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1. To teach students how to review a film.
Teachers can utilize familiar literature techniques to treat a film story more like a printed story. These tried and true methods include building background, setting a purpose, vocabulary words, predicting plot, and various viewer response activities. These methods are not easily put into practice because children have so much visual and auditory information to absorb. Indeed, the most critical strategies for the teacher to include are breaking the viewing time into smaller units and providing appropriate response activities. These response activities often require a repeated viewing of a certain clip.
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2. To introduce students to some highlights from the history of motion picture films through the genre of science fiction films.
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3. To introduce students to the terms and main roles of the motion picture business.
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4. To teach students about acting and role-playing.
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5. To teach students to compare literature and film.
The basic idea that written words may form the basis for a film is a meta-cognitive concept that children can develop. The three films that I have chosen all have a screenplay-based books at a young level . It is an exciting discovery when children see words and pictures based on the movie. It also helps them to separate fantasy from reality when the teacher reads.
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6. To teach students comparison skills.
For each of the three films, I have selected a familiar literature selection from the HBJ Treasury of Literature (Farr and Strickland 1993) A character like
Henny Penny
has three friends who join
Henny Penny
on her trip to see the King. These young reviewers can easily compare this plot to that of Dorothy and her three friends in
The Wizard of Oz
.
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7. To increase student’s emotional response to characters with a handicapping condition or difference.
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8. To develop student awareness of a theme.
One theme in all three films is the theme of broken connections between generations. Dorothy is raised by her aunt and uncle,
E.T.
was abandoned by his space family, and the monster has no family at all.
9. To help students understand the genre of science fiction.
Many beginning readers are fascinated with the idea of space travel and wild inventions. So children have a basis of appreciation for science fiction themes of time travel, space travel and inventions. The Greek writer Lucian wrote about going to the moon around 100 A.D. and children have always enjoyed describing their ideal trip in pictures, stories or discussions(Knight 1982). First graders enjoy reading the words in
Papa Get the Moon for Me
(Carle)
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10. To communicate to parents the value of film review strategies and literature connections.
Parents can support this unit at home through discussions about film selections and literature connections. A newsletter can describe the benefits of this unit and request support from home in carrying out movie review discussions or projects.