Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Movies as Writing Tools Part 2

I created a lesson using movie clips to help students focus on important details for description. I received the descriptive writing papers today. While I have not explored most of their writing, I have reviewed the writer memos that I have my students attach. Two of my questions (What helped you in your revision? What class activity helped you understand the genre the best?) sparked answers that related to the movies - some direct and some indirect. One student stated how she didn't understand how to "zoom in on an object and explain it with more detail than just telling about it." She stated, "The movie scenes and discussion showed how I can look at something from a different angle and from a different distance." I had another student share that he enjoyed the conversations around the movies because they helped him think of ways to improve his piece. Others stated that they were able to take boring sentences and look at what specifically needed to be changed - using movie terminology was more helpful because "I'm used to that type of talk."

I'm interested in other ways that teachers have used movies to help with specific writing skills.

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