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GETTING STARTED... BEFORE VIEWING THE FILM
ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
Five general "INTRO" exercises for the film to get the students thinking about the issues before they watch the film:
1. Bring in newspapers and magazines and have the students work in groups to create a collage on violence and the media. Have students do a "gallery walk" (i.e. walk around the room and look at the other students' collages). Follow up this activity with a discussion of what they see.
2. Students work in groups to brainstorm and create five headlines that might be used for a news show. Have each group write their favorite one on the board. Discuss the results.
3. Students write a one-page "freewrite" in which they discuss one or all of the following prompts:
- How does media impact our daily lives? Give specific examples.
- Discuss your views about violence in the United States compared to violence in other countries.
- What or who creates violent individuals? Who is responsible when a child or young adult commits a crime?
- What do you fear in our society and why? What do you think causes your fears?
- Where do you stand on gun ownership and gun control issues? Be specific.
After they write, have the students share some of their ideas with the class.
4. Create a "found poem" in groups based on the headlines of newspapers and news magazines the teacher brings to class (see "found poetry" handout) and have the students present their found poems to the class.
5. Short research "into": If you have access to the Internet, have the students break into five groups and research the following topics online for 20 minutes and then report the information they discovered back to the class:
- Media conglomerates
- Lockheed Martin Corporation
- Welfare reform/welfare-to-work
- Gun control laws/The Brady Campaign/Million Mom March/Firearms Law Center
- National Rifle Association
- The 2nd amendment to the U.S. Constitution
- The Columbine shootings
- The concept of "consumerism"
- Social safety net
- Poverty
- Racism
- Killer bees
- Shah of Iran
- Salvador Allende
- Militias
- Y2K scare
- Vietnam war
- The concept of "military-industrial complex"
FOUND POETRY
AN EDITING ACTIVITY
The task is to capture the Essence of a story, chapter, passage, character, etc., by drastically editing the text. You must adhere to the following guidelines:
- Select several phrases (groups of words) from the text.
Each phrase must be at least 3 words long, but no phrase should be more than 10 words long.
- The phrases you select should then be used to create a poem of at least 10-15 lines.
You may combine phrases into one line of your poem, but remember that no line in your poem should be more than 10 words long.
Remember that it is easier to create a strong found poem if you have several phrases to choose from rather than just finding the minimum number of lines you need for the activity.
- You may use the phrases in any way you like - for example, you may repeat words or clusters of words throughout your poem.
- You may not change the order of the words in the original text.
- You may not add any words of your own. All the words in your poem have to come from the text.
- You may leave words out of the phrases you select to create a more poetic feel/sound to your poem.
IF YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO PRESENT YOUR FOUND POEM...
- Decide how you will present it - remember that a reader can have a strong impact on the meaning of a poem.
- If it's a group exercise, everyone must be involved in the presentation.
- You can use single voices or a choral reading.
- Consider your positioning in the space.
- Consider body positions and gestures.
- Or dance/movement.
- Combinations of the above.
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