On Cinema
In this activity, students will respond to a mid-century or contemporary fiction film in an essay or review, analyzing the formal features of the film as well as its cultural impact.
FILM LESSON 2: ESSAY | REVIEW
½ class period (20-30 min) + screening + written or oral assignment
VIDEO:
On Cinema Video and Transcript
HANDOUTS:
Unit Research (as needed)
Handout 1 (as needed)
Handout 2 (as needed)
Handout 3 (as needed)
Handout 4 (as needed)
WORKSHEET:
TEACHING PLAN:
- Art and Culture
Medium > Visual Arts
Subject Matter > Art History
- History and Social Studies
Themes > Culture
- Literature and Language Arts
Genre > Drama
Place > Modern World
- Analysis
- Auditory analysis
- Compare and contrast
- Critical analysis
- Critical thinking
- Cultural analysis
- Discussion
- Expository writing
- Interpretation
- Making inferences and drawing conclusions
- Media analysis
- Musical analysis
- Oral analysis
- Oral communication
- Oral presentation skills
- Persuasive writing and speaking
- Report writing
- Representing ideas and information orally and in writing
- Summarizing
- Synthesis
- Textual analysis
- Using primary sources
- Visual analysis
- Visual art analysis
- Writing skills
- ELA Reading: 1, 5-7
- ELA Writing: 1, 4-6, 9-10
- ELA Speaking & Listening: 1-2, 4-6
- HSS Reading: 1-2, 5, 7-8
- HSS Writing: 1, 4-6, 9-10
• Allow additional time for peer review, editing, and revision, or for students to critique the structure, style, approach, and conclusions of the final essays/reviews.
• Add a visual requirement, such as asking students to incorporate film stills into their essays or reviews, and then analyze these frames in their response.
• Increase the minimum length requirement for the essays, asking students to respond to professional reviews or academic analyses of their film, noting any areas of controversy, then compare their own evaluation of the film to these assessments (see Film Unit Resource handout). Alternately, students may incorporate research on a
related aspect of film or media theory into their response.
• Publish class excerpts in the school newspaper or literary/art journal, coordinate a class blog, radio segment, or podcast, submit excerpts to a local or school radio program, or encourage students to submit their final pieces independently.