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Film Friday

 

 

What was the first movie you ever saw? What was the one that made you cry? Which one terrified you so much you nearly ran, or did run, out of the theatre, or kept the lights on all night? Films and books/texts are not in conflict with one another, they act as pillars on a strong brain and heart. Our instructional time is eroded by so many other agendas, however, that when we’re mentally drained, and the desire to just pop in a movie overwhelms us, our good admin remind us that students have plenty of time to guzzle large doses of media. So bear with me here: this isn’t about popping in Mulan when you have nothing else planned. (Although I absolve you: I love Mulan.) And I guess I can make a strong case for Lion King (Hamlet), Cinderella (good chance to explain about blended families and friction), the Little Mermaid and how tragic fairy tales Hans Christian Andersen wrote are sanitized by Disney, and why. I could go on. And we all know that seldom is the movie as good as the book. That’s because they’re different species from the same phylum. Those are grand discussions in and of themselves.

But this is about those little films that get us to understand themes. Ideas. Beliefs. Movements. I’ll try to post as many as I have collected here, but am sure to leave some out. If you find some good ones, please click on the post and add a comment.

Expanding Gender: Youth Out Front from Frameline Distribution on Vimeo.

Nuit Blanche from Arev Manoukian on Vimeo.

Descendants from Goro Fujita on Vimeo.

Pixar – One Man Band from Ricardo Pereira on Vimeo.

Toonocalypse from The 2D Workshop on Vimeo.

2016 OSCAR® Nominated Short Films – Live Action and select Animation from SHORTS HD on Vimeo.

The Boy with a Camera for a Face from Spencer Brown on Vimeo.

Lights Out – Who’s There Film Challenge (2013) from David F. Sandberg on Vimeo.

Parvati Saves the World, Act1 from Rattapallax on Vimeo.

Taking the Plunge from Taking The Plunge on Vimeo.

 

“The World Is As Big Or As Small As You Make It” | Sundance Institute from Sundance Institute on Vimeo.

Valley of Dolls from Fritz Schumann on Vimeo.

Confessions of an Idiom from Amanda Koh on Vimeo.

THE MONKEY’S PAW (2011) from Ricky Lewis Jr on Vimeo.

In the Beginning from Arthur Metcalf on Vimeo.

1982 from Gina Breslau on Vimeo.

Dust – Short film starring Alan Rickman & Jodie Whittaker from Jake Russell on Vimeo.

There’s a Man in the Woods from Jacob Streilein on Vimeo.

Ormie from Ormie Pig on Vimeo.

Heartless: The Story of the Tin Man from Whitestone Motion Pictures on Vimeo.

DreamGiver from Tyler Carter on Vimeo.

Mitología / Mythology from Rafita Films on Vimeo.

Short Film ‘The Black Hole’ from PHOTOPLAY FILMS on Vimeo.

Return of the Cicadas from motionkicker on Vimeo.

The Man Who Was Afraid of Falling from Joseph Wallace on Vimeo.

Slug Invasion from The Animation Workshop on Vimeo.

The Lost & Found Shop [film] from Caleb Slain on Vimeo.

Invention of Love (2010) – Animated Short Film from Bujang_Cadiak on Vimeo.

Chris Garneau – Dirty Night Clowns from ROCK*iT FiLMS on Vimeo.

VIVA LUCHA from Team Mighty on Vimeo.

Procrastination from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

 

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Write-It-Right Wednesday

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Anything, and I mean anything, can be a writing prompt. While waiting for a friend the other day, this Pokestop popped up on my screen. What other amazing things/places are out there in the world I never saw before?

We are writers.

Writing serves my creative mania. In my classroom, historically, we write more than we read. Do I love books? Of course! Am I passionate and excited about passages, excerpts, themes, patterns, characters, and juicy plots? Naturally! But in my experience, if you truly want to a student, a person– to engage, spill their guts, bare their soul and express themselves, writing is it.

Write-It-Right Wednesdays are mini-lesson moments and writing workshop days. Mini lessons are those quick, here is a “thing you need to know” thing. Writing Workshop is a very different animal, and all I’ve learned is from my mentors Holly Stein and Kim Norton through the PSWP (part of the National Writing Project). The Puget Sound Writing Project is no longer, unfortunately, but Holly and Kim began a new venture, PSW Consortium.

Here is Writing Workshop:

  1. You write.
  2. Your students write.
  3. What do you write about? Whatever is on folks’ minds, part of the content, etc. Or what my friend Holly calls “Rule #10: write what you want.”
  4. Use images, news stories, personal anecdotes, objects, postcards, whatever.
  5. Writing is sacred time.
  6. If someone comes in the room to observe during this, they are asked to write, too.
  7. In small groups, each person takes a turn to read their writing. Nothing is in the listeners’ hands. Nothing.
  8. Second read: the listeners give feedback. Never, ever hand your writing over to someone else to read. Yes, it can get noisy. This is not about spelling or editing.
  9. The listeners take a few minutes to verbally give feedback, and hand over the feedback slips to the writer.
  10. The writer says “thank you.” That’s it. They can choose to take the listeners’ advice or not. This is important to teach in terms of preparing writers for criticism and to understand their own craft.

 

This is Holly’s Power Point. I hope she doesn’t mind me sharing it.

[embeddoc url=”https://blog0rama.edublogs.org/files/2016/07/writing-groups-intro-2adykru.pptx” viewer=”microsoft”]

Writing Partner Feedback Sheet I have a format in Publisher where I put these two up on a page, and double-side photocopy. This document contains the essential information.

[embeddoc url=”https://blog0rama.edublogs.org/files/2016/07/Writing-Partner-Feedback-Sheet-16fq66g.docx” viewer=”microsoft”]

Two Writing Teachers

WriteAbout

For the grammar lessons, I may try to use Grammarly in the classroom.

Here is an example from a student from a memoir unit:

7 feedback
This was from a modeling portion where I wrote the story, and students acted as my writing partner for feedback.

And for heaven’s sake, start a writing blog for your students: http://poetryclub.edublogs.org/

Update: Two Writing Teachers wrote a great piece on Writing Workshop. Read and keep.