What started out as a small assignment for my students ended up as being one of the coolest things that has happened to me in my ten years of teaching. I teach a fabulous, dystopian fiction novel, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I've been teaching it since 2008 and it was a relatively new teen fiction work. I'm sure others who have read it have had the same reaction I did to the novel, and it has become one of the most popular teen fiction novels on the market. It is well-written and it's a crime I get paid to teach something so enjoyable and interesting. My students LOVE the novel and ACTUALLY ENJOY reading it...something that can't be said of every book I've ever had to teach. This year, the novel is being made into a major Hollywood film. This guy that you see below, Gary Ross, is directing the film for Lionsgate studios.
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| The Hunger Games novel and the in-production movie's director, Gary Ross |
I decided to have my students mirror what a group of 8th graders in Fresno, California did in the early 80's with a book you might have heard of, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. This group of students loved this novel so much, they wrote Francis Ford Coppala and sent him a petition, begging him to make their beloved book into a movie. I figured I could do the same for our beloved book, but since it already had the green light to be made into a movie, I took the letter idea a step further. I had my students write Gary Ross and tell him what he needed to do to make this movie a success in their eyes. They wrote the letters before Christmas break, and Donnie and I paid the postage to mail them, even though I told my kiddos not to expect anything out of it.
Upon returning from Christmas break in January, I get a call from Karen Valby. She works for this magazine:
Karen called to let me know that during a recent interview with Gary Ross, he mentioned a packet of amazing letters he received from a group of 8th graders in Lubbock. She asked him questions about the letters and wanted me to be aware that we would be mentioned in the January 11th edition of the magazine. To say I was excited would be the grossest understatement of the century! My students and I still can't believe a big-time Hollywood director not only took the time to read their letters, but that he LOVED them. What followed this phone call was a whirlwind of attention for my school and students. We were featured on Fox News 34:
And in the Lubbock Avalanche Journal"
http://lubbockonline.com/education/2011-02-18/eighth-graders-impress-director-upcoming-hunger-games-movie
Now all we need is for Gary Ross to show up at FMS and make the ending of this tale true to the Hollywood script it has seemed to follow...the students ask me EVERYDAY if I've "heard from The Hunger Games guy"! Here's to hoping I do!
Here are a few pics from our Lubbock AJ interview...I love these kids!
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| The class they chose to interview was mainly boys...rowdy, smart, ornery boys! Mr. Gulick, the columnist from the Lubbock AJ had a pretty interesting morning that day! |
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| This is the pic they used for the cover of the Local section. My students pointed out that it made me look like I had rolls. Thank you, 8th graders...thank you. ;) |
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| One of the awesome projects my students did of The Cornucopia...a very important part of the novel! |
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