Stage 1 - Desired Results

Unit 5: Telling Stories with Film

Pacing: 5-6 weeks

Stage 1 Desired Results

Established Goals:

CCSS

RL.11.3 - Analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

RL. 11.5 Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. 

RI.11.1 - Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

RI.11.6 - Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.

W.11.2 - Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

SL.11.1 - Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively

Transfer

Students will be able to independently use their learning to….

Analyze and evaluate techniques filmmakers include to construct meaning

Meaning

Understandings

Students will understand…

• Storytelling choices and filmmaking techniques shape whether  film is realistic, fantastical, or somewhere in between. 

• Filmmakers make particular stylistic choices 

• Filmmakers create compelling characters and bring them to life.

Essential Questions

Students will keep considering…

• The tools of the trade for filmmakers, and how they use these tools to tell a story. 

• How the perspective of a filmmaker compares to those of the audience and of critics who review movies. 

• How to use storytelling and filmmaking techniques to create a movie that brings our ideas and vision to life.

Acquisition

Students will know…

• A range of film techniques, including camera shots, camera angles, editing, lighting, sound, & mise-en-scene.

• In non-fictions texts, author's purpose and perspective is determined by his or her experience and reflections.

• The difference between fantasy and realism. 

• The elements of a Pitch Packet.

Students will be skilled at…

• Determining the meaning of unfamiliar words, phrases, and figurative expressions to understand tone and meaning of a text

• Analyzing an author’s use of symbolism to determine deeper meanings presented in a visual text

• Crafting evidence-based claims 

• Crafting a multi-paragraph character profile

• Identifying and analyzing film techniques

• Constructing a creative title, a concept statement, a logline, descriptions of characters, and a synopsis of each act of a film.

Other Suggested Texts/Resources

Genre

“Hello, Hitchcock: Replicating Angles to Enhance Your Videos” by Laci Texter 

Article 

Vertigo directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Film

“Flick Chicks: A Guide to Women in the Movies” by Mindy Kaling

Article