Jack Black and Summarization?

By heather on August 6, 2008

Hey Tweenteacher readers!  I’m getting back into the swing of things after an almost three week break following my intensive month of writing with the UCI Writers Project and an isolated cabin stay with the in-laws in Greer, Arizona.  My return to civilization was marked by a lot of sleep (sometimes one needs a vacation after a vacation) and some movie rentals.

So for a while there in the 90s I was a huge Tenacious D fan and as such, I find it my duty to see any Jack Black movie.  Which brought me recently to the Jack Black/Mos Def vehicle, “Be Kind, Rewind.”  Please don’t think less of me, I’m not necessarily recommending the movie in it entirety because it’s a great premise that can’t seem to hang its plot on properly.  

Premise: During the dawn of the DVD era, two losers working in a on-the-way-out video rental store accidentally erase all of the tapes and must recreate the video library as a means to save the store.  

As  brilliant cross-promotional tool, the studio also released some of these short films on youtube.  My advice?  Skip through the movie and fast forward to montages of their C-level recreations of A-level movies.  Driving Miss Daisy will never be the same.  Here’s the trailer for their “Ghostbusters” version as enacted by JB and MD.

As cruddy as a movie as it was overall, it did, however, get me thinking about how to teach summarizing in a fun way (a near impossibility.)

Perhaps the students could be recreating books in 5 minutes or less with only the materials available in the classroom or home?  Let the summarizing chaos ensue!