Now that we have finished watching Dead Poets Society we need to learn how to write a text response. This is an essay that explores the three aspects of a film: character, theme and setting.
Before we do that, however, we need to be sure that we understand what the important themes are and how the director uses the characters and setting to communicate them.
Activity One: Concept mapping
You are going to create a poster that shows what the main themes are and which characters and parts of the setting illustrates each one.
- Get into groups of four.
- Write out the four most important themes on four separate post-it notes.
- Arrange these four themes on the A3 sheet provided. Place them near the centre and leave a gap between each one.
- Focusing on one theme at a time, try and think of characters’ (traits and experiences) and setting (time and location) that prove you have correctly identified the theme the director wanted the audience to understand.