CUNY COMPosition & Rhetoric Community

3 Minute Movie Sample Unit Schedule and Short Lesson Plans

Sean Molloy (22 Aug. 2014)

This sample unit schedule with some short lesson plans is based on my Spring 2014 semester Hunter ENGL 120 class which met for 75 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tuesdays we had wifi access in a conventional classroom with one computer and projection screen. Thursdays we met in a computer lab.  Writing assignments were submitted online– so they could be due on any day.

Unit IV Multimodal Composition

Thur 4/24  Rhetorical Roller Coasters

Reading due: Cooper “Films As Roller Coasters.”

Writing Due:   Reading Log for Cooper.

Class lesson plan : 1) Discussion of Cooper, 2) review of group class note sections on ethos, pathos, logos and kairos, and 3) creation of rhetorical roller coasters. [link]

Sun   4/27 Writing Due:  Movie Treatments/Screenplays

Tues 4/29 Intellectual Property Issues

Reading Due: “Bound By Law” Graphic Novel [link]

Class lesson plan: 1) Discussion of Reading and IP issues;  2) IP Path to Green Light exercise. [link]  3) Work on website portfolios.

Thur    5/1  Workshopping Movie Treatments

Writing Due: IP analysis of movie elements.

Class lesson Plan:  1) “love/more/add” peer review of movie treatments to develop ideas and choices. 2) Class time to develop portfolio websites, mostly on weebly, tumblr or google sites.

Sun   5/4   Writing Due:    Draft Movies

Tues 5/6  Critical Assessment of Google’s data uses.

Reading due: Miller “The Plus in Google Plus…”

Class lesson Plan: 1) Discussion of reading and Google’s uses of data.  2) Workshop movies; 3) Troubleshoot together any technical issues with movies.

Thur    5/8   Work on Portfolios.

Sun   5/11  Writing Due:    Final Movies

Tues 5/13  “Movie night:” Watch Class Movies!!

Class lesson Plan: best class of the semester!  My class was 22 students, so If all the movies run under 3:00, each student should be able to screen his or her movie for the class in 75 minutes.  No critical comments here as these are finished work. Just positive comments as time allows.

Thur 5/15 LAST CLASS  — Final Portfolios Due

Class lesson plan:  Often portfolio deadlines get pushed back beyond the final class, so this becomes workshop time for everyone.

Works Cited

Aoki, Keith, James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins. Bound By Law? Tales From the Public Domain. Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain. 2006. Web.  22 Aug. 2014.

Cooper, Dona. “Films as Roller Coasters.” Writing Great Screenplays For Film and TV. 2d ed. New York: Macmillan, 1997. 1-10. Print.

Miller, Claire. “The Plus in Google Plus is Mostly for Google.” New York Times. 14 Feb. 2014. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.