The film’s participants are remarkably vulnerable and open. Their model is likely to inspire a willingness for students to be equally open as they connect what they see to their own experiences.

To encourage dialogue, you might consider opening the conversation by advising students to pause, take a deep breath, and then ask: How do you feel? What was it like to watch the lives, struggles, and accomplishments of the young people on screen?

If students have a hard time identifying their emotions, you may want to try this: Provide at least 1 minute for the students to select from a variety of pre-made emoji wands and to respond to the question by holding up their selected emoji wand they have for everyone to see. Have the students to look around the room. Solicit a few responses from the students to share what they have observed.

Once the group is ready to move on to other issues, you might consider using prompts in the film’s discussion guide, and/or using the activities described in the other sections of this resource.

Sources

About the author:

Zakiyyah Ali

Zakiyyah Ali is a proud Virginia State University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political

Science and a Master of Arts Degree in Educational Administration and Supervision. She holds a

permanent license in Social Studies as she is a former New York City Department of Education teacher,

and she is also a former Researcher on disproportionality with New York University and an adjunct

instructor in Steinhardt’s Early Childhood Education Department. She is currently the Founder and CEO

of Zakiyyah Ali Educational Consulting, LLC.

Faith Rogow

Faith Rogow, Ph.D., is the co-author of The Teacher's Guide to Media Literacy: Critical Thinking in a Multimedia World (Corwin, 2012) and past president of the National Association for Media Literacy Education. She has written discussion guides and lesson plans for more than 250 independent films.