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Compare a book to its movie version

april 18, 2017

While most of us may be guilty of showing students an entire movie version after we’ve finished a book, let’s consider a more powerful option for using this multi-modal text. Instead, provide students the same opportunity to make text-to-text comparisons by revealing movie clips while reading the original text.

Rather than waiting until you’ve read the entire printed text, look to integrate book-to-movie comparisons throughout the literature unit. Occasionally, plan to pause in the reading and watch a movie clip of the same excerpt. Perhaps the movie version contradicts the information revealed in the chapter. Or, maybe you want to analyze how the movie director captured the author’s descriptive language in that passage. Or maybe you want to point out what’s been omitted from the scene in the movie and whether that’s vital or inconsequential.

You could incorporate a number of text-to-text conversations by showing short movie clips several times throughout the unit. This integrates multiple opportunities for students to think, analyze, and write about different versions of texts.

Here are a few resources to support this instructional strategy:
Now Playing - Movie Marquis PowerPoint Template

  • Use this two-slide PowerPoint (created by Nadine Gilkison, Technology Integration Specialist for Franklin Township Community School Corporation) to identify the paragraph/page numbers the movie clip will encompass. In addition, identify the explicit viewing purpose; what should they be taking note of when watching the clip?
  • Check out this three-page list of books made into movies. Some texts have been made into multiple movies. Maybe you show clips of the same excerpt from the black/white version, the contemporary version, and the animated version. Now students are juggling across numerous multimodal texts!
  • Provide a note-taking organizer that indicates possible facets of comparison. Not only can students record their thinking onto this organizer when watching the movie clip, but they can also reference this information when citing specific examples, details, and quotes in their written responses.
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