Movie Lesson Plans That Actually Work (Without Extra Grading)
Everyone loves movie day.
Students start asking about the movie the second we head to the library to check out books. We love movie lesson plans because they give us the much-needed opportunity to sit at our desks and crank out some grading.
And showing a movie in class is easy to justify: we have a content standard that explicitly asks us to “analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums” (this is the 9–10 version, but a variation appears at every grade level).
There’s nothing worse, however, than movie lesson plans gone awry. Your students are on their phones, switching seats, and catching up on the latest gossip. Instead of grading, you’re stressed that admin will walk in for a surprise visit, so you’re wandering around shushing students. Your easy day now benefits no one.
Movie days gone wrong are the reason many of us feel compelled to create some kind of movie lesson plans rather than just hitting play and being done with it. We want the viewing to feel legitimate, but we also don’t want to create more work for ourselves or suck all the fun out of the viewing experience for students with meaningless worksheets.
Today, we’re sharing a framework for creating movie lesson plans that actually meet standards, keep students engaged, and don’t create (too much) extra work for you. Plus, we’ve got a done-for-you example if you’re teaching The Hunger Games.
When Showing Movies Actually Makes Pedagogical Sense
It’s no secret that we’re big fans of teaching with movies and TV shows, and movie activities can be added meaningfully at many stages in a unit.
Before Reading
We use Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief to introduce the hero’s journey archetype (and review the basics of Greek mythology) before beginning Homer’s Odyssey. We show the first episode of the BBC miniseries to familiarize students with the setting, characters, and tone of Pride and Prejudice.
During Reading
Showing the movie in parts can be a great way to break up longer texts and clear up misunderstandings mid-read, a strategy we’ve used for both Julius Caesar and To Kill a Mockingbird. For some students, seeing the setting and characters visually helps them persevere through the end of the text.
After Reading
We’re all familiar with the idea of the movie as a reward for finishing the novel, but it can also serve the valuable purpose of clearing up misunderstandings and catching up students who didn’t read before the final assessment or project. Of course, we’d prefer that they read the book, but this is a reality we have to account for.
As the Primary Text
In some cases, a movie or TV show can be the core text of your unit, whether you’re using The LEGO Batman Movie to teach paragraph structure or trying to squeeze in The Importance of Being Earnest or Death of a Salesman before the semester ends. Plays, after all, are written to be watched, not just read.
In any of these options, the movie is serving a clear purpose beyond just giving us time to grade (even though we’re in favor of those days, too).
The Problem with Traditional Movie Worksheets
For many of us, however, finding room to include a movie or TV show isn’t the problem. It’s creating movie worksheets that actually work.
But this can be tricky.
From the student perspective, assigning work to complete during a movie really sucks the fun out of the experience. None of us wants to fill out a worksheet while trying to enjoy a movie, and many people (not just students) struggle to complete both tasks at the same time. Assigning work can ruin the experience we wanted our students to have.
From the teacher perspective, however, it’s difficult to create movie lesson plans that don’t feel like busy work and that still serve our time-saving purposes. When we decide to include a movie day in our busy schedule, we don’t want to create activities that require extensive teaching, and we certainly don’t want to add to our grading pile. But keep the activity too simple, and you’re asking meaningless questions just for the sake of having them, asking questions students can answer without watching, or giving students generic graphic organizers that they won’t (or can’t) complete thoughtfully.
The result, whether we skip the assignment or go with a traditional worksheet, is that students tune out, start using their phones, or copy someone else’s worksheet at the end of the movie. And you end up monitoring behavior instead of getting work done. The “fun” movie day becomes stressful.
A Better Framework for Movie Lesson Plans
If you’re wondering how to create movie lesson plans that engage students and hold them accountable for watching without too much work on your end, it is possible. The framework we’re sharing here can be used to create a simple activity that makes movie day meaningful and aligns with the standard we’ve all written on the board to justify our choice.
Step 1: Determine Your Purpose
Backwards planning is key to a strong unit, and movie lesson plans are no exception.
Before doing anything else, decide what you want students to get from the experience.
- Which standard are you working on—are you actually asking students to compare and contrast across mediums, or are you focused on a different skill like characterization or plot structure?
- What do you want students to notice—the differences? The setting? The effect of cinematic techniques like camera angle and soundtrack?
- Are you primarily concerned with supporting struggling readers, catching up those students who didn’t read, or extending learning for everyone?
Clearly answering those questions will help you create an activity that accomplishes your intended goal.
Step 2: Identify What’s Worth Noticing in Book-to-Movie Comparisons
If you’re looking to guide your students in comparing presentations of a text across mediums, these are the kinds of questions we like to keep in mind:
- Are there major plot or character changes? What was added, omitted, or changed significantly?
- What medium-specific choices have an impact? Film can do things that books can’t (and vice versa). Consider elements like visual setting and atmosphere, emotional cues from actors’ performances, point of view shifts, how internal thoughts are conveyed, and pacing choices that build suspense.
- Why might filmmakers have made these choices? What effect do these choices have on the experience of the story?
If you have a different goal in mind, of course, you’ll want to identify those scenes or moments that best serve your purposes.
Step 3: Choose a Format That Doesn’t Kill the Experience
Try to avoid a movie worksheet that requires long written responses while viewing. Instead, consider a format that allows students to quickly check off, circle, highlight, or mark a response as they watch.
Even better, consider a format that adds engagement—a BINGO board, a scavenger hunt, or tracking charts.
Step 4: Balance Rigor with Watchability
To create book-to-movie activities that work, you’ll want to incorporate questions with a range of difficulty. Including some obvious differences gets early buy-in from students, while asking about a few subtle details forces them to pay close attention.
It might be helpful to Google the differences between the book and movie: it will give you a starting point, but you’ll also know what your students will find when they Google, allowing you to add in a few extra questions they’ll actually have to think about.
Make sure also that you spread important items throughout: you don’t want students to finish halfway through or be able to complete the task in minutes if they’ve already seen the movie.
Step 5: Plan for Differentiation
In addition to considering how to make the activity meaningful for students who’ve seen the movie before or who might finish early, think about students who may struggle to toggle back and forth between the tasks and the activity. You might need a simpler version, one with a different structure, or additional directions or supports.
When we created the BINGO board activity that we’ll describe in the next section, we also created a version of the activity that was in chronological order, more like a traditional worksheet, for students who would immediately become overwhelmed by the scattered BINGO board format.
Case Study: The Hunger Games Movie BINGO Activity
When we created our The Hunger Games unit, we knew we wanted to incorporate the movie. It’s a great movie in its own right, but there are also significant differences between the book and film that offer rich opportunities for discussion.
One reason we structured our The Hunger Games movie activity as a BINGO board is that our unit was game-themed, so figuring out a way to gamify the activity was essential.
But the BINGO board format solved many of the problems with traditional movie lesson plans. The game format increased student engagement and added a competitive element: students want to be the first to get BINGO. It’s straightforward enough for students to complete without additional teaching, and it can be graded for completion rather than “correctness” (though we like to give prizes, in which case we insist on correctness—spending real dollars on students means they have to earn their prize!).
To create the activity, we followed the framework above. We knew we wanted to focus on the differences between the book and the movie, so we started by watching the film and making a list of every difference we could spot, major and minor.
Then, we settled on a grid-friendly number (25) and narrowed down our list, selecting a mix of obvious and subtle differences. Instead of labeling the center space “FREE,” we phrased it, “I like the movie/book better because ___________,” creating a simple opportunity for students to reflect on the differences.
Let’s look at a few examples of the differences we tracked and why they’re worth discussing.
- Katniss gets the mockingjay pin from a different character, significant because it highlights the choices filmmakers have to make (like removing a character) and places more emphasis on the relationship between Katniss and her sister.
- The film version includes conversations between President Snow and Seneca Crane, the Head Gamemaker. These conversations are absent from the book, but they establish President Snow and the Gamemakers as villains who intentionally manipulate the tributes for their purposes.
- The film version also includes scenes that show the Gamemakers controlling the game from their control room. These scenes are interesting, as they show the “other side” in a way that is only hinted at in the book, but more importantly, they highlight the tributes’ lack of control over their own fates.
As we worked, we realized some students would likely have seen the movie before (and others would quickly turn to their best friend Google), so we tossed in a few visual details like costume colors or specific props to require everyone to pay attention. We also made sure to include details from the movie’s final scene so that students wouldn’t get BINGO halfway through the movie (a problem also solved by requiring students to get a “blackout”).
We created seven different board variations to keep students from all finishing simultaneously, and then added a chronological worksheet version for students who struggled with the mixed-up format.
One thing we loved about the activity is that even though it was simple, it could be followed up with a discussion that pushed students to think more deeply about the differences we’d drawn their attention to. We could talk about why the filmmakers made specific changes and debate whether those changes improved or weakened the story. We could talk about the advantages each medium has and add to our unit-long discussion of dystopian themes about power, entertainment, and manipulation.
Because The Hunger Games movie is so popular, this is the kind of activity we’d keep on hand even in courses where we weren’t teaching the novel. It could make for great sub plans in a pinch, especially if you’re confident all students have read the novel before—or as an end-of-semester activity when you need something engaging but low-stakes. Students get to watch a movie they enjoy while still doing academic work, and you get two class periods covered with minimal planning.
While the BINGO activity is included in our larger unit, it can also be purchased separately. Teachers get:
- A ready-made activity requiring zero prep
- An attractive design that students will be excited to use
- Digital and print options, plus an answer key
- 7 different board variations
- A traditional chronological worksheet version for students who need it
- A teacher overview with suggestions for implementation
Beyond BINGO: Adapting This Framework for Other Texts
While a BINGO board format certainly could work for any text—it doesn’t have to be part of a game-themed unit—there are other simple ways to format an activity like this so it’s easy for students to complete as they watch.
Students might carry out a scavenger hunt to find “these 15 differences.” They might have to “spot the fake,” using a highlighter to identify which items in a list are true differences and which are made up.
Whatever format you choose, the key is to ensure students can complete the movie activity without lengthy written responses during viewing. The activity will guide students to notice the differences; they can analyze those differences after they’ve finished.
Making It Work in Your Classroom
Whether you’re new to the classroom or just looking for ways to improve your movie lesson plans, there are some practical steps you can take to ensure a successful movie day.
Logistics
- Plan for 2–3 class periods for standard 50-minute classes. Most movies fit comfortably within that timespan.
- Have a backup plan ready if you finish early on that last day, even if it’s just time to work on your weekly bellringers or do some independent reading. Post-movie, students tend to be a little rowdy without direction.
- Consider whether to show the full movie at once or break it up throughout the reading (like showing each Shakespeare act after students finish reading it).
- Grade the assignment for completion—you’ll have plenty of things to grade on quality later.
Classroom Management
- Have your standard clearly posted and review it with students when you introduce the activity. This way, if an administrator stops by mid-movie, it’s clear that students are learning, not taking a day off.
- Set clear expectations before starting—including for phone use.
- Walk around the room a few times to ensure students are paying attention, but then monitor without hovering. If students are engaged, you have plenty of your own work to do!
Conclusion: Save Time Without Sacrificing Learning
Showing a movie in class doesn’t have to make you feel guilty, and creating effective movie lesson plans doesn’t have to add tons of extra work to your already full plate. The right movie activity meets content standards while keeping students engaged, and the simple framework we’ve suggested here works for any book-to-movie adaptation.
Want the ready-made The Hunger Games version? Check out our Movie BINGO activity here. Teaching the full novel? Our complete The Hunger Games unit includes this activity along with a variety of game-themed lessons and projects.
