Charges Are There and Back Again

My fifth form reading grouping had some wonderful thoughts about the trailers for The Hobbit prior to reading the volume. Our word led my students to theories near the intended audience for them, based on their own background noesis about Tolkien's works.

What skillful is a theory unless yous examination it out, though? I decided to revisit the trailers later on nosotros had read and analyzed the novel, to run across what new insights students could now share. They were enthusiastic about seeing the trailers once again, and curious about what scenes they would now recognize and exist excited virtually seeing in the theater.

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Once again, we watched both full-length trailers. Instead of having a group discussion, though, I created a Google doc. I noticed that several students dominated the discussion during our commencement lesson, and wanted to requite the less song students an equal chance to go their ideas into the mix. Having them type directly in response to i another besides made them the coordinators of their own give-and-take, removing me as the referee. Once the students logged into the document, they saw:

Mrs Selke: Welcome to the Google doc for The Hobbit trailer discussion. Think most how you felt when y'all first saw the trailer. Did you already know something about the story? How have your feelings inverse about the trailer at present that you lot accept read the volume?

With very little extra prompting, they jumped correct into the fray.

Knowing the Story

All of the students who hadn't read or known the story before commented on how much easier the trailers were to sympathise. They felt similar they were at present part of the target audition, peculiarly for the second trailer. The student who had read the book over the summer made the bespeak that she understood the trailer better after we discussed it.

"I already read the book simply when I first saw the trailer it was disruptive. Merely once we talked well-nigh it, I could understand it better. I dearest talking virtually things."

Even and then, there was a great bargain of contend about the relative merits of the two trailers.

First vs. 2nd Trailer

Near of the students still preferred the 2nd trailer, even now that they know the story. They felt that "the 2d trailer was better, with more activity."  Yet several students commented that they now liked the first trailer, and spent some fourth dimension discussing the difference in tone between them. One wrote, "I really like the first trailer because it is much more mysterious."  Another mentioned, "I recall they fabricated it darker and more dramatic then it appeals to Lord of the Rings fans."

The darker tone of the showtime trailer, many felt, was due to the vocal of the dwarves. I loved the melancholy melody. My students, on the other hand, spent a good chunk of fourth dimension debating it with 1 another. Some expressed the mental attitude, "And then what? It does not appeal to me at all." Some loved the inclusion of the song at present, considering they felt it is "what inspired Bilbo to go on the quest."

As they were discussing the impact of the trailers, several students branched off into conversations nearly what could have been included to create more than interest in the story. Ane expressed discontent that he didn't get at least a glimpse of Smaug past writing, "I think that they could take included The Lonely Mountain with Smaug'due south silhouette in the mist of the height. This might depict in more people to watch the moving picture. They would recall, 'Ooooo, what will they do to the dragon?'" While another pointed out that "when he comes in, the story is almost over and if that was the stop of the beginning movie what would they put in the 2nd and 3rd movies?"

Hobbit Expertise

The nigh interesting part of this whole experiment was watching my group plough into self-proclaimed experts on how The Hobbit should exist adapted for the big screen. I student expressed cloy over the fact that the story would be spread out over three movies, declaring that they should brand but 1 great pic and put all the extras into "YouTube videos or something." Some other grouping sounded similar adult Tolkien fans every bit they critiqued the appearance of the characters in the pic. I thought that Thorin "looked somewhat like a pirate." Some other discussed how Bilbo "looked like a man more than a hobbit."

Extending the Discussion

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Overall, I was pleased with the level of discussion and interaction from my students. Not only did they straight respond to one some other, expressing their opinions and suggesting ideas to i another, simply they too sought out new data and brought it back to the group.

When one student didn't remember seeing something in the trailer that the others were discussing, he went back and watched the clip again to discover what others had seen. Another educatee went to wait up more information about Gimli from The Lord of the Rings to help understand the point his classmate made. Along the mode, he discovered the relationship betwixt Gimli and Gloin, and came back to our give-and-take document with a link to share with his classmates.

When I went into this experiment, I wasn't sure what the trailers would add to the unit across simply building excitement for reading The Hobbit. What I discovered was a whole new mode of teaching students to be disquisitional consumers. I can envision so many means to utilize trailers to teach students to call back nigh marketing and to consider audience in their own writing. What a delightful cease to my ain unexpected journey.

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Maria Selke, who previously wrote almost pop culture fandom and the Hero's Journeying, teaches at Hillsdale Simple Schoolhouse in Westward Chester, Pennsylvania. She is in charge of enrichment units and advanced reading and math classes for gifted learners, also as existence a voracious reader and viewer of scientific discipline fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction herself. Y'all can follow forth with her passions via Twitter: @mselke01.

Filed under: English, Media Literacy, Movies, Print Media, Transliteracy

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Source: https://blogs.slj.com/connect-the-pop/2012/12/11/guest-post-by-maria-selke-there-and-back-again-revisiting-the-hobbit-in-image-and-text-2/

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