Section 1 should have completed pictionaries, choosing, and synonyms for unit 7.
All sections could take time to prepare for the writing we will do over the next two days.
Standards:
CC.8.R.L.2
Key Ideas and Details: Determine a theme or central idea of a textand
analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship
to the characters, setting, and plot;
provide an objective summary of the text.
CC.8.R.L.3
Key Ideas and Details: Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or
incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal
aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
CC.8.W.2.a Text Types and Purposes: Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organize ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
CC.8.W.2.b Text Types and Purposes: Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples.
Tomorrow and Friday, students will be using the computers to write two things.
1. Students will have prepared the 16 questions below. On Friday, they will enter answers for two of the questions into a Google Form. The response must rephrase the question in the answer. There should also be enough supports to demonstrate understanding of the movie and the characters.(See blue below)
2. Students will have written 500 words explaining how the writer's choices conveyed the theme.(See red below)
Searching for Bobby Fischer: discussion questions
1. What was life like when you were seven? What things were important to you? Explain. What is important to Josh? Is he a typical 7-year old? Why or why not? Explain.
2. Why doesn’t Josh want to play chess with his dad? What does this tell us about his character? What might the film-makers be trying to accomplish in that scene? Was it effective?
3. How has the dialogue contributed to the development of the movie so far? What was done to make the dialogue seem natural? Give examples and explain.
4. Who was Bruce Pandolfini? Why does he insist he doesn’t teach any more when talking to Josh’s dad? What was the significance of the conversation on the phone beforehand? How did those two brief conversations develop Pandolfini’s character? Explain.
5. Who is the man in the park that plays chess with Josh? What does he teach Josh? Explain.
6. What’s the moral dilemma the parents struggle with to determine if they should let Josh learn chess from Bruce Pandolfini? Explain.
7. What’s wrong with Josh playing chess in the park? Explain.
8. Explain the tension between Josh’s mom and Pandolfini.
9. Why do parents get so intense about the chess games when the kids don’t seem to mind? What are the things in your life the adults care more about than you do? Explain the significance.
10. How are Bruce and Vinnie opposites? How are they similar? Whose philosophy do you agree with more? Explain.
11. If you were Josh’s parents, what might you do differently? What are they doing right? Explain.
12. Evaluate the movie’s ending. Was it satisfactory? Explain. How might you have it end differently if you were the director?
13. What’s the difference between a prodigy and someone who works hard? Which one is more valuable? Which would you rather be? Using examples from the film, explain your answer.
14. How important is it to be a normal kid? In what ways does our society force kids to grow up too fast? In what ways should we expect people to be more grown up? Explain.
15. Does Josh have friends his own age, or are they competitors? What’s the difference? Explain.
16. Break down the dialogue in a specific scene. Briefly describe the scene and the dialogue. What was the film trying to accomplish with the dialogue? How effective was it? Explain.
Bruce: You have no idea what I want. What is chess, do you think? Those who play for fun or not at all dismiss it as a game. The ones who devote their lives to it for the most part insist that it’s a science. It’s neither. Bobby Fischer got underneath it like no one before and found at its center, art. I spent my life trying to play like him. Most of these guys have. But we’re like forgers. We’re competent fakes. His successor wasn’t here tonight. He wasn’t here. He is asleep in his room in your house. Your son creates like Fischer. He sees like him, inside. Fred: You can tell this by watching him play some drunks in the park? Bruce: Yes. You want to know what I want. I’ll tell you what I want. I want back what Bobby Fischer took with him when he disappeared.
Theme: Searching for Bobby Fischer
Here are some suggestions for discussing the theme of Searching for Bobby Fischer. Choose one or come up with your own. Do not just answer the questions and write them in order.
For each of these topics, you are expected to discuss the main characters in the movie, their motivations, internal and external conflicts, and their influence on Josh.
Remember, you are explaining how the writer’s choices (plot, characters, point of view, etc.) help convey the theme. Explain the theme. How what it developed? Prove this is the theme.
1. Who is in charge of how our children turn out?
- ·To what extent are parents responsible for the success or failure of their children?
- · How do parents’ own childhoods guide the decisions they make with their own children?
- · Do parents have the right to impose their hopes and dreams on their children, fix their pasts by giving their children what they never had?
- · Are parents even aware of the source of their decisions?
- · Have parents as sons done enough to please their fathers?
2. How is life is like a chess match?
- · How do people have different philosophies about chess, and are these are also ways to live life?
- · How do the ways the characters view opponents also transfer over to how they see people?
- · How did these views change in certain characters?
- · What is the reason for a character to not change throughout a story?
3. How important is winning?
- · What is a healthy level of competition?
- · What is the difference between a career in competition and an obsession?
- · They are searching for the next Bobby Fischer. Should we really want a next Bobby Fischer?
- · What is most important in life?
4. The person we are today is the result of many people trying to guide us.
- · Who are the people trying to guide Josh?
- · In what ways did each one give good guidance?
- · In what ways did each have flaws?
- · How is Josh the result of these influences?
- · Is Josh his own person able to make his own decisions?
Stick to the details in the story. As much as you would like to explain how you relate to the story and the theme, this written piece is not about you.
Just explain what the theme is and how you know by using details from the movie.
Characters: Josh, Dad, Mom, Bruce, Vinnie Bruce’s Teacher/Jonathan Other dad/Morgan
