Mary Lou L. Narowski
This selection might seem like an easy task. Go on line, do a search for a selection of books that were made into movies, choose a book that was developed into a movie, and be done with it. Simple. But seventh and eighth grade students are an interesting bunch. They are fussy, fickle, and basically bored with just about all your choices! Or that's the face they have to wear if they want to be cool. They want to be anywhere but in school and socialization is the keynote of their existence. They are the centers of their own universe. "Me, I'm the only one who's important." The students in my school come from the "hood" where gangs, guns, violence, and instability are commonplace, so choosing the "right" book is extremely critical. As you probably already guessed, reading is not high on their list of activities so it has to be a book that hooks them quickly and speaks to them directly. Length should also be a consideration, as a large volume will be thought of as overwhelming and classroom time is always at a premium. The question becomes what should you look for when choosing novel?
A good book must be relevant to the lives of your students and help them explore some of their cultural values. It must be familiar, mundane, and even prosaic, yet show them things that they've never seen before and will not soon forget. Perhaps it gives them solutions or answers to problems that they, too, face. It has to make an impact and be understandable. It must demand an emotional response, as this will keep them engaged and, at the same time, keep them wondering why certain things happen and what's going to happen next. Finally, it must be believable because it must give order to the human condition. Character development is key. Kids want resolution in what they read so they can believe that solutions are genuinely possible in real life. After all, is this not what text connections demand?
But this is only half of the battle. The movie version must now be considered. The rating of the movie plays a part in this. If choosing an R rated movie, permission must be sought from administration first and then the parents or guardians. It is also important to believe that, after previewing the film before showing your class, you find it worth the time spent. Students will want to feel this, too. Your movie choice must not have insane narratives that twist and add surreal features that make little sense. The film cannot be long, with too many sub-plots. The story and theme need to be understandable and recognizable, not obscure. The movie you choose will definitely have an impact on your students' motivation to engage fully in the last phase of this learning process.
For all these reasons, I have chosen as my core text The Outsiders written by S.E. Hinton and the 1983 film, of the same name, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Zoetrope Studios. It is a story about opposing gangs written by an author whose own life and encounters are depicted in the incidents in the story. The characters in the novel are the same ages as my students. Ponyboy's parents were killed in a car wreck and he is left with his two older brothers. Obviously, they are poor. My students are hooked. The story is about them. It has the drama they crave. The characters will be easy to study because my students already "know" them or think they know them.
This novel is currently part of our school's classroom library selection, with enough copies for each student, and the film is accessible to me through our school media center. The film version does follow the novel's story line closely so my students won't get angry at too much filming license taken by the director. The length of each will really work in my allotted time frame. It should be noted that many of the strategies and activities designed and delineated in this unit would work well with any novel to film adaptations.