Robert M. Schwartz
Students will analyze and understand film as a partner to text, not as a replacement.
When we settle in to watch a movie, it is often for enjoyment. One objective is, through this unit, to have students hopefully feel that way about at least one text. Also, to see film as something to study. Working from both angles, eventually students will be able to read a good story, and prepare to deeply analyze a film, in order to enhance both enjoyment and learning.
Students will synthesize themes of classic stories as a wonderful source of learning, and to treat their adaptations as beneficial to modern art forms like cinema.
Because many classics have been adapted so many times, there is nearly unlimited material from which to draw. We will work through several adaptations, each as an original, classic story updated into animation, musical, comedy, and dramatic forms. This will allow us to reflect on the differences among art forms, while bringing variety into the classroom to increase interest and engagement, and to further complicate the themes we are dealing with.
Students will be able to create their own adaptations of classic texts in order to synthesize learning of adaptation theory and prove they have completed assigned reading.
For their independent reading projects, students will read from a selection of classic stories (all available online or easily accessible at local libraries). They will then utilize their phone cameras to create adaptations, updating them to the theme of their choice. They will be responsible for explaining which strategies they will have used, all taught as part of this curricular unit.