Lesson Plan 2: Beowulf Project Movie Posters

UTL 640E
Jeff Montgomery / Westlake High School
12th grade

Kendall Shultz
English IV /

Date:

10/8/15
Teach(es) #
3-4
Class Period / Time: 4th (11:31 - 12:21) and 8th (3:15-4:05)

Lesson Objective(s):
In their project groups of three to four, students will begin to craft a movie poster for their
Beowulf projects, based on the ideas they came up with in their movie treatments, ultimately
creating a movie poster that incorporates all of the components of a quality movie poster in order
to enhance their visual literacy skills.

Resources/Materials:
A.TODObeforethedayofthelesson:

Put together Components of Movie Posters word document

o Includes components of movie posters (visual, title, tagline, credits) and example
movie posters (good and bad)
Email Components document to myself

B.Forthelessonitself:

The following web pages pulled up and ready to go:

o 10 movie poster clichs web article (link)
o Examples of movie taglines (link)
Login to email, then download and open Components of Movie Posters document

TEKS/SEs Addressed in the Lesson:

(12) Reading/Media Literacy. Students use comprehension skills to analyze how words, images,
graphics, and sounds work together in various forms to impact meaning. Students will continue to
apply earlier standards with greater depth in increasingly more complex texts. Students are
expected to:
(B) evaluate the interactions of different techniques (e.g., layout, pictures, typeface in print
media, images, text, sound in electronic journalism) used in multi-layered media;
(26) Listening and Speaking/Teamwork. Students work productively with others in teams.
Students will continue to apply earlier standards with greater complexity. Students are expected to
participate productively in teams, offering ideas or judgments that are purposeful in moving the
team towards goals, asking relevant and insightful questions, tolerating a range of positions and
ambiguity in decision-making, and evaluating the work of the group based on agreed-upon
criteria.

Steps in Lesson:
ENGAGEMENT (3 5 Minutes)
Provide examples of 3-4 poorly done posters from actual movies. We will discuss what makes
them so awful, with the students giving their critiques of the posters before I provide input on
them to show them that they have at least some natural sense of what makes for a good or bad
movie poster. (Examples include: Top Dog, X-Men: First Class, Blended, Step Up: All In)

STATED OBJECTIVE (1 Minute)

Now that you all have ideas nailed down for your films and they are (theoretically) in production,
like any good movie, your films need posters to promote them. So today we are going to discuss
the world of movie posters to give you guys the tools you need to make successful movie posters.

ACTIVE LEARNING (40 Minutes)

Introduce & Explain (25-30 Minutes)
I will use some examples of good movie posters to introduce them to more of what they should
be aiming for.
*The primary example I plan to use is the movie poster for new Deadpool film, with a poster for
Inception as a secondary poster.
o Before I begin explaining movie poster components to the students, I will have them take out
their iPads to take notes.
o I will suggest they take notes on what (not) to do with movie posters, as well as have them
note ideas they come up with for their own movie posters as we go along (if any).
o While using the Inception poster as an example to refer to, I will explain the components of
movie posters to the studentssee Components of Movie Posters doc for brief details of
each component.
o There will be a list of components shown on the screen, and they will have a hard copy as
well for future reference.
Discuss the components of visuals (8-10 Minutes)
Discuss titles (3 minutes)
Discuss taglines (5-7 minutes)
During the discussion of taglines, we will look at the movie taglines website link
for examples of good movie taglines that engage the viewer.
Discuss credits (2-3 minutes)
o Explain that while their movie poster should be original and creative, there are existing tropes
and clichs that professional movie posters often depend on to communicate genre and tone.
To illustrate this, we will look at the 10 movie poster clichs article and briefly discuss
the uses of some of them.

Apply (10 15 Minutes)

o

After explaining the poster in full, I will then have students get into their groups to work on
creating a tagline for their posters.

Students will write down their taglines on a sheet of paper and turn it in by the end of
class. They can write down more than one tagline if they are unsure of what they want to
use, but they will need to choose one in the end when they create their posters.
Once they have agreed on a single tagline, they can begin brainstorming ideas that they might
want to use for their poster visuals.

Evaluate (Concurrent with the apply phase)

I will circulate the room while they work and talk to groups to ensure that students are on task
and understand the guidelines for making successful movie posters.
CLOSURE (5 Minutes)
After acquiring student attention, we will briefly chat about the components of movie posters to
ensure that they understand them before leaving the class.

Modifications/Differentiation Strategies:
To the best of my knowledge and belief, I just need to be following the IEPs for this lesson.
--This entire lesson is an opportunity for visual learners to shine.
--Groups provide opportunity for cooperative learning, though I did not make the groups.
--Movie poster examples are from all different kinds of movies, so ideally each student will find
one movie poster that interests them to some extent.

Evaluation Strategies:
Most of the evaluation will happen when they actually turn in their posters, but the taglines that
they turn in during class will let me gauge their understanding of that portion at least.

Notes/Recommendations for next time:

Probablywonteverteachthislessonagain,butifIdo,moretimecouldbespent
onmakingsurekidsknowaboutthetextualcomponentsoftheposter(taglineand
credits)