Welcome to the Bowling For Columbine TEACHER’S GUIDE.
The lessons and activities in this GUIDE are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills, historical analysis, and open their minds on many universal issues. —Bowling for Columbine: Teachers’ Guide (Bowling for Columbine)
1) Moore is a very talented filmmaker.
2) I am personally in favor of all kinds of gun-control legislation.
3) Using a teacher’s guide authored by (or at least marketed by) Michael Moore in order to study the film made by Michael Moore in which Michael Moore advocates the social positions held by Michael Moore will teach the students not to think for themselves, but to think like Michael Moore.
4) To teach critical thinking, open students’ minds to the wider debate — walk them through some of Spinsanity‘s objections to Moore, or better yet, analyze some of Moore’s own comments. Show the videotape of the Hollywood crowd booing Moore during the Oscar presentation, and then show him afterwards claiming that the booing was actually some of his friends kidding him. Analyze with them the tautology of Moore’s recent defense, “Every fact in the film is true. Absolutely every fact in the film is true.”
5) Oh, wait — no need to ask your students to confront that material head on, because Michael Moore has already told everyone “How to Deal with the Lying Liars when they Lie about ‘Bowling for Columbine‘.”
6) Decide whether you want to use the controversy surrounding the movie “Bowling for Columbine” in order to teach critical thinking, or you want to teach the movie “Bowling for Columbine” to appreciate and/or deconstruct Moore’s mastery of the art of persuasive filmmaking, and to discuss the origin and purpose of the documentary film, and the artifice of the “Reality TV” genre.
Or remind them that as long as Coulter, O’Reilley, Moore, and a host of others on both the right and left keep making money off of a host of books that rely upon anecdotal evidence, ad hominem attacks and all sorts of other things that you try to prevent them from putting in their assignments, our students are going to need to be informed about rhetoric so that they can make their own critical judgements about what they watch or read.
Post was last modified on 9 Jan 2012 2:03 pm
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Thanks for this guide it really helps a lot!
Teachers of all people are the last people who I thought would buy into Michael Moore's "mastery of the art of persuasive filmmaking" (DGJ this page). It's just that, an art, a coorsing of a subject to take the form of his agenda. He followed absolutely NO essay format with this movie. If I turned his movie in as a college paper, I would have been sent back to 9th grade. He had no sources, or solid proof. No opposing view points. He's slapped his story together in the same manner that he dresses, sloppy and unorganized. I am by no means a Republican, but I fully support guns, and his movie just helped me dislike him more. Did anybody care to look up what the people he interviewed said after the film? Or the solidity of his claims? If you did you would find that the did a grand job of editing interviews and sensationalizing his film. I hope that if somebody breaks into your house to rape, murder, or maim your families in any way shape or form, that a Police car is only 2 blocks away, because with out a gun you are sitting ducks. Now I am fully aware that the likely hood of this event occuring is slim, but in the perverbial words of some 'idjit': "shit happens". If you wish to contact me regarding my poor spelling and grammar, don't waste your time, I didn't use spell check. If you care to retort in a MATURE manner then feel free. I would gladly discuss this and share in a calm fashion. If you would like a copy of the 10 page paper that I am writing on this very subject, please let me know and I will gladly provide one.
Thanks for stopping by, Grace. I will sometimes correct a bad URL or delete duplicate comments, and if commenters ask me, I'm willing to correct mistakes that affect the content (such as leaving out the word "not"), but I'm generally not in the habit of editing typos in comments left by visitors. So I've left g stomberg's comment the way it is.
as a teacher in Australia that has just stumbled across your website can I let you know that the word "thief" is spelt with the i before the e. Sorry to be a nitpicker!
every american should goto http://syberite.tripod.com and click on history and read the last song 'america's red, white and blue patriot act song'
using the logic of #24 bush is human therefore he is biased, inaccurate and imperfect so i really don't know what his point was. not only is bush human he's a west texas girl!.
I agree comment no. 2 where Will makes the comment on having to take sides. I see dont see why people feel the need to take sides and that they can't simply enjoy Moores movies as a movie rather than taking it as fact or fiction.
is #24 talking to me (#23)? i never insulted anyone, what's he talking about? another bushie making up facts as he goes, who said i think i moore is god? i never said it. inaccurate? oh yea, you edjamacated republicans are on this '911 never happened' kick where no terrorists struck, no one was killed, no firemen hurt, moore made it all up and is inaccurate about it all, he made it all up.
You insult those who see Bush as a 'god' yet you clearly think that Moore is one. He is human, therefore his documentaries are biased, inaccurate and imperfect.
i think m moore should tackle the jfk case.