Anna Karenina: A New Take On A Classic

I've just seen director Joe Wright's version of "Anna Karenina" written for the screen by Tom Stoppard.  In my opinion it will receive nominations (and probably wins)  for Golden Globes & Academy Awards for both Art Direction and Costume Design.

Both director and screenwriter were interviewed recently on PBS' Charlie Rose program.

In the lobby of my theatre was this huge tri-fold brochure, detailing the story, a chart of the characters and their relationships to one another, and features on both costume design and production design.

Entertainment Weekly recently previewed the lavish production as did The Hollywood Reporter.

Random House has just released Stoppard's screenplay in book form and the script is also available on the web.

There is also a Book-to-Film Reading Group Guide available to download.

News Photo/Writing Activity

I am pleased to share this activity I conducted at the Conference on English Leadership. It starts with a news photo and involves having different groups assume differing roles in journalism. Since the conference theme was writing, this activity asks participants to write, perhaps in ways they've not done previously.

Film Analysis (Session at NCTE 2012)

On Friday November 16, I had the great privilege of joining fellow media educators Faith Rogow and Cyndy Scheibe on a panel entitled Visual Literacy: Reading For Meaning in a Multimedia World. My part of the panel was an introduction to film analysis. Since many of you teach film, and many more were not able to attend, I have uploaded my presentation to share.

Teaching Media Literacy With Toy Commercials

As Holiday 2012 approaches, parents and educators have another one of those “teachable moments.” Using toy commercials in the classroom is a great way to jump-start media literacy education.