The topic for the day was writing a summary, so for the seventh graders' warm up, they were to write a summary of their favorite movie.
You'd think this would be easy, but several didn't have a favorite movie or didn't like movies, or some such. But once I took away the onus of it having to be their very favorite, most found something to write about.
I asked for volunteers to read out their summaries without telling us what movie. And for the most part we knew what the movie was just from the summary. There was Toy Story, X-Men, Spongebob Squarepants, The Lion King, and several other movies that weren't at all surprising.
I may have mentioned a time or two that sixth periods tend to be different. They can be wild. But I've got a good group, and I'm not allowing wild, so this group is just kind of strange. There are a couple girls who act way more mature (and seem to have a good head on their shoulders) than I generally get in a seventh grade class.
I gave the same warm up to sixth period. London hemmed and hawed.
"I'm not sure which movie to pick. I have two favorites. Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill."
Seventh graders are twelve years old. Generally. (Some may turn twelve in the next couple months, most will turn thirteen sometime during the school year.)
It's not my place to tell a parent how to parent their child. And this child acts way more mature than most of her peers. (Seriously. She seems pretty aware of social issues and current events.) But those movies...
I told her that either would work for the warm up as I wasn't going to hold her to that being her very favorite forever and ever. So, she wrote her summary on Kill Bill.
On the bright side, no one else in the class was able to guess what film she was describing.
Oh my...
ReplyDeleteMy reaction exactly.
DeleteYour last sentence made me burst out laughing. I wonder if those that are mature are first kids in their family. I think those tend to be a bit mature cause things are expected of them more readily than say the 2nd or 3rd child. I was pretty lenient with what the kids watched after a certain age, but never would have picked these 2 movies for them at that age. Kids are exposed to a lot on video games too. Was on another blog this morning where she was mentioning the theme for her young grandson (under 10) birthday party with it being Fortnite and said he's a gamer. Not judging because like you I don't want to parent anyone else's children, but my kids at that age were playing Mario Cart and similar games.
ReplyDeleteThis seemed like a fun assignment.
betty
That is quite the young age to see those movies. o.o
ReplyDeleteThat's what I thought.
DeleteWow. And I felt bad for showing my nieces "Pitch Black" due to all the F-bombs I didn't realize were there before the sci-fi movie was running. Her parents said they heard that and worse at school, which gave me mixed feelings. Be well!
ReplyDeleteThey've definitely heard it. Depends on the parents as to whether it's a bad thing or not.
DeleteWhat? It's weird to see those types of movies at that age? I was seeing them younger, although not those in particular.
ReplyDeleteShe has probably read The Bell Jar, or something similar, already. I didn't like reading that in high school.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I have fav movie.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on
Wow. Those are too much for me. I get pretty squeamish at anything Quentin Tarantino does.
ReplyDeleteMe too.
DeleteWell, maybe they are better cause they are not yet, not yet a teen!! haha....Kill Bill, not one I ever heard of so I have not seen it. I am glad however that you have a decent group out of the 6th graders...bout time.
ReplyDeleteFor 7th graders they're pretty good. Who knows what they'll be like come spring, though?
DeleteThat's funny. From your first list of movies, I thought they seemed kind of immature for 7th graders. I think by 7th grade Ghostbusters was one of my favorites. But yeah, Kill Bill doesn't seem so very 12yo-ish. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteI think at 12 my favorite movie was First Monday in October. But I was weird.
DeleteThis reminds me of the writing exercise I often give to journalism students ... "Write about a movie you saw or a book you read or a place your visited ..." Just to get them to write something without having to do any research.
ReplyDeleteSince my students are in the college, I haven't had any surprises like the one you had.
Telling children to guess the movie must have been an interesting exercise.
Regarding the movie the girl wrote about, it's a pointer to what children are exposed to nowadays. And it's also interesting that none of the students were able to guess the film.
I'm kinda glad they were unfamiliar with it. I get how the girl would have liked it, but I'd worry if all students that age were exposed to it.
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