Analyze how the movie Moana represents an issue related to our unit focus. Draw on ted talk How Movies Teach Manhood by Strokes to craft an initial lens that helps you make an insightful claim about the films representation of this issue. Then, extend or complicate your claim by bringing a lens from How Frozen Took Over the World by Konnikova essay into conversation with your initial lens. Your overall goal is to show us that there is more to see in the film, especially in relation to the issue you have chosen to consider, because of the lenses you have brought in to examine it.
Strategies:
think about scenes that seem rich with significance in relation to our unit. What interesting question or problem do they help the film to raise? Remember: an issue worth analyzing in this essay is most likely one that viewers might see or interpret in more than one way.
Use Tools for Visual Analysis and The Method on your scenes to make observations about specific, concrete details. Apply 10 on 1 to the evidence you consider in order to say more about less.
In your analysis, be sure to make the implicit explicit. Ask, What do these cinematic details convey? What can I tell my reader so that they can see what I see?
The lens you create from your second reading can do many things for your essay. How might it further develop, extend, or even complicate the claim you are making to your reader?
Criteria for Evaluation:
Does the essay craft lenses from two readings that help to develop an interpretation of the film, one that goes beyond merely matching?
Does the essay develop an insightful claim about how the film represents an issue related to our unit focus? Does the essay offer interpretive conclusions to the reader by asking and answering So What?
Does the essay support its main points through analysis of specific film elements and details? Does it say more about less by using 10 on 1?
Does the essay exhibit clarity and coherence? Do its ideas progress logically through the use of transitions, attributive tags, and appropriate word choice? Does it adhere to MLA format and citation standards and contain few, if any, grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors?
STEP 1) Revisit articles, determine topic/unit focus & gather quotes
STEP 2) Revisit & re-watch specific scenes to find a scene, detail, pattern, or character. Use Analytical Tools to make an observation(s) about these specific, concrete details
STEP 3) Formulate an inquiry question or articulate an issue (an issue worth analyzing in this essay is most likely one that viewers might see or interpret in more than one way)
STEP 4) If unsure of potential thesis (in essence, a potential answer to the inquiry question), skip to Step 5
STEP 5) Free write, or begin writing paper, bringing in the initial lens to make the implicit explicit. Anticipate and answer the So what? Say more about less (10-on-1). Use a secondary lens to further develop, extend, or complicate your claim.
STEP 6) Finish drafting. Check organization — transition between ideas (last and first sentences). Check that all ideas are accounted for in the thesis (first sentences). Check conclusion (return to thesis and zoom back out? answer so what?)
