A Movie/Film Review Lesson Plan for Teachers! by COOP
Click HERE to download “The Small Town Critic’s Movie/Film Review Lesson Plan.”
It might surprise some of you that I was once a High School English teacher…
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Okay, now that you’re done laughing, I know how hard it can be to develop a lesson plan that will engage students, access their prior knowledge, allows for scaffolding and differentiated instruction, etc. (see? I talk the talk and I walk the walk). However, I wanted to offer one of my more popular lessons from years past.
I never could find a good movie/film review lesson plan on the web, so I finally made one up.
I made it pretty flexible so a teacher could modify it to his/her liking and it includes my extensive expertise on the subject. You can add the standards or objectives you need with little fuss. You’ll have students producing a quality, 2-page essay and give them a bit of education on a form of media most of them take for granted. It’s created for middle school and high school (all secondary school) kids but I imagine a few tweaks could make it work for Elementary. I’ve found this lesson works wonders for the special ed./special need kids who are usually more visually oriented.
Click HERE to see a sample of the lesson.
This lesson will also placate administrators who are peeking in your windows, wondering why you’re showing movies to the kids. Present them this lesson plan and they’ll say, “Very good… carry on!” and go back to the main office, telling everyone what a good teacher you are (seriously, that’s what happens). Now that’s accountability… as long as you don’t forget to include your grade-level appropriate, state mandated standards!
As a gift to my former colleagues and all the teachers around the world, I’m giving this to you for free. You can thank me by writing “Coop Cooper is a genius” on the chalkboard. Or you could write my website address http://www.smalltowncritic.com on the board so the kids can go to my site and have hundreds of examples of reviews to help them in their assignment. Either will work.
In all seriousness, I’d appreciate hearing from teachers to see how they implemented this lesson, what modifications you used, what worked, what didn’t… I highly value the feedback since I plan on adding onto and improving this lesson.
The lesson contains:
- A lesson outline
- Vocabulary with definitions and clear examples
- A worksheet handout
- “Movie Review Project” instructions (criteria sheet w/ clear scoring explanation)
- A review template handout to show the outline of an effective review
- An accurate example of a review that reflects the template and instructions
Click HERE to download “The Small Town Critic’s Movie/Film Review Lesson Plan.”
Good luck!
-Coop
P.S. Pass this along to any teachers you think might benefit from this lesson!
P.P.S. To all you seasoned writers who want to know how to write a professional-level movie review, I’m going to be working on another document specifically for you sometime in the near future. It woudn’t hurt for you to check this one out, though. You may learn something.
CLICK TO VISIT COOP'S PARANORMAL/HORROR SITE...
Click on the hilarious-looking lamb (he still makes me laugh) to access a great directory of the best independent movie blogs on the web!
Excellent! I will try it out and let you know how it goes! Cheers, M.
Thank you, Mary! I’ve been waiting a long time for some feedback on this one (since I posted this on another site nearly 6 months ago!).
-C
Hey Coop,
this worked extremely well at a Year 10 level (Secondary School, 15-16 year-olds).
It was structured and engaging.
I have credited you and passed it on to other English teachers -and asked them to leave their feedback as well.
Thanks once again. Mary.
(Melbourne, Australia)
I love the worksheet handout. I am going to modify the assignment for a business college public speaking course I am teaching, but I am stealing your ideas. Wonderful! I will try to let you know how it goes
I loved this activity. Thanks a million for the great outline.
I’ve tried opening the link to your lesson plan, but unfortunately I’m only seeing a ‘404 error’ screen. Hopefully it’s fixed soon. This sounds like quite a useful plan that I hope to make use of in the future.
Cheers, Damien
What do you think?
Worked really well with my lower-mixed ability group! I’m going to use it for my higher ability group this year and differentiate by outcome – excellent resource. Cheers man.
Coop Cooper is a genius!! Ha! Hey! I just downloaded your Lesson plan. It looks GREAT!! I will try it out and let you know how it worked for me. My district just added a new elective class this year, Literature of Film/Film Research, and another teacher and I were the brave ones to test drive it. So far, I have had zero success finding good lessons to use, so we have been very creative. The kids seem to enjoy it so far (at least the ones who are avid movie lovers and not just movie watchers). We started off with the history of film, so far teaching the kids how film started and we dived into the wonderful world of Charlie Chaplin this past week which has been a delightful experience. Once again, thank you for taking your time to put this lesson up for us in need!
This is a detailed lesson plan with straightforward material! IGreat job.
‘m using it in a Gr. 12 college level English course, in conjunction with reading and analyzing the play “Of Mice and Men”. I’m sure they will benefit from the structure of your planner, and learning appropriate terminology.
Later in the course, these students will be writing a letter to a film company pitching their idea for a movie, so the terminology is doubly important.
Thanks.
Alexa
Have just downloaded this to try with a ‘what do we have to do this @!#$ for ?’ year 9 class. When they are in a positive mood, they rock; but when they’re off, they’re stress-making material! They range from barely literate to adult levels of intuition and understanding. The scaffold structure is a definite bonus, which experience tells me is always successful.
Will try to get back to you with results.
Lesley
Tasmania, Australia
Thanks Lesley! I’d love to hear your results.
Wow, thanks all of you. It blows my mind to see so many people trying out my lesson plan (and in Tasmania too, Lesley
. Please let me know how it goes. I can certainly use the feedback!
I’m putting a marketing Twist on it and how reviews can help or hurt a movie for my Sports, Entertainment and Recreational Marketing class for high school students!
Thank you!!! I am teaching Grade 11 & 12 English summer school and I was looking for new ideas! I will definitely be using this lesson plan and especially the worksheet and template. Thanks Coop!! Your website is going on our whiteboard!
Thanks for sharing your work! I teach English in France and I’m working on a lesson plan on film reviews. I’ll probably use your template. Thanks again!
Coop Cooper is a genius!! Thanks so much Coop! I am a curriculum development manager and I’ve used some of your material for a proposal I had to get done quickly!
Thanks for sharing, for wanting to share… Legend..
Thankyou so much for sharing this brilliant lesson plan! It helps others to save time and energy and to teach students how to write a professional film review. What you’ve started is just fantastic!! Good on you Coop.
This is wonderful! Thank you so very much for sharing- I’ve already passed it on to another teacher
What do you think?
I liked the in-depth plans. I’m going to try this with my group of 9th and 10th graders who struggle with reading and writing. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Thank you for the thorough plans. I’m more confident now about the project I’m planning with my students in the creative writing department.
I am using it with my college freshman at a local community college. I tweaked the assignment a bit and added a synthesis portion and am making them write 5-6 pages, but the basic ideas are yours. Thanks for the ideas.
This is so wonderful! Thank you for sharing such a comprehensive and engaging plan. My co-teacher and I are using this for our gifted middle school student’s advisory period.
What do you think?
Coop Cooper is a genius!!! Thank you and great stuff! :0)
Pre service teacher from Tassie
Thank you so much! I am homeschooling my son and this is an excellent resource!
I think this is a great, structured lesson plan. I’m curious, though, as to why you instruct students to put film titles in quotation marks. Underlining or italicizing is standard for titles of longer works such as films. Thanks for sharing your work.
Tennille, I’m going by the Associated Press standards. They require a film title to be in quotation marks.
What do you think? Hey coop i plan on modifying it to use with my class of 10-13 year olds. It looks great. We are going to review Gods Must Be Crazy
thanks for kindly sharing
Well done, I read it two times
Thanks for sharing your ideas on how to make a LP and at the same the format for film review>It guides me a lot for my subject, even if it is not English subject..GOD BLESS!.MORE POWER TO YOU!..
I just happened upon this site and I cannot wait to try your lesson out!
My seventh grade students have just completed a read through of a play adaptation of A Christmas Carol and are set to watch the new Disney movie-a movie that has mixed reviews, to say the least. I am looking forward to implementing your plan and appreciate how thorough it is.
Thanks so much!
Thanks, Elizabeth! If it turns out well let me know.
-Coop