Lesson Objectives
By the end of this discussion-based lesson, students should be able to demonstrate an ability to identify claims made about film and literature in a specific genre (video interview/lecture), as well as recognize ways evidence can be used to support those claims. This lesson is intended to be a first step toward students developing their own evidence-based claims.
Materials Needed
- Projector/screen
- Device to project to screen
- Internet connection
Pre-class student work:
- Students should watch the video “ Douglas S. Ishii on Crazy Rich Asians, Critical University Studies, and Queer of Color Theory” (~24 minutes) before class.
Lesson Plan (45 minutes)
Warm Up: Small-group discussion (10 minutes)
Description
Put students into small groups (3-4 work well), and play this portion of the video (9:23-13:57) on the main screen.
Ask students to discuss the following warm-up question:
Professor Ishii talks about “stickiness” in his video. How does he define it? What is “stickiness,” and why is it interesting to Prof. Ishii?
Rationale
Students are first asked to identify how a term is being defined. This helps them recall the homework, focus on this specific aspect of the video, and initiate a conversation about definitions, how they change based on frameworks, contexts, genres, placements, etc.
All-class review (10 minutes)
Description
Ask each group to share their response to the question.
Rationale
This is an opportunity to guide students’ ideas about definitions and defining – how they can be used to ground arguments and claims, how they are based on context, genres, bias, etc.
Video and small-group discussion (15 minutes)
Description
Play the opening scene of Crazy Rich Asians (YouTube, ~3 min) on the main screen.
Have students then discuss the video and this scene from the film.
- Prof Ishii talks about this scene in particular. How is this scene an example of “stickiness”?
- According to Prof. Ishii, what is significant about this scene? That is, what claims does he make about it?
- Can you identify any other examples of “stickiness” (either from the film or from something you have read/seen/experienced)?
Ask each group to nominate one student to be the group’s representative who will share with the entire class.
Rationale
Students are asked how a scene from the film can be used to inform the definition. This can be used to help students gain an understanding of how claims are constructed.
Students are then asked to identify what claims Prof. Ishii is making about this scene and then relate those claims to experiences outside of the text (helping students see these connections).
All-class share-out (10 minutes)
Description
Ask each group’s representative to share their group’s discussion points.
Rationale
This is an opportunity to reinforce how evidence is used in this specific genre (video interview/lecture). Students can begin to think about ways they can use evidence themselves when they are making claims in their own compositions.
Note that this discussion-based lesson format can easily be adapted to analyze contextual elements (author, intended audience, purpose, etc.) and explore a variety of compositional elements, such as persuasive techniques, further claims and warrants, etc.