helps teachers and parents make lessons vivid and personal for children.
TeachWithMovies.com, Inc. grants to its subscribers a limited license to print Learning Guides and Indexes for classroom or personal use. Click here for details.
For instructions on printing this Index for personal or classroom use, click here.
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