Film Adaptations

Here is a lesson plan that I had originally thought of earlier in the semester, but added onto to incorporate the use of VideoANT as well.  I am really interested in using film adaptations of literature as an incorporated tool in my classroom.  This activity uses "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass", but you could use any film adaptations paired with literature. 

I took special care when designing this lesson as to not give the students the idea that one version is better than the other, but instead focused the activity on making students realize the different elements and techniques in each version and how those elements and techniques added to the film or literature to make them special in their own ways - whether these techniques were successful or not.  I also used it as a tool to show students that they can read film and images in media as  just like they can read literature.

Lesson Plan:

Subject Area: English/Language Arts
Grade Level: 10th grade
Unit Title: Through the Looking Glass
Lesson Title: Two Sides of the Mirror

Time: Two class periods totally 80 minutes (or one block class of 80 minutes)

Essential Question: Similar to the literary elements of a story, what are the literary elements of film?

Objectives:
•    Students will be able to identify important themes and significant details in the novel Through The Looking Glass.
•    Students will be able to identify important themes and significant details in the movie Alice in Wonderland (1951 Disney version).
•    Student will be able to identify similarities and differences between the written and film versions and analyze those components in an analytical manner and understand their significance and importance in the both versions.
•    Students will learn how to become more consciously literate in film and media as well as reading, learning that there are elements of film similar to how there are elements of literature.
•    Students will become more comfortable incorporating technology in their assignments (VideoAnt).


Materials/Resources Needed:
•    Book: Through the Looking Glass
•    Disney film: Alice in Wonderland (1951) or access to YouTube for this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBTWE26AeEw
•    Notebook and pencil
•    Scheduled time in a computer lab and access to VideoAnt

Previous Knowledge:  By this point in the lesson, students will already have finished the book Through the Looking Glass and have discussed and analyzed the book critically as a class.  They will be familiar with certain elements of fiction such as imagery, word choice, sentence structure, detail, dialogue, character development, tone, and voice etc.  The students will also have had a tutorial the previous day on how to use VideoAnt (a video annotation program that allows students to annotate comments while simultaneously watching a film clip).  They will feel comfortable to use it on their own.

Procedure: 
1.    Intro (10 minutes):
At this point, the students would be redirected to turn to the scene in which Alice enters the realm into Wonderland.  Students will be divided into small groups and asked to recall the important elements of literature used in this scene.  After, the class will come back and discuss what they found/came up with.
2.    Watch Film clip (15 minutes):
If the classroom does not allow enough time to see the entire movie, watching just the clip where Alice enters through the door into Wonderland should be just fine (here is a link to the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBTWE26AeEw). In this lesson plan, we are watching just this clip. Similar to the task after completing the novel, after watching the clip (10 minute clip) we would, as a class, generate and critique specific things that we noticed in the clip, such as detail, music, character voice and pitch, camera angles, tone, dialogue, and drawing technique (since it is a cartoon).
3.    Computer lab and VideoAnt (50 minutes): 
The class will move quickly to the computer lab and each student will sign-on to a computer. They have already had a tutorial and learned how to use VideoAnt, so no instruction is needed.  This time will be devoted entirely to the students creating their own VideoAnt in order to discuss the literary elements of film in the clip.  The clip is ten minutes long, so the students will have a whole fifty minutes to work on this.  They will be instructed they need at least ten annotations throughout the ten-minute clip.  They should be reminded to use their notes to generate annotations.  They should also be reminded to stay on task, because they only have this class time to work on the VideoAnt portion of this project (no more computer time in class after this).
4.    Closure (5 minutes):
As a wrap-up, they students will sign off their computers.  This is a time they can pose any questions or comments to the class as a whole.  For homework, they have to go home, look at their notes, and start comparing the similarities and differences between the two scenes (from the book and movie) and come prepared to talk about them in class tomorrow.  They will also be introduced to the next assignment of the lesson which will begin tomorrow, which is to create a similar annotation storyboard for the book (as they did for VideoAnt), but this time on paper.