Judith J. Katz
There are six essential questions I want students to ponder during this unit. Each of the first five questions (see below) corresponds to the Lesson that shares its number. So that question one: How do the narrative structure (plot) and the Mise en Scene keep us involved in the film, becomes a prompt to the student that reminds them what they need to be looking for, and taking notes about as they watch the first film
Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers.
The last two essential questions are there to help the student connect everything they have learned to an in-depth writing projectthe film essay. As you can see the student will move from an overall sense of what is happening in the film (the plot) along with what audio/visual cues (clues) the filmmaker gives in Mise-en-Scene, through Character Development, Overall credibility of the film, through the part that we do (or don't) play in watching the film by willing suspension of disbelief.
Through the students' short writings, the teacher will be able to assess how well each student is, in fact, able to understand and make connections to the variety of higher order, critical thinking skills this unit seeks to teach. The six essential questions appear in order below:
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1. How do the narrative structure (plot) and the Mise-en-Scene keep us involved in the film?
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2. How do Character Development (CPC) and narrative structure (CCR/Plot) come together to create a believable and compelling film?
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3. How do the characters change? Do we believe what happens to them could really happen? Do we believe people would react the way they do?
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4. What can we, as writers, learn about story from films?
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5. How do writers and filmmakers use narrative structure, character development and causal logic to create meaning?
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6. What makes a film credible and compelling enough for us to suspend our disbelief and believe in the universe it creates?
Scaffolding of Lessons
One of the first pieces of advice I was given by a fellow teacher, Chris Voight, was to "Make sure to teach your students everything step-by-step and be careful not to leave any of the steps out. Remember they are often doing things for the first time ever and they really don't know how." This advice has been a primary influence in the way I teach and my commitment to the idea of Scaffolding lessons. I spend a great deal of time considering what order knowledge might best be acquired in. In this section I will be discussing the strategies for learning I believe will work best for this unit and why.
A Word About Process and Product Writing
Students will be exposed to two kinds of writing strategies in this unit: process writing and product writing. Most of the writing students will be expected to do in the beginning sections of the unit are process writing, i.e.: thinking on paper. This kind of writing is primarily being used to help the students organize their thinking, to help them get in the habit of writing notes and reflections (film journal), and to help them integrate what they are learning. Normally I would not require students to spell and grammar check process writing and you may choose to allow the students to write in an unedited way for the earlier activities. Also, if a student is working on process writing I don't expect the student to do any further drafts. A solid first draft is all that is required and you will note that students are using a self-assessment, not a rubric. In product writing I expect students to review and revise for clarity, organization of ideas, etc.
Toward the end of the unit when students will be writing a film essay, which is the culminating thinking and writing activity of this unit, I will expect them to be much more aware of their spelling, grammar, formatting, organization of ideas, thesis statement and conclusion. They will be given a self-assessment tool for the essay, which is a kind of a checklist so that they know what is expected of them. This self-assessment tool will be similar to the ones they have used in the earlier process writing activities. In the essay however the self-assessment tool becomes the rubric. The student uses the self-assessment tool to check their work, it will then be used by a peer editor to help the student write a second draft, I will use it to check their work and give editing advice and questions that will lead to their third and final draft and then it will be used to grade the students' work. By then we will all know it by heart, which could be a help to the students in future writing assignments.
A Polite Warning for Students
There is absolutely no reason to write a complete plot summary in any of the process or product writing we will do in this unit. First of all you don't want to be a "spoiler" telling the whole plot to an audience that might not have seen the film. Second and most important is that repeating the plot takes up a great deal of space (I know that's one reason why you do it) but it doesn't reveal
your thinking
about the plot, characters, causal logic, and narrative. Hence plot summaries are empty caloriesstraight sugar. Writing the plot summary will make you feel like
you are writing something, but in the end, you are only writing what the screenwriter already wrote. Don't do it. Thank you.