Movie and Discuss

You can plan events to inform the Brothers and Initiates of your Chapter about the different aspects of Teach For America by holding a movie and discuss night with education-related movies to highlight the impact and need for change.

To make the experience valuable for Brothers, prepare questions in advance to guide the discussion. Additionally, share things to look for within your video. If you create questions for any of the movies below, please add them so others may benefit from them as well.

Here are just a few movies to consider, some of which may be available at your local library:

• Waiting For Superman (Official Discussion Guide)
• The Lottery (Official Press Kit)
• Ballou (Official Web Site, Lesson Plan)
• Stand and Deliver
• Dangerous Minds
• Lean on Me
• Hoop Dreams
• Ron Clark Story
• Freedom Writers
• Finding Forester
• Precious
  • To view the film with a critical lens, have Brothers pay attention to the following themes throughout the film so that you can discuss them more in-depth after the film: (Note: These are just a few, please feel free to add your own.)
    • The impact of Precious's home environment on her academic success
    • Alternative schools
    • Teacher involvement
  • After viewing the film, discuss the themes with the following discussion questions or ones of your own that may come up:
    • If you were told your whole life that you were dumb or stupid, like Precious, would you start to believe it or would you prove everybody wrong?
      • Like her teacher, how would you create a support network or be a positive influence for Precious?
    • Attending an alternative school, like Reach One, Teach One, allowed Precious more personalized attention than her public school. In general, do you feel alternative schools are a good option? Why or why not?
    • What differences did you notice in Precious before and after she started attending Reach One, Teach One?
    • One of the greatest challenges that some Teach For America corps members say is becoming personally connected to their students and being unable to help them with their personal struggles. How involved do you feel teachers should be in their students lives?
      • How involved in too involved? Can teachers be too involved?
• Mr. Holland’s Opus

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