No, But I Have Seen the Movie

"No, but I have seen the movie" is a phrase all too familiar to high school English teachers when almost any modern literary work is discussed in class! This workbook is designed to motivate and guide senior students in the process of studying novels and plays through reference to familiar themes and ideas at work in popular culture, TV and cinema.

The workbook is divided into four parts, each part representing one of the major themes encountered in high school novel study.

Part One, Society Is To Blame Explores the theme of man vs. society, with a series of exercises to help students identify and understand the concepts found in Brave New World and The Crucible by contrasting them with recent examples from popular culture such as The Matrix and Big Brother.

Part Two, Personal Growth deals with character based books involving journeys of self-discovery, with a series of exercises making reference to aspects of the self help phenomenon of recent years, including television shows like Oprah and Dr. Phil.

Part Three, The Classification System examines the themes of race and class, from To Kill a Mocking Bird through to contemporary rap music and its protest paradigms.

Part Four, The Old School is a series of exercises to help students to decipher and demystify writing from the Victorian era and early twentieth century.  The archetypal Scrooge, Frankenstein etc, are compared to their modern counterparts.

An essential guide for all high school English students.