Just Believe In Yourself

Presentation

PRODUCED BY: Jamie Sweeney, Caitlin Lawrie & Victor DeBianchi

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Danielle Kampf

I found it here:

https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2018/10/10/presentation/

Brief description:

Writer and director by Danielle Kampf’s short film, Presentation (2018) tells the story of an anxiety-ridden high school sophomore, Holly, who like any normal student, has to give a presentation in front of her science class. She stumbled through her class presentation and walked out of the class after the first minute. Her teacher gave her a second chance to present later that week and sent to  the school’s guidance counselor. The counselor recomended her drugs that was not quite needed to fix Holly’s issues. At home her sister boasts about how she’s going to nail her upcoming recital. Holly didn’t need any medicine to cure her anxiety. She just needed someone to talk to her positively and help gain trust on herself to overcome her anxiety. In the film it was her little sister made that possible.

The full short can be viewed below:

 

My thoughts:

Many young adults faces a common social challenge called anxiety. We all have anxiety, and we all cope with it in different ways. We have this tendency to label anxiety in a different way in this society. We think anxiety is harmful, and we protect our kids by removing the challenge thus never giving them a chance to fail or in Holly’s case give her a drug that will help her cope with that challenge. Challenges are meant to be challenges. Successfully overcoming a challenge makes us strong, while failing a challenge and trying again, also make us stronger.

Pedagogical response:

An activity we might use to complement this short film, perhaps one that invites students to experience some element of it or to create something in response to it. Many teens feel a lot of pressure in school and suffer not knowing the reason. They don’t share their problems to anyone because they think someone might have negative impression about them. Also, teens do get judged at school and in this society a lot. As a teacher I can introduce this type of films to help open up conversations about many social taboos and help the students have faith on themselves. Teens can share their thoughts in order to carry on a conversation and try to figure out some answers to unpleasant situations as a community.

 

 

Title: Occupier Not Illegal

Documentary: The Dream is Now

Released in April 2013.

Created by: Director Davis Guggenheim

Where I found it:

While I was searching for YA documentary I found The Dream is Now in the internet on this address,

http://www.thedreamisnow.org/documentary

Brief description:

This is about the real life struggles as children of the undocumented immigrants of our country and our broken immigration system that needs to be fixed by signing enough petitions. Jose has a degree in mechanical engineering, but he works on construction crew because he is undocumented. Like Jose there are many undocumented children in this country who doesn’t have rights to drive, apply for their dream jobs to work and pursue their dreams. They thought doing heavy work; blue-collar hard work will pay of one day.

Dream act:

No political group supported the dream act that was to help these undocumented children a better future like any other citizen of America. For only 5 votes the bill didn’t pass to a law. A boy took himself because he couldn’t apply to his dream college. He had so much opportunity but he didn’t get any chance. Even the president couldn’t give deportation protection. Immigrants were deported. This documentary brings this pressing issue to America’s attention, where we can all debate, discuss, and decide for ourselves what is right, what is fair, and what is best for our nation.

My thought:

Watching this documentary made me think deeply about the children in this country born and growing up now, and we put labels on them as undocumented, illegal and their lives are full of uncertainty. How as a citizen I can make those children’s lives full of hope and certainty? Is it entirely their fate or as a human being we have things to do that can change it? The film goes beyond personal. It places the stories of many people in a larger context and explores the consequences of continuing our current policies and maintaining the status quo – consequences not just for the young people today, but for our country’s future.

Pedagogical response:

A rationale for including this documentary in a 6^th-8^th-grade curriculum is that it opens up the venues of real life issues, which is a discussion of what is right, fair and best for the nation. Educators can share this with the principal, a department chair, a parent, or a school board. This Documentary can be used in a school humanities class to broaden the knowledge about our country’s immigration laws and its flaws. Young adults are our future generation. Politicians in Washington are deciding their fates, preparing for votes on immigration reform, which could finally create a legal path to citizenship to many undocumented people who are born into this country and should have all the rights to be a legal citizen. Children should be aware of their rights and should be taught in schools about their rights, laws and social security eligibility.

 

The Fault in our Stars

Book: The Fault in Our Stars

Publication: 2014

Genre: Feature Length Film

You can find the movie:
YouTube
Amazon Prime Video
iTunes
Google Play
Vudu

What I read: This film is about two young cancer patients who fall in love. These two young characters embark on this journey of love together all while dealing with cancer. This film is also in the form of a book.

Literary Criticism: This film will help to compare and contrast big pictures like gender, race, and age and how they are portrayed in film in comparison to how they are portrayed in the book. I have not read the book but the movie was very touching which makes me wonder how the book is. I know movies typically don’t follow word for word what happens in books which is why I would like to look at this film with this critical lense comparing and contrasting issues like gender, race, and age and how they are portrayed in the film and and in the book.
This may also be an activity that can be done in a Language Arts/Writing lesson in middle school and high school.

Hashtags:

#2014
#featurelengthfilm
#literarycriticism

This One Summer

Book: This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, Julian Tamaki

Publication: 2014

Genre: Graphic Novel

You can find the book on Amazon:

What I read: This book tells a story of two pre-teens and their coming of age story.

Rationale: This book would be great to introduce to adolescents to get them talking about the troubles of coming of age. I feel that 6-8th grade students have to be able to relate to a book before they can engage with it. If the students cannot read something they see themselves in or read about situations that pertain to them then they lose interest and may not want to read. Selecting text that will keep them engaged and interactive is essential to choosing books for my students. This is why this book would be great for students in 6-8th to read.

Hashtags:

#publishedin2014
#graphic novel
#rationale

The Diary of a Young Girl

Book: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, Eleanor Roosevelt, B.M. Mooyart-Doubleday

Publication: 1947

Genre: Nonfiction, Autobiography

You can find the book on Amazon:

What I read: This book tells that of a point in history where this young girl lived under the Nazi regime. This autobiography is of a 13 year old girl who experienced hardships under strict government rules against Jewish people. Being a Jewish young girl, Anne Frank was directly affected by the government rules as well as her family members and friends.

Review: This book is a such a great window into reality for the Jewish people under the Nazi regime. The way in which Anne keeps diaries of the events that happen provide the readers with raw material from a point in time that made history; not in a good way.

Activity: This book would be great to introduce to adolescents to get them thinking of how to incorporate writing and reading. Getting the students thinking about how to create their own journals and promote writing through reading this book would be great to incorporate into an activity where the students can write their own journals.

Hashtags:

#publishedin1947
#nonfiction
#autobiography
#activity

Twilight

Book: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Publication: 2005

Genre: Fantasy Fiction, Young Adult Fiction

You can find the book on Amazon:

What I read: This book series was made into movies not too long ago. This book is the first book of the series. In this book there is a love story between vampire, wolves, and humans. This book deals with two different world; fantasy and real life. The way in which both world are portrayed into one world is a different twist to the traditional boy meets girl and falls in love storyline.

Review: This book is a good book that keeps the reader interested in what will happen in the following books. The first book does a great job at setting the mood and tone of the book for the rest of the series. The fantasy that plays out in the book is good for students to read about and learn about fantasy fiction. The love triangle in the book along with the drama and suspense keep the reader focused and wanting to read more.

Pedagogical Response: This book would be great to introduce to adolescents to get them thinking of how to incorporate fantasy into their writing. Getting students to use their imagination and discover different styles of writing can be beneficial for the student. This book can be used as an example to get students thinking about how to create a fantasy fiction piece of their own. Encouraging students to play with writing is both fun and educational. Writing is a great way for students to create material that incorporates their imagination, ideas, and creativity all in one.

Hashtags:

#publishedin2005
#fantasyfiction
#youndadultfiction
#feature

Catching Fire

Book: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Publication: 2009

Genre: Adventure Fiction, Science Fiction

You can find the book on Amazon:

What I read: This book series was made into movies not too long ago. This book is the one that follows after The Hunger Games. In this book there is so much adventure and thrilling situations in which the reader is on edge throughout the book. This book deals with two different world; the privileged and the “minorities”. This is a constant struggle in society that will most likely always be relatable with a science fiction twist.

Review: This is a book filled with twists and turns that keep the reader wanting to know what will happen next. The situations in the book are very relatable and provide the reader with a platform to critique and question society and how things are handled in these “districts”. The characters are relatable and shed light on arranged love. Although this portrayal of two people in love is front it makes the reader think deeper about issues like why they are together. Why do they have to pretend to be in love? The plot of the story s very interesting and the characters are relatable which makes this book a good read.

Pedagogical Response: This book is part of a series of books that students can follow. This particular book has many strong themes present in the plot. Themes like power and society, the struggle for power, and the societal effects of the privileged and the not-so privileged are presented to the reader in this book. I feel like these themes can easily be connected to Social Studies and some power struggles along with history. This book can help to get students to question power both in the book and in everyday life. This book is a great way to get students and young readers thinking about society and how power, control, and difference in class have always been at the center of historical events and everyday life.

Hashtags:

#publishedafter2008
#fiction
#sciencefiction
#theme

Angela’s Ashes

Book: Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Publication Year: 1996
Genre: Memoir, biography
You can find the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Angelas-Ashes/dp/B0000547CQ/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1547564874&sr=8-1-fkmr0
Brief Description: Angela’s Ashes is a memoir by the Irish-American author Fank McCourt. In this memoir there are stories from childhood that shed light on the struggles he faced with his family and poverty. Both parents were not mentally stable; his dad was an alcoholic and his mother suffered from the aftermath of having a miscarriage. His childhood was full of hardships and he just wanted to be successful. He ends up moving to New York in hopes for a better future.
As a reader: This book is very interesting and a good read. Although there were many struggles he faced in the he tried his best to escape poverty and did what he thought was best to provide himself with a better future. This is a good book for young adolescents to read as they might be able to relate to it and see themselves in some of Frank’s struggles. Being able to connect with your audience is important and I feel that Frank did that with this memoir.
Book Trailer: By Vanessa Rivera
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-Qd-bQcdy2NbUFNM1c2SG9ndGwyV3FoTnhSTEg1Sy0xbVNV/view?usp=sharing

Hashtags:

#publishedprior1998
#memoir
#biography
#booktrailer

Dreaming Big

Description: This 30 minute documentary follows the lives of undocumented children of immigrants who are willing to work and strive hard in order to earn their citizenship. Not only does this documentary go through the lives of different undocumented people, but it also goes into discussion of the country’s policies and the consequences that it may have not only for the young people featured, but also for the country. It discusses an important matter that is always in the news and something that worries many people on daily basis.

Review: This documentary was very interesting in the way that it not only covered the personal lives, but also discussed the issues with politics and why things are not being done for undocumented people. It is interesting to see this topic addressed since this is something I’m familiar with and know a lot about. I liked seeing the different stories of different people and all the struggles that people go through. Having to constantly worry about being taken away and having all hard work and struggle be for nothing. It’s pretty heartbreaking to see the people mentioned, work so hard for something, only to be pushed back down by something so simple that can be changed if enough people believed in it.

Where I got it and where you can get it: Netflix/Youtube

Pedagogical Response:

In order to have students get a better connection with this documentary, I would want the students to partake in an activity that involves their culture. Something I would have the students do is take a look at their background and do research on where they come from, where their family comes from, any customs or traditions that they follow. I would want the students to be able to write a short report on this and then create a powerpoint to then share with the class. The grade level I would choose for this would be 6-7th grade.

Another aspect that I would want to add on this activity would be to have students randomly select a student from another culture and do research on them and do a comparison and contrast to see how the two cultures differ and why learning about diversity and different cultures is important.

By being able to do this with students, they will be able to realize that everyone is different and although we all come different places, we’re all still human and we all want to strive for a better life and chance to succeed. I want the students to be able to recognize that despite differences in color and race, this should not dictate how we view others and it should not mean that one is better than another.

It is important for students to be able to recognize this, especially from a young age, so that they then can fight and become advocates for people that are struggling and need support from everyone in order to show that anyone can succeed regardless of any status that they hold.

By being able to see those similarities and differences, the students can then come to terms with the idea that being different is not always a bad thing. It promotes diversity and acceptance in students and this something vital to their understanding of who they are and everything around them.

Psychology of a film

When Marnie was there 

Year: 2014

Found: Amazon https://www.amazon.com/When-Marnie-Was-There-Blu-ray/dp/B00ZAZEED

Description: Sent to live in a town by the sea in Hokkaido, Anna, a foster child, is dreamer that shuts herself away from everyone. She avoids interactions with others as much as she can. That is, until she meets a mysterious girl named Marnie. Together, they find solace in each other’s company and help each other through different inner turmoils.

Review:

Although a bit confusing, this film shows a new take on friendship and its refreshing to see a character such as Anna. She is often times self loathing and recluse, but soon she is able to find Marnie and find comfort and sort of face the reality of her life and come to terms with abandonment. It greatly deals with isolation and being able to cope with such a thing, while also being able to bring the positive side of this by also including emotional and spiritual healing that not only Anna goes through, but also Marnie.

Pedagogical Response 

Viewing the film once made quiet the impact on me and although it was confusing, it was a great watch. When rewatching the film, I decided to view it with a literary critique in mind. This specifically being through a psychological viewpoint. Something that I found to be reoccurring throughout the film was that the characters and the storyline, centered around abandonment and isolation. Such as with Anna, she is adopted and is fully aware of this. Feeling alone and unloved, Anna avoids everyone as she becomes afraid of making connections with people again. Anna also has great resentment for the people that left her alone, this being her mother, father, and grandmother. This is where we get the first real hint of Anna and her issues with building relationships and how she deals with being alone and isolated. Not wanting to be hurt again, she chooses to avoid everyone.

When meeting Marnie, Anna soon accepts and begins a friendship with her. Seeing Marnie as being different, Anna immediately takes a liking to her. Towards the end of the film, Anna finds out that Marnie has also left, but this ends with a plot twist. Although having been left by Marnie, Anna comes to terms with who Marnie was and why they needed to meet and become friends.

After this meeting with Marnie, Anna is able to gain that sense of being able to come face to face with any challenge. She becomes aware that no matter what life comes at you with, there are people that are going to love and support her no matter what. With guidance from Marnie, Anna was able to not only gain confidence in herself, but she also learned to be able to trust in others and learn to be able to create meaningful relationships without always thinking that a person is going to leave you.

After this, Anna soon begins to come to terms with how her life ended up and that it was no one’s fault and no one should be to blame. What should happen now is that she should move on with her life, while still remembering her powerful friendship with Marnie. This sort of topic is not easy to address. Along with the topic of adoption and being able to cope with something like this. This movie handles it well by being able to bring that childlike aspect into it. Making it all the more relatable and meaningful.

57 Bus

Photo by Kaique Rocha on Pexels.com

The 57 Bus is written by Dashka Slater in 2017. It is a true story about two students who’s paths would cross every day on the bus. One day, their lives connect for more than just the time they spend on the bus together. The girl is left burned form a fire on the bus and the male is charged for that fire. Now their lives will be connected in a deeper way.

I thought that it was a very interesting story. The fact that it is a true story and that they are really people made it even more interesting.  It was also written very interesting. Some chapters were written in verse, some were written like a glossary. It made it more interesting to read.

One way that this can be used outside of a typical English class is in a Social Studies class. This book can be used as a jumping off point to talking about race. The student that got burned was a wealthier white student. While he student that is arrested is a poorer black student. The book can be used to talk about how different races interact with each other and how that impacts our society.

A New Hamlet

 

I Am Alfonso Jones was written by Tony Medina in 2017. Alfonso is going to be playing Hamlet in his schools version of it, but one day he is shot while he is mistaken for having a gun. He then goes to “the afterlife” and meets other police shooting victims. His family is out in the streets fighting for justice for Alfonso.

I enjoyed this book because it was written in graphic novel format. I think that it makes it more engaging, not just for students but adults as well.

One way I could use this book in the classroom would be read it along side Hamlet. They could compare the two different books, being what is similar and what is different. It can also be used to start a conversation about police brutality.

Photo by Monica Silvestre on Pexels.com