Reading Strand

Turn A Story Into a Movie Assignment for Any Reading. Teachers Pay Teachers. [Online Image]

Sourced from: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/NOVEL-SHORT-STORY-MOVIE-PROJECT-1238945

As a teacher, it is important for me to implement and teach curriculum that focuses on development of the knowledge and skills that my students will need to become effective readers. An effective reader is defined as one who not only grasps the ideas communicated in a text, but who is also able to apply them in new contexts. It is important to provide learning activities that encourage students to think clearly, creatively, and critically about ideas and information that they read in a text. This will encourage them to understand, analyze and absorb the information and to recognize the texts relevance in other contexts.

I have explored an interesting activity offered by Teachers Pay Teachers called Novel Short Story Movie Project. It is designed to meet curriculum expectation for English Language Arts for grades 7, 8, 9, and 10. For three dollars, his resource provides teachers with activities to use, assessment tools and printables for the class.

I personally love this resource because it is a fun and creative way to encourage students to turn their reading of any short story or novel into a movie. This resource includes eight different assignments that can be used individually, or combined as a major final project. Below I will list and briefly explain each assignment:

To The Movie Producer:
Students write a letter to a movie producer to persuade them to make their novel or short story into a movie. This activity encourages students to practice proper letter writing format as well as demonstrate their understanding of character, plots, and conflicts.

Casting Calls:
This is an activity that allows students to demonstrate a deeper understanding of characterization by having them consider which actors or actresses to cast in their film adaptation of their reading and providing reasoning.

On Set:
This assignment asks students to analyze and have a thorough understanding of the text's setting descriptions while also encouraging them to determine how that setting will be translated in the film.

Red Carpet Interview:
This is a fun and creative activity that allows students to transform themselves into the leading character of the text  or "star of the show". The student can demonstrate their understanding of the main character's personality traits, as well as the theme of the story by answering interview questions from the perspective of the main character.

Movie Poster:
Students are asked to create a movie poster to attract an audience to the theater to watch the film adaptation of the reading.

Storyboard:
Like filmmakers, students will create a storyboard of a specific scene from their text. The students will have to consider how they want to the story to be told with every shot or camera angle.

Costume Designer:
In this activity, students are asked to draw and briefly explain costume choices for two characters in their reading.

Composition and Score:
Students are asked to make choices about the score of their film adaptation of their reading by choosing three songs that directly connect with the content of their text.

SkyPaxPictures. Popcorn and Movie. Oct. 19, 2006 [Online Image]

Sourced from:  http://bit.ly/2f9QfeF 

I believe that this resource does an excellent job of connecting to the Ontario curriculum's overall expectations for the grade seven and eight level. This resource encourages students to read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning. This activity also  encourages students to recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements to demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning in the text. Most importantly these activities help the student to reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading.

References:

Ontario. (2006) The Ontario Curriculum, grades 1-8. Toronto; Ontario, Ministry of Education

Teachers Pay Teachers. Novel Short Story Project.
Sourced from: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/NOVEL-SHORT-STORY-MOVIE-PROJECT-1238945


Thank you for reading!

Ashley