Film Booklets - Visual Text Analysis (The Lovely Bones, The Intouchables, The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

I feel rejuvenated. This term I've taught all new films (excepting my Y11 film study of 'V for Vendetta'..) and they've been chosen through a joint process between myself and my students. I gave each class a few options and they decided on the one they'd want to watch based on my description and the trailers we'd watched. 

This term I've used:

• 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' directed by Stephen Chbosky
• 'The Intouchables' directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano
• 'The Lovely Bones' directed by Peter Jackson

I've added the booklets that I created for these films and student analysis below. Each booklet has different film techniques and pictures taken from the film. Worksheets have been made by me and there are specific ones that will be constantly reworked and developed based on my student's needs. I've got Google Slides for each film as well that we've been working on as a class. I've added these as links in the titles of the films which are above the embedded booklet. Each booklet and slide deck has the creative commons licensing on - feel free to use and share alike if the worksheets I've made are of any use to you or your students :) Let me know what you think! 

'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'

'The Intouchables'

'The Lovely Bones'

Update: Term Two - Week 9

This will be a long one...

Y9 Social Studies:
At the moment we've been looking at the concept of leadership. What it takes to be a leader and more importantly the difference between leaders and the decisions they make.

We've been looking at Te Whitu o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi with the events of Parihaka. Today though we began our new class project where students have picked their own leader, created questions to find more information about them and where they showed their own prior knowledge about that person.

It was the first time in ages where this class were focussed and interested. When they did their last assessment they were the same. They're happy to do their classwork when it's relevant to them. For some reason I forgot this year to focus on my students and rather than teach things that I think might interest them (even though Parihaka did interest them for a few lessons... I think we went too long on it...).

Work where it relates to their own interests creates more relevance and self-management.

Y10 English:
We've been looking at spoken word poetry and traditional poems too. Focussing on overcoming obstacles and stereotypes. This past week we looked at To This Day and learnt how to annotate and identified language techniques. We looked at Sarah Kay's 'If I should have a daughter' and K Love's 'Million Dollar Melanin'.

With all my focus on trying to connect with that one student I forgot to connect with the rest of my amazing students who were all incredibly engaged and being moved by the poetry. I missed so many beautiful moments where students were in awe of the messages and I missed so many teachable moments too which I regret now. Hopefully I can fix them and connect them next week when we start writing our own stuff. We're going to try to do some blackout poetry...

Y11 English:

Finally got through the plot sumarry of 'V for Vendetta' and began the plot structure from exposition to inciting incident to rising action and agreed on the climax point. Everything after that was going t be done today except that we had our Y11 assembly today where students were talked to about the gap between Maori and Non-Maori in regards to achievement and the work teachers are doing with Kia Eke Panuku to improve this.

Y12 English (Yellow):

Trying to smash through all of the assessments before the end of next week. Combination of catching people up with their reading assessment for literacy requirements, working on their creative writing pieces for their writing portfolio, Party in the Car assessment and their visual verbal assessments. So much to do! But we're slowly smashing through them all. The credit sticker chart is getting way more colourful :)

Y12 English (Pink):

This class is nearly finished their visual verbal assessments. The problem with this particular assessment is that we need a lot of time to dabble with the technology needed to do it well, especially if you aren't particularly talented with art or that creative. So... dabble we will next week while on the computers I've booked in the library.

This classes sticker chart even has two Excellence stickers so far!!! :)

Looking forward to both Y12s film studies next term. But I just realised that once the film study is over they have their next exams and then it's Term 4 and then end of year exams and then end of year! And my Y12s who were once my Y9s will be Y13s next year... gosh. Time flies.

Collaboration in English - Thematic Y11 Programme

A couple of days ago a colleague from the English department asked if I could give her some ideas for the Y11 film study. We talked about what I do and how it all connects to be able to teach 1.8 properly - by using a thematic study of texts. I teach around the themes of corruption and control and Y11 and it continues to be super effective. (Still need to nail the Y12 programme.... heoi ano..) 

In Y11 we start with creative writing and two short texts: 'Harrison Bergeron' by Kurt Vonnegut and 'Examination Day' by Henry Slesar. This year we looked at the films for these too - very short films - which seemed to capture their understanding in even more depth. By term two, we're doing the novel study - this year they had a few options: 'The Giver' by Lois Lowry, 'The Knife of Never Letting Go' by Patrick Ness and 'Divergent' by Veronica Roth. Last year I had given them 'The Hunger Games' and 'Noughts and Crosses' too - but having so many options was crazy chaotic - although useful in some ways... This year it has been way more manageable and students have been able to identify with different texts more effectively. Having their formal writing assessment (where they wrote an essay about their novel) due right before their first exam was useful as well as it helped them achieve so much more effectively than ever before. Majority of Merits, smaller number of Achieved's and only a handful of Not Achieved's and one Excellence. In preparation for term three, where they do the 1.8 Connections assessment, we will be beginning to study 'V for Vendetta' directed by James McTeigue. In the 1.8 assessment, they have to write a report analysing four texts - three studied in class and one they've chosen on their own. All four texts need to be connected in some way - usually a main theme that is overarching. 

After explaining the 1.8 assessment a little bit with my colleague, we discussed possible options for films going from the themes in the short story 'Ka Kite Bro' by Willie Davis that they had previously studied this year. The themes of racism, culture, acceptance and self-identity run through it. I grabbed a few options from the dvd cupboard in class, and gave her Boy, The Blindside and The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. We then started talking about the themes in other forms of possible media, like poetry and articles she'd done in class. I told her about the unit I used to do with the bi-lingual kids at Massey High and how we incorporated spoken word poetry and traditional poetry as well as short stories to create a thematic unit around overcoming racism and breaking stereotypes. I gave her a few post its with the stories I'd used and emailed a few of the ones I could find on Google Drive while she was still there. We talked a bit more and decided on Whale Rider for her film study, which I had a copy of at home.

Yesterday I created a shared folder with ALL of the texts that could possibly help and also created a Google Slide deck with spoken word poetry, traditional poetry and also the blogpost where I talked more about it a couple years ago. This slide deck will be incredibly useful when I need to use it again - possibly with the Y10 English class in a couple weeks time. 

This morning she told me how effective one of the poems was - a spoken word poem by Joshua Iosefo called 'Brown Brother'. I only heard about it myself because one of the bi-lingual students had brought it up in class one day - and from then on I've been hooked. The poem discusses institutionalised racism and the inherent stereotypes faced by people of colour. Particularly from his perspective as a Samoan teenager looking towards his future prospects. 

This kind of teaching is what I love the most - working with people to solve problems, identify shared issues and try to overcome them through resiliency and problem solving.

And... now on to more marking :D

Analysing 'Chappie' - Y9 English

Over the last few weeks I've been helping a colleague's class out by ensuring they have enough work and depth in their programme.

My colleague has been very sick and we aren't sure as to whether she'll be able to come back any time soon. In the meantime, her class has been given a day reliever for her classes. He is fabulous but as any reliever would know - it's not only difficult to keep up with relationship building, but also hard to give clear guidelines and programmes when you're being given relief work.

For a class such as this one - I feel sorry for them but I also hope that they'll be able to overcome these setbacks and achieve in the end of year exams.

So with this in mind - I suggested to my HOD to give them the new film she'd  bought 'Chappie' - a PG13 film. The kids immediately fell for the storyline and the main character Chappie - a robocop in the near future of Jo'berg, South Africa.

After they'd finished the first viewing I taught a 30 minute session around character and possible themes and settings. They wrote down their own understanding of the film and their perspective. We discussed the seriousness of their learning dysfunctional behaviours and the fact that they needed to put a lot of effort into their exam at the end of the year.

Still though - it wasn't enough - because they still weren't sure of the settings enough to be able to write much about the connections with the themes and characters or symbolism of the settings.

I sat down with the reliever a few days ago and discussed the possible programme of what they could be doing and what they absolutely must do. It still wasn't really enough so I finally got around to writing down more structured thoughts with him while the students watched the film for a second time.

Today during their lesson and this afternoon - I worked on a new study booklet for the class that had the absolute MUST do and could do pieces of work. The study book is all good and well - but it would still need a teacher to work through it properly with them.

I'm pretty proud of it at the moment though mainly because I managed to get it all done today and also because I feel like I'm a better teacher when there's a time pressure or when I'm trying to save a class.

Anyway - here it is - have a look and comment below with what could be added and your thoughts :)

Best Lessons Today :)

Mixture of getting my planning mojo back and having things more organised. Using my whiteboard planners more effectively and now I just need to add TRUMP.

But seriously. Had the best day today learning with my students. Still a few students who need reigning in but the majority of students I was just so so so so so so so impressed with today. Very cool.

The social studies class was epic. Beyond belief. I love that they asked hard questions of the Amnesty students and that my students are thinking in depth about the ramifications of doubling the quota for their freedom challenge. Making them see it from the refugees perspective is key.

Y12 English was amazing too. So cool to see them thinking and working together. Good to see the table of four who are usually disengaged be completely on task and engaged with Gone Girl. Think I did choose the right films in the end for the class. Just hope that I've got enough thoughts in process for the next few lessons with group analysis of the two texts.

Y11 was super cool. Good to see them all focussed and building the V for Vendetta plot structure with me. I'm happy with how we plotted it yesterday. Think I needed the full board though... I wonder whether I could do it with an OHT showing both V and Evey's plots and events and how they differ and compare and compliment each other. Bet there's an app for that though!

Need to find more of those resources we made last year in Y10. I swear I had heaps. Maybe I shared them and they were taken from the folder? Surely not... maybe I just didn't type up what we'd written down? Freedom Writers is such a cool film and it has so so many bits and pieces. It needs depth. My students need to be pushed to their full potential. My increasing concern is that they won't deal well with Y11 if they can't focus or attribute appreciation for their learning over socialising and gossipping. Thought they'd be over it from last year. Not yet it seems.

Looking forward to seeing how a colleague's class turns out with having watched Chappie. Such a cool film!

Am very much so looking forward to our GHO with Leanne tomorrow :)

Tired. At least my room isn't so cold! Thanks heater. Sleep time.

First Day Teaching 2015

Had an absolutely awesome day today.

Had four out of five classes and they're all a bunch of really cool kids. I'm looking forward to our year this year.

I was going to skip the letter I usually do but seeing as we don't have access to use the Google Form I'd created in the holidays and I still needed to get to know them all during that time - it continues to be the quickest way. However this time I did focus more on learning style and strategies so I can figure out how to help the students more effectively from the get go.

I always forget how useful knowing te reo Māori is - especially at the beginning of the year. A few well placed words and phrases - often quickly interspersed with the English translation and I always hear hushed tones and impressed voices. It's great that using the reo helps build up my mana again within the class but it frustrates me that 1) I have to continuously assert my turangawaewae and who I am by needing to speak and 2) that the assertion of my awesomeness seems to come from my knowledge of te reo rather than my general awesomeness.
The majority of the kids in my classes are pretty awesome. Still movement to be had though so can't get too attached just yet! Haha. Quite a few students I've either had before or are in my form class which is awesome!

Cannot believe just how grown up Rai is now! She's now in my Y12 class and I keep remembering her as a Y10 student from my first year at Heights. Barely saw her last year and jeez. So cool to have her back in my class!

A few favourites somehow made their way back into my class this year. Five Y11s from last year in particularly one of my inquiry students which will be cool to see his ongoing progress. One student who spoke so passionately about the council and his urupā. And the girl I worked with heaps at the end of last year too. Re built up her self esteem again today after we talked about her exam marks and the fact that even coming out and going in she felt incredibly confident. She may not have done as well as she'd hoped but it's certainly a strong foundation.

Lots of sad faces though as I walked around school today. Kids who werent happy with option choices, who was in their classes or who was teaching them. Of course, plenty of happy kids too. Was awesome being on duty today too. Felt like a celebrity as I was walking around the school to get to my duty spot. Kids running up and saying hi and others yelling out for a wave. Maybe I'll have to bust out the Queen's wave again. It's always awesome hearing kids say, "Look there's my teacher!! She's awesome!"

Because they do. A lot. And I'm not being too ott... However I rue the day when those comments turn into nasty ones. At least then I'll know it's time to get out of teaching...

Sat down and talked with my Social Studies HOD today which was equal parts of awe inspiring and nerve wracking. Felt like I was a first year teacher again! Which for this subject I suppose I am now. I feel relatively confident with English now and I'm glad I have a new challenge for this year. Plus teaching social studies is my passion so now I just need to reawaken my social sciences brain.

He was incredibly supportive of my revised plan from what it had been last week - quite mumbled jumbled up actually. I took the best of the mind map and put it together and even broke it down into weekly plans for each unit. That I hadn't done in ages. I am so so stoked about this journey and being straight up with the Y10 social studies class today which I had straight after our talk solidified that need for our class to learn together.

What I now need tk figure out is what Im teaching my three senior classes for English and also the junior class. I'm lucky I have a fair amount of options now but maybe it's time to choose another novel especially for Y11. Maybe Divergent (novel) and V for Vendetta (film) because that movie never seems to get old!

For the two Y12 classes... I might go Jasper Jones with the 12L class and maybe Inception too? Think they'd get it... or better yet... Cloud Atlas...

12A is a tricky one because it needs to be an indepth but easy enough film to pick apart. I haven't taught Castaway or Shawshank Redemption in ages but even then there may be other new films to come out.

10English... and they're still a work in progress. Maybe A Handful of Blue, A White Ute? Film... Pretty sure I didn't teach Remember the Titans to any of them last year... though maybe there's another film they'd enjoy too... maybe Freedom Writers or even something I haven't even taught.

I feel that even with my goal of consistency I should still be challdnging myself to push my limits and work hard. I don't want to become listless.

Way too late. Bedtime.

Still gutted I missed the Excel Project Pedagogy meeting yesterday. Gah.

Y13 Taika Waititi Film Study

This year I've been teaching Year 13's (ages 17-18 aka 7th form) for the first time in my teaching career.

At the start of the year I had upwards of 50 students enrolled in my class. After some quick interviewing of my students to assess who actually:
a) wanted to do Y13 English Alternative
b) should be there (credits from last year) or in the generic English course
c) didn't want to do English/didn't need Level 3 English for the beginning of their careers next year

Once I had significantly dropped the numbers with the help of my amazing colleagues who found better places for them - I was down to about 45 students I think.

During this time I somehow managed to get them all reading and analysing the epic short story 'The Signalman' by Charles Dickens and later on - the two equally fantastic New Zealand short stories 'Her First Ball' by Katherine Mansfield and 'His First Ball' by Witi Ihimaera.

Eventually the class was split into two alternative level classes - and my amazing colleague TC is now working with me to continue this course.

Now that I had about 23 students - we could breathe a little easier and actually get some work done! :)

In walks the first assessment: US 3491 -  Write a report.  (3 credits)

At first glance, it looks like an easy assessment. It's a unit standard and all the students need to do is compare and contrast two texts and share their findings.

When we started teaching it and figuring it all out - it was a bit more indepth.

Films studied:

'Boy' and 'Tama Tu'

The analysis was easy and hard going at the same time. The report writing itself was and continues to be (some still have not handed it in....- cut off date is end of the term!!) Partly because of the structure I'd created for their report paragraphs - but mostly because it was a higher level of thinking and writing than they possibly had done before in their last years class. Y13 is a huge step up - even for the alternative course.

The assessment asked for the students to show their understanding of the director's purpose, how effective he was in portraying this through the key aspects and lastly evaluate his effectiveness in regards to how they related with it.

So this is how I asked my students to structure the paragraphs:

Topic Statement
Examples of key aspect
Explanations of key aspect and how they have impacted you/audience
Purpose (what the director was meaning and the purpose in creating the text)
Evaluation of effectiveness in portraying a key aspect in the film
Response - what you thought about what the director did - why it had an impact on you/audience

I've had four good reports handed in - about three that are in the near end stages and a few that still need more guidance and they are expected to go to the homework centre to get it done.


The next 'assessment' needs a bit of explanation... 

Mainly because it's a three part assessment.

AS 91480 - Close reading of visual texts (3 Credits)
US - Contribute as a team or group towards an objective
AS - Create a coherent oral text

The end product is an oral text where they present their findings and show their understanding of what the director did, why and how. Of course also how they related to it and the effectiveness etc. The best part about this is that there are loads of ways they can do this part - as a seminar, lesson, workshop, video, etc etc etc etc

Before this can happen though -  they have to collate information and techniques and analyses on two short excerpts - or in our case - two short films. And analyse their findings and think about how they relate to them and how they've been impacted in some way as the audience and why the director did it and what the director made them think etc.

Films studied: 

'Tama Tu' and '2 Cars, 1 Night'

Best part of this series of assessments is that they have basically done most of the groundwork about the background of Tama Tu in the last assessment and can solely focus on the technical aspects of diegetic sounds, shots, cinematography, mis en scene etc

The other best part so far - is while watching 'Two Cars, 1 Night' - my students were discussing aspects of the film with technical terms as they watched it, questioning it, and discussing the backgrounds of the characters and already started to think about why Taika Waititi used these characters, how he used them etc.

This is awesome because it showed me that they get it... and that they can do it. And most of all.. that when they get stressed out and say they can't - I can remind them back to the first time we watched it... and every other time since.

At the moment - they are collating the data and evidence of the film.

We've started to analyse our own information using the below questions:


Before we can attack the questions - which are rather wordy for that reason - I've decided they need to unpack each one to know what they've actually got to answer. We've already done a bit of this - with the first question:

On Monday we'll continue with this - perhaps unpack the rest of the questions - because the next two lessons I'll be in Wellington for PPTA meetings - and so they'll continue working on their answers and paragraphs... why? because it's an easy way for them to cut and paste info into a speech transcript for their speeches later. Smart aye :)

To do the collating of the information - they're working in teams or groups - and hopefully will stay in those groups for the presentation side of the close reading assessment. I love how interconnected these assessments are. Really the only way to do it too. :)


I'm hoping that my Y13's have their collated information ready by the end of the term (three weeks to go!!) and then come next term we can teach our Y13's the techniques of good presenting and give them some more ideas in how to do the presenting side. Hopefully make it less scary as each student has to speak for six minutes each.

Where I see us going next....

The next assessments are the Visual and Verbal assessment as well as the extended text teaching and learning - for their final exam in English at the end of the year.

Well be using one film for the next two assessments - though I'm pretty sure my colleague will agree that we'll let out students choose any of the films or texts we've studied this year for their visual verbal text creation.

I've bought the two copies of the film we will be doing - and in case my students find this post I will update the film later. But if you know Taika Waititi's works well - you'll know the one we're doing :)

Also - am stoked that 'What we do in the Shadows' comes out this week and that I'll be in Wellington during the hype and that there have been HEAPS of interviews done by Waititi and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) - in character might I add.

Links for 'What we do in the Shadows' here:
Trailer for WWDITS - thanks to Youtube and DeliciousNecks
Film Website
WWDITS on IMBD - Thanks to IMDB
Werewolves not Swearwolves - Trailer
Viral Marketing at its best - Thanks to NZ Herald and David Farrier
The WWDITS Facebook Page 
#DeliciousNecks - Twitter


Links for 'Boy':
Boy on IMDB - Thanks to IMDB
Trailer for BOY - Thanks to Youtube and EastCoastCrazyHorses
The Film Website

Links for 'Tama Tu':
The Entire Film Here - Thanks to NZ On Screen
The Film Website
28th Maori Battalion Website

Links for 'Two Cars, One Night':
The Entire Film Here - Thanks to NZ On Screen
TCON on IMDB - Thanks to IMDB
The Film Website

Links for last Waititi film: 
To come later :)

Links on Taika Waititi:
TedXDoha - The Art of Creativity - AMAZING. - Thanks to TedXTalks and Youtube
Taika Waititi Fansite


Links on Visual Techniques:
Mis En Scene - Makes total sense - Good for students to take notes.

The Sapphires - Resources and Thoughts

This is the second year I've taught the film 'The Sapphires' which is directed by Wayne Blair and although I'm still figuring out the best way to teach it - I think I've taught it differently with this class mainly because we didn't do Jasper Jones to begin with... so in a way I didn't focus too much on the historicality of the film straight off as I did last year. Also - this class is different in the makeup of the personalities

'The Sapphires' deals with themes of entrenched racism, search for identity and above all else the fight for equality - although it isn't as obvious as some of the other themes. It is easily one of my top five films to teach in year 12 and is an easy link for students to make between the Yorta Yorta and Maori and the treatment of indigenous peoples.

This year - I've focussed on my students connecting with the characters first and foremost. The booklet I created last year with a selection of reviews, worksheets I'd found and made and background history and info from the play writers perspective as well as the original sisters.

At the moment we are watching 'The Sapphires' the second time through and they're collecting quotes for each character. Last year I didn't do that and we struggled as a class. We'd sorted out the film techniques and analysis and then tried to figure out quotes. This way this year will be easier.

For some reason the DVD isn't working - something about the region.. will have to get another copy.

Just finished showing them a segment from the Stolen Generations Testimonies website and hopefully they'll go on it tonight to get a deeper understanding about the lives the aboriginal peoples faced and as a result be able to connect and relate with the main themes of the movie.

When I figure out how to use the new printers our school has just rolled out this past week - I'll scan the booklet I've created and upload it here as a PDF so you can see it/use it if you'd like :)

Questions from my students today:
- What does Cummergunja mean?

For my students and anyone else interested...

A basic but in-depth overview of the Stolen Generations from Wikipedia
The issue of Miscengenation - Mixed Race - again from Wikipedia
Journal Article on the Stolen Generations - Robert van Krieken with Robyn Arrowsmith, The stolen generations: implications for Australian civilization, citizenship and governance 

Journal Article on 'Whiteness' - Jan Larbalestier, White Over Black: Discourses of Whiteness in Australian Culture

Stolen Generation Testimony - Bruce Trevorrow
The use of Eucalyptus leaves by the Grandmother and Kay in the Cleansing Ceremony
Bring them Home - Oral Histories of Stolen Generation Testimonies
Bring them Home - Apology by the Australian Government 
Bring them Home - Stolen Children Report - 1997

A basic but in-depth overview of the Vietnamese War from Wikipedia

A basic but in-depth overview of the African-American Civil Rights Movement from Wikipedia

Further viewing:
Australia - directed by Baz Luhrmann (2008)
Rabbit Proof Fence - directed by Phillip Noyce (2002)
Walkabout - directed by Nicholas Roeg (1971)
First Australians (documentary) - produced by Blackfella Films (2008)
Ten Great Aboriginal Films - With Trailers!
A List of Aboriginal Films