Maniac Magee Book vs. Video

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Home : 2008 : January : 6

Maniac Magee Book vs. Video
By Liam Neeson

My sixth grade students read the book MANIAC MAGEE before watching the Nickelodeon version. It is a great movie to show how a book can be so much more rewarding than television. Out of all of my students polled; from reluctant
readers to tome consumers the 100 percent consensus was the video was lacking, and they all enjoyed the novel by far. The lesson I have created for the reading and then viewing of the movie of MANIAC MAGEE is to tap into the four learning styles. For the random concrete or beachball the student can rewrite a new script combining elements from both versions and they may act it out.

For the random abstract or puppydog; draw a scene from the book and draw the same scene from the movie showing the differences. For the concrete sequential/clipboard create two timelines showcases the differences between the two. Finally for the microscope or the abstract sequential student argue which version is better the movie or the book. I have been impressed by my students evidence of higher order thinking.