With only two weeks until the premiere of "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" movie, I uploaded my Catching Fire Novel vs. the Movie Activities pack for teachers. It is filled with numerous resources and options to use to have your students compare the novel with the movie.
Some of the activities do not even require movie viewing. For teachers who want to support students going to the movie on their own, you could offer the choices as extra credit or enrichment activities. It's a good way to inspire academic reading/writing without giving up class time for instruction.
CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS
The following activity is one of many from my Catching Fire Movie Activity pack.
Writing: Have your students choose their top five quotes from the novel that they think should be in the movie. They should give evidence for the importance of the quotes, justifying their choices with supporting details from the novel. They should relate the quote's importance to at least one literary element, such as the theme, plot, characterization, imagery, etc.
As a follow-up (but not necessary), have students reflect after they see the movie whether their favorite quotes made the cut. If they did, were they happy with their use? If not, were they disappointed? Did the scene translate the same without its use? Or was the scene cut altogether?
SAMPLE ANSWER (mine is probably much longer than a standard response):
One of the quotes I believe is essential to the movie is spoken by Finnick Odair on page 389:
"I wish she was dead...
I wish they were all dead and we were, too.
It would be best."
He is referring to Annie–the love of his life–who has been taken by the Capitol to use against Finnick.
To me, this quote is essential because it expresses not only Finnick's desperation and torment after being rescued from the arena, but it mirrors Katniss's. I don't want to see anyone in the theater cheer when Katniss, Beetee, and Finnick are rescued because that would deflate the theme. No one escapes war. Those that escape still live in torment, fear, pain. They are damaged goods. We cannot pretend that allowing our children to fight our wars is honorable and dignified; it causes them to wish to die rather than live a life in pain.
Finnick's dialogue says it all with just a few words: death would be easiest. It would be best.
And I would be happy if they used his quote as the last one in the movie rather than Gale's, "There is no District 12." To me, Finnick's would give the desired effect to solidify the theme and I don't think there would be a dry eye in the theater.
For additional ideas and prompts, click below to check out the entire movie activity pack.
Don't forget to keep checking in with my friends at Teach.com for Catching Fire Month! There will be a lot of great ideas to utilize in your classroom.
