Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Vertigo is a movie that explores the fear of heights. View the movie and critique how effectively the director portrayed the main character’s phobia.
Category: Passages
Examine Popular Culture
Choose a person, event, or thing that is part of popular culture. Write an essay outlining the reasons the event, person, or thing has become part of popular culture. As you develop your essay, use the following process:
- Write a brief outline stating your position on the topic. Jot down notes for three or four arguments that support your thesis.
- For each point in your outline, write one or two paragraphs providing supporting details and examples.
- End you essay with a concluding statement that reflects your opening paragraph.
- Assess your essay. Did you clearly state the thesis in the introductory paragraph? Do the supporting paragraphs contain evidence (facts and details) proving the thesis? Is your argument reasonable and persuasive? Is your conclusion clear? Revise your essay.
News Broadcasts Alarm
View one or two news programs over several days, making note of the types of stories that are covered and how they are reported. Prepare an argument to support or refute the assertion that mass broadcasters are “pessimistic” and “tend, especially in news shows, to view the world with alarm.”
Order of Canada
Write a proposal in which you nominate someone as a candidate for the Order of Canada. Justify your proposal with anecdotes, facts, or information from articles you’ve read about the individual.
Canadian Hero
Write about a Canadian hero you wish to honour and praise. This hero may be a friend, a family member, a local hero, or a national hero, alive or dead.
Post-Industrial Leisure: Photo Essay
Create a photo essay in response to the following:
“The 21st Century was supposed to bring us a life of post-industrial leisure, with all kinds of high-tech, time saving gadgets to make life a little easier.”
Serious Example: What the World Eats, Part 1
Radioactive Example: Nuclear Tests
Bob Dylan Example: Desolation Row
More Inspiration:
1890s”
“20years”
Kinetoscope
Hint: What idea related to your overall purpose does each photo develop?
Survival in Film: Fact or Fiction
Numerous movies have been made about surviving physical ordeals. Sometimes these are biographical accounts of a situation; often they are fictionalized versions of an original story and sometimes they are just pure fiction.
Make a list of movies dealing with physical survival. Are they fact or fiction, or a mixture of both? Decide on at least two you want to see and view them. Does it make any difference to you whether survival stories are based on real events? Why?
Surviving Childhood Memories
Write about a significant event in your childhood or about an experience that tested your survival skills. You will need to describe the situation fully, and include notes about how you felt, and how those around you acted or felt (you should use the first-person point of view and the past tense).
Survival in Film
View at least two movies that focus on World War II. List three specific events that deal with survival in a war setting. What survival strategies do these movie characters use? Are there any lessons to be learned from these movies.
Alternatively, view the movie Jaws. How does this movie deal with survival. What other movies have you enjoyed that also deal with the theme of survival?
Balancing Job And Family
Interview a family member who works outside the home and takes care of a family. Find out how this person copes with the workload. how does he or she balance a job, family responsibilities, domestic work, and personal time. What is the biggest stress element.
Present your interview using a format of your choice:
- a written transcript of the interview
- an oral recording of the interview
- a essay that includes quotations, facts, and conclusions.