Lesson Plan one begins with a pilot lesson which will introduce students to the film
The Pianist.
The students will have an option of selecting a movie of their own choice to analyze and compare with
The Pianist.
Objective:
The students will be watching the film
The Pianist.
It will help them form a general understanding of the space and geographical map of Eastern Europe where most atrocities against Jews took place. Furthermore, it will help them develop a general framework of how to analyze movies in an organized fashion. Several frameworks would be included as a guide: a) Geography, b) People-ethnic groups, c) Characters. A discussion would follow for the rest of the class, covering in detail these frameworks. The same analytical frameworks developed for
The Pianist
would also be applied to the movie selected by the students.
It is of utmost importance that a large map showing the geography of Europe and the rest of the world would be present at the class for all the students who are not familiar with space and geography. An overhead projector showing enlarged maps of several European countries like Poland, Russia, and the Ukraine, would be included. Our students at Cross Annex high school have little concept of world geography. Yet, it is important for them to know since Europe was the continent that gave America its early democratic characteristics, its fashions, and its architecture, and much more.
The students will brainstorm the social, economic and political history of these geographical locations. They would try with some guidance by the teacher to make sense of what social upheaval is, and what it can cause. The teacher would encourage the students to read books on basic economics. Several concepts like supply and demand would be covered. This would help the students understand that economics is related to supply and demand. Hitler denied the forces of supply and demand. He used Germany's economic condition and depression in the late 1920's as reasons to blame the Jews for creating it.
Geography and people are always intertwined with each other. The Europeans are a mix of Germanics, Anglo Saxons, Slavs and many others. Class discussion will follow with the teacher reviewing some pertinent information on the history of the European people.
The main character and the character's contributions is the third framework to analyze the film. Several topics would be discussed: who is the main character the director develops in the film? Are there any close ups, narrations, flashback, voice over, or metaphors that help create the main character? What kind of a character is he? Is he likeable? Does he stand for high principles and ideals?