1. Year 10 Essay Discuss development of a character throughout a text you have studied. “Million Dollar Arm” = Text JB = Character

2. Rationale – Having just marked a class of film essays in the recent Junior Exams, I noted that one of the struggles students had in the essay was relating film conventions used to the intention of the director. Eg: the soundtrack changed to slow and calm in this scene to show that / reflect / enhance…etc. As I am about to embark on a film study, I was thinking about how to incorporate the 4-resources model into my own teaching to help them link the conventions of film to developments in the narrative and director intent. The following then is the resource that I am going to use with my class to look at the development of the character of JB in “Million Dollar Arm”.

3. My idea is that for each of the four images following, I will ask students to focus on the visual, spatial and gestural semiotic system as regards to JB. Later, we will look at the same scenes but actually with the aural element as well. I will ask students to make a note of his; stance, clothing, posture, facial expression, position in relation to other characters and props associated with him. This task could be done with any feature of a film that is traditionally mentioned in an “english-film” essay (as opposed to a media studies one!). Eg: describe an important setting, describe an important moment, development of a character.

9. I’ve done two lessons using the 4-resources model so far and, in both cases, the students have picked up on aural, visual, gestural, and spacial elements quickly. Once they have identified these elements in relation to JB, I will get the students into groups with one semiotic system for each group and they can summarise their findings.

10. After that, I will ask the following questions of each group;  What does the composer of this text want us to know about JB?  How was the semiotic system assigned to your group used to support your answer above? Notes will be taken and shared and students will have a comprehensive bank of examples of semiotic systems (as they relate to film) and how these combine to show the change that takes place within JB over the course of the film.

11. Finally, (and this is turning more into a lesson plan that an actual resource…sorry) we need to ask;  Now that we have an understanding of the change JB has gone through, we need to ask why he went through that change;  What view of the world does JB present?  What is real in the film about the character of JB?  What kind of person and with what interests and values, composed the text (and, in Hollywood’s case, funded the text!).  What would be different about JB if the story were told from the perspective of the Indian boys?