Text to Film Learning Activities

The following example learning activities are made to foster the skills necessary to succeed in the unit plan that I've been developing thus far. They can be done out of order, but the following progress allows them to feed into each other. I want to be sure the students have a grasp on close reading as well as close watching and to be sure they're confident in accessing resources when it comes time for their papers. Activities where they work with peers and instruction to create their adaptations will help inspire confidence and a workflow for when they start on more independent projects later.

Learning Activities

• Close reading demo following a projection with a passage from the text. Ask students what is confusing or what words they don't know, or what they think is important from the text. Do this for five minutes, less or more if needed, then ask students what important happened in the passage.

• Following the former, students can be given a different difficult passage on a printout. Along with the passage, there are 3-4 short open-ended questions about it. Students are given 10 minutes on their own, with more or less time can be given as needed, then allowed to discuss with peers.

• Students are split into groups of 3-4 and given a section of text before the relevant film viewing. Students divide up work of interpreting the text, planning the storyboard, and drawing up the storyboard between them. Instructional aid will be available if difficulties arise. Students can do a "museum walk" after to see other groups' work and compare their peers' work to their own.

• Students have their storyboards, remaining in the same groups, and the class is shown clips of adaptations (film, audiodrama, theater, ect.) of the text interpreted. After each clip, the class engages in a short discussion of what happened in the clip and how it adapted the text. After preliminary discussion, students may be led into questioning why the story was told that way.

• During film viewings, students are given handouts. On one side are a few guiding questions about the film's plot points and the other has a T-Chart of similarities and differences they notice during the viewing. Either after the film or the following class period, students guide the instructor in creating a master comparing and contrasting T-Chart on the board or projector.

• The students, in small groups of 4-5, are given a scene from a play with little to no stage direction included. Work is split between actors, writers, and directors with actors likely doubling as a second role. Each group is given a different scene and a class period to develop their stage direction. Actors are not required to memorize lines. The second class period would be for "touching up" of their work and then performances with discussion to follow each. Group members can talk about decisions they made that weren't part of the text, why they directed it a certain way, and can answer questions from the class.