English Language Arts Standards
Language Arts common core standard of Reading Literature CCS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.7Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).
Previewing-read the first chapter of Harry Potter (This can be done as a homework assignment and then direct the students to focus their attention in on the dialogue section listed below.)
-during class direct students to look at the dialogue between Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall and ask students to pay attention to all of the information that is revealed during the dialogue within the book
-ask students to pay attention to the setting and the sequence of events that we see in the film.
-ask students to think about in what ways the opening of the movie compares to the opening of the book.
-suggest that the students jot down notes about what they see
Show the clip starting at the very beginning through when the title sequence first starts.
-start clip at 0:00:00
-end clip at 0:04:00
Post viewing activities and discussion-
-How does the dialogue between Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall compare between the book and the film? For the differences, can you explain why the director made the movie in this way when the book was already there to map out the story?
-The book gives us a great deal of information about Harry, the Dursleys, and Voldemort during the conversation between Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall. The movie keeps their conversation vague only giving the audience a few tiny pieces of information about who these people are. Why do you think the producers of the film did this?
-In the book (approx. page 30) Dumbledore says “Good luck, Harry” when he is left on the doorstep. In the movie, Dumbledore says “Good luck, Harry Potter”. Why do you think this simple line was changed in the movie? Take into consideration what immediately follows that line in the film.
***If you plan to eventually view the entire movie with your students by piecing it together, then you could use this small assignment to help them see how a movie will sometimes hold important information back in order to grab our attention and maintain it.
-Have students make a list of the key information provided by the book that the movie does not tell us. An example of one key point is that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is dead. It is mentioned in the book, but in the movie we as an audience have no idea that there is even such a person. Have students hold onto this list until later. They can add to it as they read and view the movie. After they have viewed the film, ask them to look back at it and see if the film has given us that missing information through a different scene in the film. Why would the film hold back information? Could it simply be to save time on a long movie, or could there be more reasoning behind this decision by the director and producer?
The Dursleys Go to the Zoo
Previewing-read the first and second chapter of Harry Potter (This can be done as a homework assignment and then direct the students to focus their attention in on the description of each character in the Dursley house.)
-ask students to think about how the book describes the Dursley’s
Show the clip where Harry wakes up at the Dursley’s the morning of Dudley’s birthday
-start clip-0:04:05
-end clip-0:08:01
Post viewing activities and discussion-
-The book opens with an in depth look at Mr. Dursley’s life as we follow him throughout his day while he makes several strange observations. What do you think was the purpose of including this in the book? Why do you think it was not included in the film? How is some of this “missing” information given to us in some other way?
-Have the students break up into groups and create a venn diagram that compares the book’s description of The Dursley’s to the movie’s description of The Dursley’s. Have each group take a different member of the Dursley family. Once the students have completed this, let each group present their diagram to the rest of the class. See if the other students can add to this diagram.
-Group One-Mr. Vernon Dursley
-Group Two-Mrs. Petunia Dursley
-Group Three-Dudley Dursley
-Group Four-Harry Potter (He is still a part of the Dursley house, even though they wish he wasn’t.)
---Platform 9 ¾
Previewing-read the sixth chapter of Harry Potter (This can be done as a homework assignment and then direct the students to focus their attention on the interaction between Harry and the people at Kings Cross.)
-during class direct students to look at the section regarding the guard at Kings Cross and then the Weasley family (approx.. pages 131-135)
Show the clip Of Harry at Kings Cross
-start clip at 0:31:03
-end clip at 0:34:03
Post viewing activities and discussion-
-In the book Harry thinks about, but does not ask the guard about Platform 9 ¾. Why do you think that he does ask the guard in the film?
-In the book (approx.. page 133) the twins are about to enter the platform and have a dialogue with Mrs. Weasley joking about which twin is which. How does this dialogue relate with what happens in the movie? Why do you think this part of the film was done in that manner?
-The book gives us Harry’s perspective. We see how he sees the world and contemplates his actions, such as talking to the guard at Kings Cross. Is it difficult for the film to convey Harry’s thoughts since we can’t see directly into his mind? How does the film overcome this challenge?
***Teacher Note-Here I would look for an answer about how the movie converts the internal thoughts of Harry and expresses them through actual action within the film. Once this answer is expressed, the students can move onto the next question.
-In comparing this scene of the film to the same part in the book, we can see that it is presented in two similar but different manners. One has more focus on Harry’s thoughts and the other has more focus on his actions. Are these differences due to the differences in the format of how it is presented? What are the strengths of having a book format that differ from the strengths of a film format?
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| Harry and Ron - busy with classwork |
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