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Film Festival

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Anonymous (not verified)
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Film Festival

I had an opportunity to watch the film on YouTube twice. It's only about 45 minutes long, but the YouTube version I saw repeated with subtitles and no sound... Anyhow, the film basically follows three children as they campaign to be Class Monitor, which seems something like Class President, because one student, Cheng Cheng said that you get to boss people around. The teacher gives her 3rd grade class a very simple explanation of democracy, or voting democratically. She says that the students will be able to express their opinions, and that students will vote for one. The student with the most votes will be the Class Monitor. The teacher says that this is something new, and although it's a new thing in that class at that school, it's amazing how quickly it looks like a typical American election with mudslinging and trickery.

At the end of the first day, the students go to their respective homes and talk to their parents about the election. Cheng Cheng's parents are on him immediately to begin practicing and preparing, meanwhile he just wants to play. Luo Lei doesn't want help from his parents or their ideas for tricks. He thinks that the students should be able to vote for whoever they want. The girl, Xu Xiafei doesn't really know what to say, and her mother tells her that she's going to have to work on her communication skills and talent to campaign (mother actually uses that word). Over time, the students resort to booing during other candidates' presentations and spreading rumors or saying mean things about each other and tears flow, as they often will in 3rd grade.

This would be en excellent film to show to a class where you are discussing different types of government and how leaders get chosen. You can even compare and contrast this class election to you local or Presidential election. I think an interesting discussion will ensue, especially after watching the children try to manage their campaigns. Is democratic election the best way to choose a leader? Why or why not? What ethical issues arise during the campaign process? How important are the candidates motives for wanting to hold the position? How would you improve the democratic election process? - Those are just some questions I have off the top of my head.

...incidentally, as I was watching the film the first time, my daughter was watching my facial expressions (I had headphones on) and came and joined me. She watched the entire movie with me (She asked me to start it over!), and she's an 8th grader! So, I think it's safe to say that this is a film that you can show to your middle and high school students.

Anonymous (not verified)
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Message from lguthrie

Thanks for the review! especially that your daughter was interested and enthusiastic. I will definitely find a way to incorporate this into the first few days of class, as we are establishing classroom norms and procedures.

Anonymous (not verified)
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Message from lguthrie

More and more teachers are using web-based education and groups as a means for students to interact. I have my students respond to readings and discussions on a regularly basis. Therefore, one of the things that I ask them to do is to create a persona for themselves, that way, I know who they are, but their classmates might not, it provides a degree of anonoymiety. Thus I have them create a Voki,which I believe is very popular in Japanese culture. Here is a Youtube video that I provide to the students to assist in the process:

It is fun and it reveals a great deal about your students.

Anonymous (not verified)
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Message from lguthrie

I don't know about anyone else, but I have too many ideas floating around in my head about how to integrate what we have learned into my classroom. I am truly going off the deep end. I have the lessons I have developed for the book, In the year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, everything from the Chinese zodiac to calligraphy, and I also wanted to do something with Farewell to Manzanar, and the recent excavation of the garden at Manzanar and relating that to the importance of sacred space (gardens) to the Asian psyche, (we take some of our 8th graders on the Pilgrimage) or animation because I love My Friend, Totoro and Spirited Away among others. I also want to explore the relationship between the Hunger Games and Blood Royale. I am stuck in the middle school whirlpool, I want to do it all! Help!!!

Anonymous (not verified)
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Message from lguthrie

Here is the link to the resources that PBS provides for the film. http://www-tc.pbs.org/independentlens/pleasevoteforme/resources/pvfm_discussion.pdf

As I said previously, this will be one of the first films that I show to my students, especially since I ask them how they relate their school work to their parents. This is crucial since our roll books in LAUSD are interactive.