A Common Core Way to Compare and Contrast: Hugo vs. The Invention of Hugo Cabret

On Monday our class began watching the movie "Hugo."  Hugo is the movie based on the Brian Selznick novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which as a class we spent reading during the entire month of January as a build-up to our upcoming Renewable Invention Unit.  Now we realize that watching a movie to compare and contrast versus a novel is not a new, up and coming idea; however, it is one strategy suggested in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to use when teaching students to compare novels to other mediums of related media.  

As said at the beginning, we have only began the movie.  To make the movie more of an educational experience, we are delivering it in 30 minute segments.  While watching the movie students are filling in a series of Venn-Diagrams (see to the right) with as much information that seems similar or different from the book.  We are finding that many students are able to find several similarities and tons of differences.  

This movie is standing the test of time, or the age-old teacher saying, "The movie is not the same as the book."  Our students are seeing that this could not be more true.  The movie and book are way different from each other.  The book goes into more detail about certain characters, while the movie neglects to have some of those "certain" characters.  The movie creates much more drama and even suggests hints of "love," while the book does none of this, other than Hugo Cabret's love of his father and automaton.  

Our next step, after watching the movie in two more 30 segment chunks, will be to take all of the information we gathered (which is an unbelievable amount) and begin making sense of it.  Our goal is to have students write precise and detailed papers, which convey more than just movie versus book.  We also want them to recognize some of the major differences, which are beginning to outnumber the similarities.  We also want our students to begin writing more creatively, than just one paragraph with similarities and one paragraph with differences.  

We are excited to see what happens next, as we begin our next significant writing piece.