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Post by James B Rollins on Dec 6, 2006 0:46:27 GMT -5
Please post your answers to any of the questions included on the movie preview form distributed in class. There is also a link to it on the course homepage.
Please especially comment on how you think the movie could be used as part of a multimedia unit on the novelette.
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Post by Meg Han on Dec 9, 2006 3:13:57 GMT -5
1. The movie could help in language field : The biggest help is listening training. After they read the novel, when they watch the movie, the conversation in the movie would stimulate the memory stored from reading. If the students¡¦ level is high, I suggest not to show the English subtitles while students¡¦ level is low, suggest to use English subtitle. 2. The movie could help to clear up the pictures: When they just read, they have no real pictures in minds about different environment and cultures described they are not familiar with in the novel and only rely on ¡§imagination¡¨ from reading except they search real pictures on net, while the movie could enhance the plot and clarify their blurred images. Through the video and audio effects from movie, students would have a deep and clear depicted story map in minds. Besides, students would like to discuss the difference of content between movie and novel. That is a good motive to learn English by this way. 3. The movie could help in learning that different cultures and background would form totally different personality, characteristics and life style. It gives them a lesson that we should open mind to see the world and appreciate others¡¦ differences no matter in cultures, traits, tempers, or life habits and moreover, ¡§love¡¨ and ¡§patience¡¨ could conquer all.
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Post by cindyli on Dec 9, 2006 8:45:34 GMT -5
There are many differences between the novelette and the movie. I think the movie is more related to reality, the real world. Actually if a stranger will be your stepmother, Anna's attitude to Sarah in the movie is more reasonable. After seeing the movie, I preferred the movie version. In the movie, it presents Anna's unfriendly attitude to Sarah, Anna's nightmare, Jacob's regret for his wife's dead, and the conflict bettween Sarah and Jacob.... The movie extened the plot and added some plots that didn's write in the novelette. But the whole movie still be faithful to the original.
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Post by sophiechen on Dec 9, 2006 21:03:09 GMT -5
As to the movie, it's quite moving. Anna is the character with the most different personality in this movie. Why did the director do so? I think maybe it is because if a movie wants to attract more people to see it in a theater, it will be more tensive and more conflicting. Anna's bad attitude toward Sarah will make the audience want to know if she accepts her at last. (1)I think the move will be a good material to the students to see different views of the U.S. And The students will also know that the scenery of the U. S. is quite different in Taiwan. (2)They can also know differnt religious activities on holidays and compare with the religious activities in Taiwan. (3) The students will also know the clothing and living style in a different country. (4) Furthermore, the movie shows the students the pictures of the novelette and the students will have a clearer picture in their mind.
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Post by ruthyang on Dec 10, 2006 12:02:49 GMT -5
The movie takes quite a departure from the novelette. It places a lot of weight on Catherine's death. By doing so, other characters, except Caleb, are very different in the movie. Anna is resistant toward having a new mother. Jacob is not ready to let go of past memories and blames himself for Catherine's death. In turn, Sarah has to be very different, too, for if she is just as reluctant, there wouldn't be a whole lot of reasons to keep trying to make the new family work. In fact, Sarah is the one who says the decisive lines, ¡§There's always something to miss, no matter where you are,¡¨ rather than Maggie. Maggie's role serves an entirely different purpose in the movie. Her difficult birth-giving is a painful reminder to Jacob of Catherine's giving birth to Caleb. Overall, the movie focuses on different aspects of the environment than the novelette. While the novelette focuses more on the physical elements of the environment and the effect they have on people, the movie focuses more on the human factors, such as the step-mother step-daughter relationship. Another aspect that the movie has called attention to, but not mentioned in the novelette, is the social aspect: when you move to a new environment, how are you viewed by the others? From her first moment into the town, Sarah's felt the pressure of people's looks on her. Jacob's awkward explanation for her at the church picnic and having to buy awful-tasting peach cans all show that it is not easy to fit into a new culture in that space and time.
The movie would be enormously helpful in teaching English and culture. Just as a short video clip can give Taiwanese kids a taste of Kansas in winter, so can they get a taste of what farm life is like for kids like Caleb. One thing that struck me was the dinner scene. When Caleb writes, ¡§We live in a small house,¡¨ it's hard to imagine exactly how small it is. But when you look at how small the dinner table is, how close the family members sat from each other at the dinner table, without much room for maneuvering, you start to get a sense of how intimate the family must be.
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Post by tytylu22 on Dec 10, 2006 22:08:07 GMT -5
When see a movie, students can see the facial expressions of the characters and the clear and vivid images of the scenes in America, which is difficult to understand in a paper form material. I think a movie can be an aid in any instructional period, in pre-reading, it is like a draft for background knowledge; in guided reading, it is an visual/acoustic aid; in post-reading stage, it can be an follow up activity which links the students' partial knowledge of the novel an the more complete details of the whole story.
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Post by catherine on Dec 11, 2006 3:13:18 GMT -5
This movie adds and reinforces emotional conflicts and struggles which are understated in the novelette, such as the Wittings¡¦ regret for the mother, and confrontations Sarah encounters when she tries to fit into this family. The added episode that Anna suffers a nightmare is the one I like most. This episode shows audience the pain Anna feels for her mother¡¦s death in a stronger way, and makes the change of Anna¡¦s attitude toward Sarah more reasonable¡XAnna is touched when Sarah holds her to express the sincere concern and love. Compared with texts, the movie provides clear visual images of everything described in the novelette. An EFL teacher may know as little as the students about the environment and culture, and the movie saves much time and effort for teachers to teach students in a vivid and enjoyable way. When seeing movies, students can understand the environment in the novelette. In addition, characters¡¦ facial expression and body language can facilitate students¡¦ comprehension. This movie can be applied as a tool to motive students if students see only part of it before they read the novelette. It can also be used to check students¡¦ comprehension if they read the novelette first.
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Post by sharontsai on Dec 11, 2006 10:48:08 GMT -5
Anna is the most different character in the movie from that character in the book. She shows a very hostile attitude toward Sarah in the beginning of the movie and it makes me feel very surprised at first, but after I give it a second thought, I think it is quite reasonable for a stepdaughter to feel in that way when she has to accept an unfamiliar person to be her stepmother. Besides, changing Anna¡¦s attitude toward Anna also makes the movie more exciting and have more tension. However, I still love the way of portraying Anna in the novelette because Anna seems more lovely and open-minded in the novelette. Jacob is also quite different in the movie because it shows Jacob is still haunted by his love toward his wife and he resists Sarah to walk into his heart in the beginning. This makes me feel he is more affectionate in the movie because in the novelette, the author doesn¡¦t focus on Jacob¡¦s emotions.
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Post by amandachen on Dec 12, 2006 0:12:06 GMT -5
Basically, I think the main ideas of the novelette and the movie both are to present conflicts of different personalities, lifestyles and conceptions of characters living in Maine and the pairie. In order to strengthen tension of those conflicts, the director adds several expisodes illustrating characters' emotional struggles of love, regret, and hesitation and that I think they describes those characters in a more human way. Espisodes such as Anna's rejection to Sarah in the beginning, Jacob's struggle with his love to his wife and acceptance of Sarah, Ana's nightmare and Magei's having trouble with giving birth of her baby are touching espisodes decpiting the strong emotional conflicts inside of heat of the humble Witting Families. However, a certain scenes such as Sarah's dancing with that stranger man, Jacob's kissing and hugging Sarah and the last ending part seems unneccessary and I think they reduce the poetic beauty of the novelette as a literature work.
For the purpose to teach this novelette as reading material in class, it will be a lot of help for children at primary schools to have a better understaning about the culture and geopraphic environment of a foreign country, especially things in the past century, through presentation of real-life imagines in a movie. I think most of the students have not yet had chances to visit America personally. Besides, it will also be good to use Chinese subtitle for their udnerstaning of the whole story when the teaching purpose is to introduce the culture.
But for my own reading, I prefer to read the novelette rather than seeing the movie because I can have imagination about the look and personality of the characters and the plot of the story without being limited by the fixed presentions in a movie.
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Post by andreakao on Dec 12, 2006 0:24:24 GMT -5
Basically, the main ideas and points of the novelette are not dramatically changed by the movie. The movie covers about 80 percent of the novelette. Throughout the movie, I think the scene is especially good when Sarah's brother, William, hopes that Sarah will change her mind and not to go to Kansas. Not seen in the novelette, William's talk reveals his love for his own sister. However, I don't think it is appropriate that Jacob kisses and hugs Sarah when finding her in the town. This scene makes the movie totally go off from the novelette itself. In addition, if we take the time into consideration, perhaps America in the early 20 century is still a conservative society.
Anna in the movie seems the most different. In the novelette, it is hard to see how Anna's attitude towards Sarah, accepting or refusing her. Anna, in the movie, first avoides Sarah for she is afraid that Sarah will replace her beloved mother. Later Anna opens her heart to Sarah. Such a change of Anna's attitude is not seen in the novelette. Generally speaking, the movie is as good as the novelette. The former visualizes the landscape and settings for the audience while the latter gives the readers room for imagination. Besides its visualizing the words in the novelette, if the movie goes with English subtitles, it will be better for advanced learners to clarify what they misunderstand if only "listening" to the movie. On the other hand, if the audience is the learners with lower levels, Chinese subtitles can help them understand the movie more. From my personal experience, sometimes if the movie is difficult and only with English subtitles, I will just give up watching the movie on.
This movie provides precious information about American cultures. Thanks to the movie, the audience has a much clearer idea of why it takes Sarah's courage to stay in Kansas. The place where she grows up in Maine is near the sea and everything she knows about before coming to Kansas is related to the sea. In order to stay in Kansas, she needs to learn like a newborn baby how to get along with everthing related to the prairie instead.
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Post by Huiching kuo on Dec 12, 2006 1:05:19 GMT -5
After reading this novelette, I am questioning why Anna, a kid, accepts this stranger, Sarah, as her stepmother in the further so easily. However, this character, Anna, is against Sarah strongly at first in the movie. Anna's response in the movie is meeting the reality. Furthermore, the actor, and actress in the movie actually disappoint me. I imagine that Sarah is beautiful, tall and plain and Papa is honest, simple and handsome guy. In essence, students can recognize the vocabulary such as prairie, offshore and barn through the movie. This movie help for students to read this novelette, because they can prove their imagination to this novelette and enjoy it.
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Post by Cindy on Dec 12, 2006 1:35:24 GMT -5
Some episodes about Maggie, the neighbor of Wittings play an important role in the movie, and her part in the movie is quite different from the novelette. Maggie's Tennessean accent (I guess!) illustrates how different she is from the people in Kansas. And the labor she experiences in the movie is also reflective to Jacob and Sarah, and it becomes the truning point of their relationship. For young learners I teach at school, they are willingly to watch movie. But if we want to teach the language and culture in the movie to the kids, there should be more preparations before playing the movie to the kids. 1. It would be better if the teacher can give a brief introduction of the story plot and the background information of the two states.
2. The teacher could give students the worksheet listing out some questions for them to discuss. The questions like ¡§What would you think if you have a future mom like Sarah coming to your home? Are you happy or sad? Why?¡¨ ¡§What would you think if you have to move from your hometown to the other city?¡¨Give them some questions to think about before the movie will help them be more attentive to the inner meanings of the movie.
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Post by Huiching kuo on Dec 12, 2006 1:55:12 GMT -5
After reading this novelette, I am questioning why Anna, a kid, accepts this stranger, Sarah, as her stepmother in the further so easily. However, this character, Anna, is against Sarah strongly at first in the movie. Anna's response in the movie is meeting the reality. Furthermore, the actor, and actress in the movie actually disappoint me. I imagine that Sarah is beautiful, tall and plain and Papa is honest, simple and handsome guy. In essence, students can recognize the vocabulary such as prairie, offshore and barn through the movie. This movie help for students to read this novelette, because they can prove their imagination to this novelette and enjoy it. The director adds a lot of plot, such as friends and relatives gathering in the church to make the novelette more smothly. However, the description of kids' mother in the first chapter of this book is not shown in the movie. The part, Anna recalling her mother' death is very important and explain why Anna is against Sarah. And it would be better for students to see the English subtitles showed in the below of this movie.
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Post by jasmine on Dec 12, 2006 7:58:43 GMT -5
Though reading a novelette helps readers think and imagine more, to me, I like the movie better than the novelette. Besides the relation development of the Wittings and Sarah, the movie focuses on more aspects, such as their relationship with Maggie's family, Jacob's saddness toward his wife's death, and etc. I think this makes the plot sound. Especially I think that Anna's cold attitude toward Sarah seems more real in the world. From the movie, I can see Sarah's effort to fit into this family a lot. All these make this movie touching. Being a multimedia material to teach, the movie can help not only stduents but alo teachers who have never been to Kansas and Maine to know the exact environment there. If students read the novlette and then watch the movie, I think they can make their imaginaiton concrete and realize easily what their lifestyles are.
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Post by Maggie Cheng on Dec 12, 2006 8:13:40 GMT -5
The main ideas and points are not changed in the movie. The episode that added by the movie that I think is good is the scene that Maggie delivered a baby. It strengthened the feeling and how regretful Jacob felt toward his wife and it showed how difficult it is for Jacob to accept Sarah.
In the novelette, I feel that at first Anna didn¡¦t want Sarah to come. While in the novelette, it expressed this feeling implicitly and in the movie, it showed that kind of feeling strongly. Teachers can play the movie after students read the novelette to improve students¡¦ comprehension of the novelette. Or have students discuss the differences between the movie and the novelette.
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