Can Disney accurately represent culture and tradition?

This is a Connect module - which means we'll be focusing on developing targeted skills. Our skill focus points this week are developing informative and persuasive writing, which we will do by analyzing the film Coco.

Module summary:

• be exposed: Learn about Day of the Dead traditions and visuals
• practice: watch and take notes on Coco
• create: write an informative and a persuasive paragraph about Coco
• reflect: conference and revise paragraphs as needed

---

essential questions

1. ​How does the revision process strengthen our writing?
2. How can we synthesize our ideas to add depth to an argument?
3. What does effective summarization look like?

goals

1. Students will understand that revision strengthens writing by being critical, looking for holes in the story, and ensuring ideas are expressed clearly.
2. Students will understand that effective synthesis requires understanding material from different sources and making connections between them to back up one central idea.
3. Students will understand that effective summarization includes a topic sentence to provide context or introduce the idea, specific examples to illustrate that central idea, and a concluding sentence that provides resolution about that central idea.​

activities

INTRODUCE

• Complete warm up: read "A Brief History of Mexico's Day of the Dead" (scroll to bottom of page for printable version)
  • Summarize with an informative paragraph
• Review syllabus and module expectations

EXPOSE

• Discuss Day of the Dead history from facts learned in article
• Research traditions and visuals in groups
  • Put together a Google Slides presentation of five images (with a title on each slide) four your topic
  • Share Google Slides and what you've learned with the class
• Take notes on presentations

PRACTICE

• Watch Disney/Pixar's Coco
• Take notes on how traditions (think actions/events - write with verbs) and visuals (think images/things - write with nouns) are similar to or different from what you've learned
  • Use graphic organizer to capture notes

CREATE

• Write an informative paragraph summarizing Coco

• Write a persuasive paragraph answering this question: Does Coco accurately represent the culture and tradition of the Day of the Dead?"
  • Compare and contrast examples from research with examples from the movie
• Submit draft

REFLECT

• Conference with Christine about paragraph drafts
• Finish revisions of paragraphs as needed
  • Review with Christine

c-tachs

Writing

• Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through effective selection, organization, and analysis of content
• Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence
• Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach
• Gather relevant information for multiple print and digital sources; assessing the credibility and accuracy of each source; quote and paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism; use a standard form for citation

Language

• Demonstrate command of standard capitalization and punctuation
• Spell correctly

​Speaking and Listening

• Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions​
• Present information, findings and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective

resources

Module syllabus
​"A Brief History of Mexico's Day of the Dead" article printable
Coco movie notes graphic organizer
Informative paragraph scoring guide
Persuasive paragraph scoring guide