Lesson Plan - I Helped Create the Spider-Verse

Read the Article

Get the Answer Key

Learning Objective

Students will learn how a teen from Canada got to work on one of the year’s top movies.

Content-Area Connections

Social Studies, Careers

Standards Correlations

CCSS: R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.5, R.8, R.10

NCSS: Culture

Text Structure

Chronology

1. Preparing to Read

Watch a Slideshow
Watch and discuss the slideshow “Superhero History.”

Preview Words to Know
Project the online vocabulary slideshow and introduce the Words to Know.

  • sequel
  • producers


Set a Purpose for Reading
As students read, have them think about what job they would want if they had a chance to work on a movie.

2. Close-Reading Questions

1. How did Preston Mutanga’s Lego trailer first get attention?
Preston’s trailer first caught people’s attention when he posted the video online. In the article, Preston explains that “all of a sudden, [the video] just started blowing up.”
R.5 Cause/Effect

2. Based on the article, what are storyboards? 
The article explains that storyboards are sketches of what a movie scene will look like.
R.4 Determine Meaning

3. What is the purpose of the sidebar, “Get to Know Spider-Man”?
The purpose of the sidebar is to explain the Spider-Man superhero's origins in a comic book in 1962.
R.7 Text Features

3. Skill Building

Featured Skill: Main Idea and Key Details
Use the skill builder “Complete the Web” to identify the article’s main idea and key supporting details. 
R.2 Main Idea and Key Details

Differentiate & Extend

Multilingual Learners
Support multilingual learners by discussing several figurative expressions in the text. “Landed his dream job” means Preston got the job he had dreamed about. The phrase “[the video] started blowing up” means the video got many views. And “the big screen” refers to a movie screen. It’s a comparison with TV screens, which are smaller.


Discussion
Preston says that being an animator is his dream job. What is your dream job? Why?


Small-Group Project
Point out that movie trailers are short clips about movies that will soon be coming to theaters. Today, theaters show them before a feature film begins. But long ago, they played after (or “trailed behind”) a featured movie. Have students describe the scene(s) and information they would include in a trailer for their favorite film and explain why.

Text-to-Speech