No Series: Film Review: Equipping Students for Writing

ELA.W.6-12.10

Common core State Standards

  • ELA:  English Language Arts
  • W:  College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing
  • 6-12:  Grades 6-12
  • 10:  Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

Film Review: Equipping Students for Writing

Lesson Objective: Students work collaboratively to prepare for writing a film review
Grades 6-12 / ELA / Extended Writing
5 MIN
ELA.W.6-12.10

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

  1. How and why does Ms. Nicol "chunk" the task into manageable parts?
  2. See how a common flaw of word choice is quickly and effectively addressed in a 5 minute synonyms task Consider how "chunking" assignments can improve your students' work?

11 Comments

  • Private message to My-Tam Hoang
Another wonderful model of scaffolding to help students accomplish large tasks. In addition to the "chunking" scaffold, the synonym activity is a great way to open to the student's eyes to more concise words that will more accurately and deeply convey critical thinking ideas.
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Nate Starace
You pointed out such an important part of writing extended pieces, confidence. I appreciated the collaborative steps that would help them reach that goal. Another hurdle of extended writing is how many students write in paragraphs and not essays. So they have 4 great paragraphs on a topic, but they do not flow together.
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to nina guerrero
I really enjoyed the use of the whiteboards. I like how she teaches the students how to extend their vocabulary to make their writing more creative. allowing students to work in teams allows them to learn from each other and see how other people use words they might not have though of
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Colleen Mitchell
I like the way she incoporated vocabulary in the lesson. It is always difficult to get the students to use new or different words. I also liked the idea of each student writing only a paragraph. this is great for reluctant writers.
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Brian Rodriguez
Nice job. We do a less formal version of this, but I like the explicit instruction, and group work to demonstrate the skills to the class.
Recommended (0)

Transcripts

  • Summary

    A Key Stage 4 English lesson on extended writing that uses pair and group work to build confidence in writing

    Summary

    A Key Stage 4 English lesson on extended writing that uses pair and group work to build confidence in writing a film review.
    The lesson starts with paired work, where students develop their vocabulary in a competition on synonyms.
    In the main part of the lesson the class is split into groups, each with the responsibility of writing one part of the review.
    Finally one member of each group reads their paragraph back to the class.
    Head of English Natasha Nicol, at Peacehaven Community College, shows how this lesson can help students build their confidence in writing an extended piece of work.
    All resources required to run this lesson can be found in the support materials section, including a lesson plan, instructions for writing a film review, shared review writing forms and some film review snippets of the film, to get the students started.