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Lesson 7

We will deliver a 3–5 minute oral review for our independently viewed movie, in the style of a YouTube movie review. As a team, we will develop a claim about how the various settings in which high school movies play out influence their styles and messages, and we will individually write a paragraph that explains how your movie exemplifies that claim.

Lesson Goals

Reading and Knowledge

  • Gather and Organize Evidence: How well do I gather and organize evidence from the movie I analyzed in order to make persuasive claims about the filmmakers’ choices?
  • Attend to Details: How well do I identify the elements filmmakers use to create their movies’ style and setting?
  • Analyze Relationships: How well do I recognize and interpret important relationships among key details and ideas (characters, setting, tone, point of view, structure, development) within a movie I review?
  • Evaluate Effects: How well do I evaluate the effects of stylistic choices in a movie I review?

Speaking and Listening

  • Communicate Effectively: How well do I use language and strategies to accomplish my intended purpose in communicating?
  • Develop Ideas: How well do I use devices, techniques, descriptions, reasoning, evidence, and descriptions of visual elements to write and present a review of the movie I have viewed and analyzed?

Writing

  • Form Claims: How well do I develop and clearly communicate meaningful and defensible claims that represent valid, evidence-based analysis?

Texts

There are no texts for this Lesson.

Materials

Tools

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Present

We will present our 3–5 minute oral movie reviews to a team of fellow student reviewers.

Join a 4-5 student movie review team.

Identify the high school movies you watched independently, and decide on the order you want to review them.

Take turns presenting your oral reviews to your group, being sure to do the following:

  • Identify the movie and key information about it.

  • Summarize the movie’s storyline and the character arc of at least one major character.

  • Interpret the movie’s theme and message, and explain how the filmmakers communicate that message.

  • Present an evaluative claim about the movie’s style, and specifically its use of setting, mood, and atmosphere.

  • Note positive and negative aspects of the movie as an example of its genre of high school movies.

  • Rate the movie and explain your rating.

After each review, pose questions to your fellow reviewers and briefly discuss how the movie represents a particular view of life in high school, what the concept of the movie was, and what you learned about its style.

Activity 2: Discuss – Write

We will work as a team to develop a summary claim about high school movies.

In your movie review team, discuss the similarities and differences among the movies you have viewed and reviewed.

Based on your team’s discussion, develop a summary claim about how high school movies’ settings influence their styles and messages.

Activity 3: Write

We will individually write a paragraph that explains how the movie we viewed and reviewed exemplifies our team’s claim about high school movies.

Using your team’s claim about high school movies as a topic sentence, write a well-organized paragraph about how the movie you viewed and reviewed exemplifies your team’s conclusions. Refer to specific information and ideas from your Understanding a Movie Tool.

Prepare to submit your paragraph and tool to your teacher.

Activity 4: Write – Discuss

We will reflect on our work on the Section Diagnostic and assess our progress toward the Culminating Task.

Step 1

Choose at least three of the questions below regarding the Section Diagnostic and respond to them in your Learning Log:

  1. How well did you take necessary action to prepare for the task?

  2. What went well for you during the completion of this task?

  3. What did you struggle with during the completion of this task? How did you push through these struggles?

  4. How well did you actively focus your attention during this independent task?

  5. How well did you develop and use an effective and efficient process to maintain workflow during this task?

  6. What would you do differently during the next Section Diagnostic?

Step 2

Now find your Culminating Task Progress Tracker. Think about the knowledge you have gained and the skills you have practiced thus far in the unit. Use the Culminating Task Progress Tracker to do the following:

  • Add or refine any skills and content knowledge required for the Culminating Task.

  • Evaluate how well you are mastering the skills and knowledge required for the Culminating Task.

Step 3

Review the Central Question of the unit:

How do we tell stories with films?

Use the following questions to guide a discussion with a partner or small group:

  1. What new knowledge do you have that relates to the Central Question?

  2. What are you still curious about that relates to the Central Question?

  3. What is the relationship between the Central Question and the texts you have read so far? How do the texts shed light on the question? How does the question help you understand the texts?

  4. How has your response to the question evolved, deepened, or changed?

In your Learning Log, write your response to Question 3. You will return to this response in later lessons to examine how your understanding of the Central Question has evolved.