Archive for January, 2018

Movie Wednesday Master List

Movie Wednesday Master List

A big part of the Brave Writer Lifestyle is creating a language rich environment using movies and television. Below you will find a list of blog posts all about movies that include

  • summaries,
  • discussion questions,
  • and additional resources.

Also included in the list are links to any Arrows and Boomerangs (literature-based language arts guides) that correspond to film adaptations.

Brave Writer Guide to the Movies

Grab Brave Writer’s FREE Movie Discussion Guide!

Our 11 page digital guide helps you to comment meaningfully on plot, characterization, make-up and costumes, acting, setting and even film editing. It gives you the background and a series of questions to help your kids discuss movies on a deeper level, rather than the usual “It was really good…” responses they offer.

Master List of Movie Wednesday Blog Posts

Brave Writer’s Movie Discussion Club

Your kids will be so excited about movies,
they’ll hardly notice they are writing!

Movie Discussion Club

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Movie Wednesday: Star Wars

Movie Wednesday Star Wars

by Amy Frantz, Brave Writer alum

Up above the desert Outer Rim planet of Tatooine, a desperate battle rages between the evil Galactic Empire and the Rebellion who oppose them. But down on the planet’s surface, Luke Skywalker lives on a quiet moisture farm with his over-protective uncle and aunt where nothing interesting or exciting ever seems to happen. At least, not to Luke. But all that changes one day when Luke’s uncle purchases two new droids to work on the farm and one of the mechanical helpers claims to be on a secret mission from the Rebellion to find the mysterious Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke must choose between the mundane but safe life he’s always known or the mantle of a hero destined to fight against evil in the galaxy.

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“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” might be one of the most famous openings to a film in cinematic history, but back in the 1970s before the first Star Wars film was released, there was no guarantee that George Lucas’ audacious space opera would make any money, let alone revolutionize the way people thought about movies forever. Beset with on location difficulties (rain and sand storms, oh my!), budget issues, a hefty bit of scorn from the higher ups at the studio, and starring three relative unknowns in the leading roles, Lucas’ space epic, inspired by the stories of his own youth, might have seemed doomed to failure.

Yet despite all this, Star Wars (which would later be renamed “Episode IV: A New Hope”) made record breaking amounts of money at the box office and kick-started an unprecedented level of fan hysteria which continues to this day (for proof one need only look at the latest installment of the franchise, The Last Jedi, which to date has made over $1.3 billion and has been nominated for four Oscars). Fans were lining up around the block to see this movie! People were connecting with this strange yet familiar fairy tale in space, with its hopeful messages and its princesses and scoundrels and farm boys fighting against galactic monolithic evil.

Two more films (The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) were released in 1980 and 1983, completing what is now referred to as the original trilogy. In 1999, The Phantom Menace was released as the first film in the prequel trilogy (followed by 2002’s Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith), which follows events in the life of Luke’s father. In 2012, George Lucas sold Lucasfilm, along with the rights to the Star Wars franchise, to Disney who in turn launched their own series of films (The Force Awakens, 2015. Rogue One, 2016. The Last Jedi, 2017) following new sets of characters and centering female protagonists.

Amidst all the hype nowadays, it might be easy to forget that Star Wars began as one man’s passion project. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and the late Carrie Fisher might be household names now, but back in the ’70s almost no one knew who they were. Today Star Wars has been branded across the collective consciousness as a true cinematic phenomenon, but its humble origins are still important to remember.

So, travel back to the cinema of the ’70s, turn down the lights, make some popcorn, and experience the beginning of the Star Wars Saga whether for the hundredth or the very first time!

A note to parents: Although all three original trilogy films and the first two prequels are rated PG, Revenge of the Sith, Rogue One, The Force Awakens, and The Last Jedi are all rated PG-13. Revenge of the Sith in particular contains disturbing themes and imagery. We recommend looking up the films on sites like Common Sense Media before deciding if they are right for your family.

Discussion Questions

  • One of the most distinguishing features of the Star Wars films are their soundtracks composed and conducted by John Williams, who has himself become a fixture of the film industry. Do you have a favorite musical moment from the first film and how do you think the film might change if it were scored differently?
  • R2-D2 and C-3P0 are bought and sold at the beginning of the film and are later banned from the cantina for being droids. Do you think it’s okay to treat artificial forms of intelligence this way? Why or why not?
  • After the destruction of her home planet, we don’t see Princess Leia work through this colossal loss on screen, however the film spends whole scenes with Luke dealing with the loss of his family and later “Ben” Kenobi. Why do you think this is and how do you feel about it?
  • George Lucas stirred up controversy years after the release of Star Wars by creating “special editions” of the original trilogy films with updated special effects and some deleted scenes put back in. Do you think it’s a filmmaker’s right to alter their own creations or should a film be left alone once it has been released and never be altered? Explain your answer.
  • If you have seen the other films in the saga, how do you think the first film holds up to them?
  • Do you have a favorite film in the saga? Which one and why?

Additional Resources

StarWars.com – the official website

The Star Wars Show – go behind the scenes with the latest additions to the franchise with news and interviews

DIY Death Star Nightlight (flashing lights warning)

Movie Discussion Club

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Friday Freewrite: Emphasis

Friday Freewrite Emphasis

Complete the sentence: “I didn’t say that ____________.”

Write it multiple times. The first time emphasize the first word, the second time emphasize the second word, and keep going until you’ve emphasized all the words in the sentence (“I didn’t say that…” I DIDN’T say that…” “I didn’t SAY that…”).

Now read the sentences aloud and see how the meaning may change!

New to freewriting? Check out our online guide.

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Partnering with Your Child in Writing

How to be your child's partner in writing

In school, a teacher usually has somewhere between 20-30 children whose writing she has to evaluate. She’s not partnering with the child. She is expecting that child to show his or her level of competence so she can evaluate the child and only the child. She worries that if the parent gets involved in that writing process, somehow she won’t be evaluating a child; she’ll be evaluating an adult showing up in the child’s writing.

Now, I get that. She doesn’t have conversations, one-on-one, all day long with 20 or 30 kids. She isn’t sitting next to the child while he’s struggling with his pen to write at home. All she sees is the final result of effort.

I want to share with you a story from my own childhood, because I think it’s illustrative of the failure of this system of requiring children to write without help.

My mother is a freelance author, she has written 85 books, she has been in professional publishing her entire adult life, and she has taught writing to professionals for her whole adult life.

So, when I was coming up through the ranks as a child, my mom was very interested in my writing. She provided me with all kinds of tools. I have an All About Me book and I wrote my very first story, in cursive, in that book. She bought me little journals; she jotted down things I said. My mom loved literature. We went to the library every single week. She read aloud to us and I read to myself.

This was the early rich language life.

She took us to plays, to movies; she was very interested in us having a great literature and language experience.

Partnering with Your Child in Writing

As I got into school over the years, I was assigned writing projects. I remember distinctly, in 4th grade, being told that I needed to produce this report with no help. Now, I had this massive resource in my mother, but I took what the teacher said seriously and I told my mother, “You can’t help me with this report.”

I wrote a report on Queen Elizabeth. I had a red file folder. I decided to make it beautiful, so I used a blank sheet of white paper, no lines. I wrote it in very light pencil first, I went through and corrected all my mistakes, and then I traced over it in better pen so that it would be perfect. I used our World Book Encyclopedias for my research. And I finished it without any help from my mother.

I can’t tell you how proud I was of this paper. I turned in my report with all the other 4th graders. Do you know what’s coming?

I got a C on my independently produced report. Do you know what I saw in the stack of reports? Reports written by students who had help from their parents. There were typewritten reports. There were reports that were clearly handwritten perfectly and that had lots of detail.

I just sat down with all the information I knew and I just wrote it out. I didn’t know how to structure it. I didn’t even really know how to paragraph yet. I was in 4th grade! And that C crushed me, and my mom was not pleased. I put in all this heart and effort. She saw me do the research, she saw me be painstaking in my handwriting, but I got a C because other kids had help and the teacher couldn’t tell the difference.

Here’s what you have at home that my 4th grade teacher didn’t have:

A front row seat to your children’s development. You can tell what they’re doing. You can see when you add a sentence or help them think of a vocabulary word. You know what was their effort and what was your combined efforts.

Not only that, when you combine efforts your are mentoring your children into the writing experience.

Want to learn more about partnering with your kids?
Watch the full video on YouTube!

Stages of Growth in Writing

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Writing Coach Interview: Lora Fanning

Brave Writer writing coach Lora Fanning

Continuing our series of interviews with our fabulous writing instructors, here’s the latest installment: an interview with the wonderful Lora Fanning! 

Lora has a history degree from Mary Washington University and an unfortunate familiarity with chemises due to long days in costume as a docent at living history museums. She nurtures the next generation of wordsmiths around the world as a writing instructor for Brave Writer and as a teacher for local middle and high school co-ops. She practiced her storytelling for 11 years on her blog where she wrote about her full-time gig as a wife to her Superman and mother to seven kids.

What kind of a writer were you in high school?
I was usually the English teacher’s pet. It was instinctive for me, and both my parents are wordsmiths, so I didn’t think it was a big deal. But I definitely relied on my professor mom to help me edit, so that probably improved my grades a bit.

You’re a new addition to the crayon box. What color would you be and why?
The shade of blue grey where the sky meets the ocean. The ocean is my happy place. It makes me feel so small, yet is so grounding. It makes me fling my arms wide in worship.

What is one of your favorite classroom moments?
Online: It’s when the parent of that one kid, the one who has struggled from day one, sends you the update that there was a light bulb moment – they grabbed the pencil and dove in. I usually do a lot of fist pumping and air-fives while sitting at my desk.

In-Person: I love doing the Mixed Media Journaling (from Journaling Jumpstart) in my co-op classes. I play music and the kids get lost in words and creativity and the room fairly buzzes with peaceful energy. It’s a joyful mess.

(more…)

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