Reading and writing Terry Moore, Xiumei He, Terran Winegeart

Audience Intermediate level

25 30 per class
60 mins

Background Students are intermediate learners. They have experience

working on peer reviewed papers. This lesson is part of an
overall plan about practical writing. Students have previously
learned about constructing emails in professional and academic
environments, and this lesson is meant to broaden their
practical writing skills.

Course Students will learn how to critique movies for advertisement

objectives and movie reviewing.

Lesson Students will be able to review a movie.

objective Students will be able to use a rubric.
Students will be able to critique movies based on the
scale of a rubric.

Materials Review samples, rubric, short movie

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQjtK32mGJQ )

Detailed Teacher: Greets students allowing for reply. (Hello good

description morning/afternoon/evening.
of procedure Students: respond
Teacher: Today we will be learning about movie reviews.
Everyone here will be able to do a critique by the end of today.
(2-5mins)

Warm up : Discussion (10-13 mins)

- Teacher: Has anyone ever seen the comments made

about movies?
- Students: response
- Teacher: Has anyone ever read the comments at the end
of an online video?
- Students: response (yes/no)
- Teacher: If so what kinds of things are said? What does
this tell you?
- Students: response
- Teacher: Do you or your friends ever talk about movies
after watching them?
 - Student: Response
- Teacher: What is the point of these questions or what
can they help us learn? That is right! Other people are
trying to give their advice. Is the movie good or bad?

Presentation: PPT (8mins)

- Teacher hands out review rubric for student use and

understanding. Students will follow along with the
power point and use the rubric in more detail at later
activity.
- Teacher turns on power point.
- Teacher : What is a promotion of a movie? Anyone have
an idea?
- Students: response
- Advertising, which can be good or bad is made in the
form of a promotion. The simplest form of a promotional
advertising is a review.
- Students are given the rubric at this point, they will read
along as they view powerpoint/presentation.(15mins)
- Teacher: These are the areas we will focus on.
- Teacher reviews the rubric and the point system which
adds up to 75. If points equal to less than 45 then it is
not a good review.
Practice: guided group work (15 mins)

- We have 4 movie reviews for the students. Students will

work in groups to make visual poster presentation. This
will be done in groups of 3 or 5. Students get practical
use of rubric.
- Teacher: Everyone get into groups of 5. We will use our
rubrics to make note of a few different reviews. Your job
as group is to go through the reviews and write bullet
points noting the reviews characteristics. What
characteristics do they have and how do the reviews
compare. This is why we have a number scale.

Produce: peer conversation on paper (15 min)

- Teacher shows students a short movie (Alike), and then
they have to write down their thoughts of the movie with
a partner on one piece of paper (two people a group).
- Teacher: We have a short movie to watch! Everyone pay
close attention to the details.
- Teacher: Think about things you like or do not like, the
setting, characters and story summary. In a group of 2
you will have a talk about the film but you may only
write. Each group uses piece of paper. There will be no
talking.
 Wrap up: (7 mins)
- What did we learn today?..
- Next class we will start the class off by having a few
groups present their group reviews to the class.

Homework/ - Write actual review of the short movie, remember that

Independent the rubric is going to be used on your reviews

Movie Reviews

A good movie review

1. Should focus on the movie itself, and not you the reviewer.
2. Includes a brief description about what the movie was about and what kind of movie it was
3. Explains what kind of audience you think this movie is best suited for
4. Includes a brief description of whether or not you like the movie and why
a. Think about whether or not you liked, disliked, or didnt care for the movie
b. An explanation of why you do or dont like the movie gives your critique substance, and may
help a reader decide whether or not they should see a particular film.
5. Doesnt reveal too much about the overall plot of the movie
6. Doesnt include bias such as I hate this movie because it has (actors name) and I hate
him.
7. Should be effectively organized
A bad movie review
1. Offers your idea about whether or not you think the movie is bad without a reason for why
you feel that way.
2. Does not include a brief description about the movie.
3. Spoils important moments in the movie, which could ruin the movie for the person reading
the review.
4. Does not focus on the specific movie you are reviewing (ie is not on topic).
5. Has no real structure and is difficult to follow.
 Movie Review Scoring Rubric

Title 5 _____
Does the title of the review grab the readers attention?
Overview of Main Actors and Actresses 10 _____
Does the review list the main actors and actresses and briefly explains the roles
(characters) they played in the film?
Brief Plot Summary 10 _____
This is not supposed to reveal all of the most important parts of the film, just a brief
description about what the movie was about.
Genre and Target Audience 5 _____
Does the review include what type of movie the review is about and what audience the
movie is best suited for?
Critical Position 5 _____
Does the review take a specific stance about the movie (Like, dislike, indifferent)
Explanation of Why 10 -----_____
Does the review offer any particular reasons why the above stance was chosen?
Style 35 ---_____
Mechanics, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraph construction,
capitalization

Total 75 - _____
4 MOVIE REVIEWS
1:
Legion is a movie by Scott Charles Stewart, which appeared in the cinemas all around the world in January,

2010. According to the IMDB, the movie got rating of 5 (out of 10), which means an average result. Still, let

us consider it in details.

The film is not an ordinary one for todays cinematograph. First of all, you will not see any top famous actors

and actresses in the cast. Then, there are no much graphical effects in this movie. Nevertheless, it is not as

important as the story itself and what creators wanted to say to the audience. Legion gives you a reason to

think about the world you live in and your role in it. It shows the life as it is with all the events happening

around to each one of us. The story is about choice and the fact that everyone has to make it. You will never be

100% sure what is right and what is wrong no one knows where the truth is, because there is actually no

truth.

2:

The film is not an ordinary one for todays cinematograph. First of all, you will not see any top famous actors

and actresses in the cast. Then, there are no much graphical effects in this movie. Nevertheless, it is not as

important as the story itself and what creators wanted to say to the audience. Legion gives you a reason to

think about the world you live in and your role in it. It shows the life as it is with all the events happening

around to each one of us. The story is about choice and the fact that everyone has to make it. You will never be

100% sure what is right and what is wrong no one knows where the truth is, because there is actually no

truth.

3:

Beautiful Mind is a biographical movie about John Forbes Nash junior, mathematical genius with hard fate. At

the beginning of his career he has made enormous contribution in the field of Game Theory, which was a

revolution in this mathematical area and almost brought international fame to the author. The movie was

filmed in 2001 by Ron Howard and today it is called modern classics: a true drama, making you think and

evoking emotions.
Such movies, telling us about the life of a famous person, are always difficult to assess, because any such

creations somehow pretend to be biographical ones. But in fact they are just a glance of one particular producer

on the life of another individual. Of course, much depends on the actor who will perform the role of the

protagonist and after watching Beautiful Mind I will agree with this once again.

4:

I loved this movie and so did my kids. That said, there were a few moments that made us uncomfortable.

My children are adopted and the early views of the Girls Home and the horrible woman who puts them in

a cardboard box for not selling enough cookies or some other infraction was a bit gut wrenching. That

said - the rest of the movie is wonderful. It shows a family coming together, love blooming and friends

pulling together toward a common goal all with a lot of laughter to tie it all together. We will definitely be

adding this to our DVD collection.