Last week, we were off for the entire week due to the holiday, so I had some time to plan and think about what I'd be doing with my students between now and the end of the semester on December 19th. Of course, I intended to get a lot more done than I actually did, so when the weekend approached, I was feeling a bit stressed out. Fortunately, a friend of mine posted a link on Facebook to a lesson plan on using Pixar shorts to teach plot structure. Since I knew I was going to have my ELD 2 students write children's stories over this week and next, I thought this lesson plan might be a good way to review plot structure before launching into actually writing, and I decided to check it out.
The lesson plan was available for free download through the website teacherspayteachers.com, which I had never heard of. Honestly, I don't do a lot of (or any) searching the Internet for resources, because I am inevitably disappointed when I don't find exactly what I'm looking for and have to make it myself anyway. (An example of this was when I searched earlier this year for a chart with the English alphabet with the pronunciation of each letter spelled out in Spanish. I was sure something of this nature must exist, but I couldn't find anything. I just wound up making this.) That being said, I am also not one to ignore resources that pop up in my face (from other teachers, blogs, Facebook, etc.). I think I am just extremely picky, as I think many teachers are, so I feel as though a lot of pre-made lessons and graphic organizers don't fit naturally into my classroom and/or teaching. Nonetheless, as I said, I decided to check out this lesson, and boy, am I glad I did!
I had to create an account in order to actually download and view all of the materials, but doing so was free. When I opened the zip folder, I saw that it included worksheets and a PowerPoint presentation to accompany the worksheets. Since I have a 2-year-old who isn't allowed to watch very much TV yet, we haven't amassed the entire Pixar collection of movies; however, we do have Wall-E and Up. I checked which Pixar shorts were included with those DVD's and discovered I owned 4 of the 10 shorts listed in the lesson plan - "Burn-E", "Presto", "Partly Cloudy", and "Dug's Special Mission". I thought to myself, "Well, 4 shorts is definitely enough for my students to get the idea." So, I decided to go with the ones I had and not worry about quickly buying more movies just so I could have more of the shorts to choose from. (I am a big believer in not paying for things that you don't really need, so I wanted to avoid having to buy the extra movies if at all possible.) Unfortunately, the worksheets provided did not have the movies grouped together by movie they came out with, so the portions of the worksheets I needed were spread across 4 different worksheets. "No problem," I thought. "I will just cut and paste together the parts that I need." For a moment, I thought I would need to print out the worksheets and actually, physically, cut and paste them together. Then I realized that was ridiculous! If you still do that kind of thing, stop! You are just wasting paper and glue. Instead, I took screenshots of the parts that I needed and pasted them into a blank Google Doc. I printed out the 2 pages, instead of the original 4, ran them down to the copy room, and I was good to go.
I introduced the lesson to my students on Tuesday. It was funny because some of them had come in that day and asked if we could watch a movie, something I pretty much never let them do but which they still ask for all the time. I told them not right away but maybe later. "Aw, Miss. Maybe? No maybe. I don't like when you say maybe. It means no. Say yes." I smiled and repeated, "Maybe."
When the time came to begin the activity, they were thrilled when I told them what we were going to do. I started by drawing a picture of the plot diagram on the board and labeling the different parts - exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Next, since this was a review for them, I had them tell me what each term meant. I left that up on the board while we watched the shorts, so the students would be able to reference it if needed.
The first short I showed them was "Dug's Special Mission". We watched through it once. Then, I played it again, pausing it at different times for us to discuss each element of the plot as it came up in the movie. We followed the first short with "Partly Cloudy" and "Presto". (Due to technical difficulties, we weren't able to watch "Burn-E".) Each time we worked through the elements of plot, I made the students tell me the answers and help me construct sentences to fill in on the graphic organizer I was filling out on the projector while they filled in their own worksheets at their desks.
It just so happened that I was doing this lesson on a day when other teachers were doing classroom observations as part of the EEI professional development. That period, I had 3 teachers come into my classroom - a history teacher, a math teacher, and an English teacher. As they left, I heard the math teacher say to the history teacher, "What a great lesson!" I smiled to myself, and I also made sure to email the teachers later in order to give credit where credit was due and point them to teacherspayteachers.com.
After we finished this activity, the next step was to have my students create their own plot diagrams for the children's stories they are now writing. Overall, I think it was extremely beneficial for them to fill out the diagrams using the Pixar films first because they got to see how each story was broken down into one event that lead to another that lead to another.
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Ease of use: Creating an account with teacherspayteachers is extremely easy, and it's great that you don't have to put in credit card information or anything like that just to sign up. What you are looking for will probably determine the ease of use of the search engine of the site. However, if you just want to sign up to browse through some great resources, then it is extremely easy. If you are looking for something extremely specific, you might have a bit more trouble. I also like that you can just look through the stuff that is available for free, because, after all, who really wants to pay for something that you can just make yourself?
Would I use this again: Yes. I would do this lesson again, and I will use this resource again. (I might as well, since I've already signed up.)
Downsides: You do actually have to make an account, which I know some people are wary of. Also, as I mentioned above, if you are searching for something specific, you may have trouble finding it, but if you are just looking for some good ideas, then you shouldn't have any problems.
Applications: This specific lesson - teaching plot to just about any grade and any English proficiency. This resource - every subject area, even PE and vocational education!
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