Ivy Wong
Teaching Materials on Monsters, Inc.
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Teaching Materials on Monsters, Inc.
Target level of students: Primary 4
Title of the film: Monster Inc
Year of production: 2001
Direction: Peter Docter
Language: English
Synopsis
Every night when children go to bed, monsters lie waiting behind their closet
doors and ready to scare them. Monster Inc. is the largest scream processing
factory in the monster world. There is a group of children scarers who are
responsible for scaring children to get energy for their monster world. One night
after work, Sulley accidentally let in a little human girl into the monster world.
The most cunning monster, Randall wanted to catch her for experience for getting
energy, Sulley and his assistant, Mike save the little girl and send her home.
Rationale of this film:
Reasons for choosing Monster Inc. for designing a set of teaching materials in this
assignment are as followed. Firstly, the story is interesting and real as there are
both good and bad characters in the film. Secondly, the appearances and abilities
of the monsters are quite creative and they draw children’s attention and stimulate
their imagination and creativity so that they can create their own imaginative
monster in task 2. Thirdly, most children are afraid of darkness, it creates a lot of
misery and frightening feeling to children. The film reveals what happen at night
and an adventure is started at night when children go to bed. This meets children’s
expectations and draws their attention. Finally, the problem in the film is obvious
and this stimulates children to reflect how they find solutions when they face a
problem so that they can discuss and suggest solutions to save Boo in task 3.
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Ivy Wong
Teaching Materials on Monsters, Inc.
Copyrights owned by the author
Basic teaching steps:
Task 1 (Pre-task speaking activity)
1. Show pictures of the characters in the film one by one before showing the
film to students.
2. Ask students how each character looks like.
3. Use guided questions to guide students to tell the characteristics of the
appearances of the monsters.
How many legs, eyes, heads, mouths and arms does it have?
What color is it?
Is it tall or short? Fat or thin?
-
What animal does it look like?
Any other special features?
4. Introduce the characters to students.
Task 2 (Post-task writing and speaking activity)
1. After showing the film, ask students to design their most frightening monster.
2. Ask students to draw and paint.
3. Ask students to describe the monster by answering the guided questions (as
shown in task 2) in short answers.
4. Ask students to show and describe their monsters to their neighbors.
5. Students use the peer assessment forms to evaluate their neighbors’ works.
6. Ask some students to present to their classmates.
Task 3 (Post-task group writing and speaking activity)
1. Discuss with students what a problem is.
2. Ask students what problem Sulley, Mike and Boo faced in Monster Inc.
3. Ask students to discuss in groups what they would do if they were Sulley and
Mike.
4. Ask students to draw and write their solutions and make a new ending to the
story.
5. Ask students to present their solutions and endings to the class.
Task 4 (Post-task individual writing activity)
1. After the group writing and speaking activity, ask students to write a short
letter to the character they like most in Monster Inc.
2. Ask students to use the guided questions for reference.
2
Ivy Wong
Teaching Materials on Monsters, Inc.
Copyrights owned by the author
Assessment:
Task 1
As it is a pre-task activity which aims at stimulating students’ thinking and
attention to the characters, assessment of task 1 will simply be listening to the
responses of students and correct them if necessary. Encouragements are given to
motivate students to think and get ready for the film. This task also aims at
introducing characters of the film and guiding students to describe the
appearances of someone.
Task 2
Peer Assessment Form
4 is highest and 1 is lowest. Circle the marks.
Description
Marks
Content
-Use of correct
words in describing
the monster
4 3 2 1
Language
-Correct use of
grammar to
describe the
monster
4 3 2 1
-Correct spelling
Creativity
-Creative drawing
4 3 2 1
Originality
-Design is original
4 3 2 1
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Comments
Ivy Wong
Teaching Materials on Monsters, Inc.
Copyrights owned by the author
Task 3
Peer Assessment Form
4 is highest and 1 is lowest. Circle the marks.
Description
Marks
Content
-Relevant and
logical ideas
4 3 2 1
Language
-Correct use of
4 3 2 1
Comments
grammar to
describe the
solution to the
problem
-Correct spelling
Drawing
-Clear and
understandable
drawing
4 3 2 1
Task 4
Primary Trait Scoring Rubric for the individual writing task (for teachers’ reference)
Traig
4
3
2
1
Content
-Rich and
-Sufficient and
-Some
-Limited ideas
4
Ivy Wong
Teaching Materials on Monsters, Inc.
Copyrights owned by the author
relevant ideas
are given
Language
Clarity
Text type
reasonable
relevant ideas
ideas are given are given
are given
-Use of past
-Use of past
tense is correct tense is
generally
correct
-Use of past
tense is
sometimes
correct
-Use of past
tense is
incorrect
-Accurate
spelling
-Spelling is
generally
correct
-Spelling is
sometimes
correct
-Spelling is
incorrect
-Accurate
punctuation
- Punctuation
is generally
correct
-Punctuation is -Punctuation is
sometimes
incorrect
correct
-Good
handwriting
-Good
handwriting
-Handwriting
is alright for
reading
-Poor
handwriting
-Paragraphs
are well
-Paragraphs
are organized
-Paragraphs
are quite
-Only one
paragraph is
organized with
topic sentence
and new ideas
in different
paragraphs
and divided
well
organized
given
-Format of a
-Format of a
-Some of the
letter is correct letter is correct format is
missed
5
-Nearly all of
the format is
missed
Ivy Wong
Teaching Materials on Monsters, Inc.
Copyrights owned by the author
Task 1 (Pre-task activity)
How do they look like?
Suggested answer:
Blue fur
Purple spots
Tall
Strong
A pair of horns
Sulley
Suggested answer:
One eye
Green
Small
Look like a frog
Mike
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Ivy Wong
Teaching Materials on Monsters, Inc.
Copyrights owned by the author
Suggested answers:
Eight legs/ four pairs of legs
Sharp teeth
Purple
Thin
Look like a lizard
Randall
Suggested answers:
A lot of eyes
Six legs/ three pairs of legs
Grey
A big mouth
Look like a crab
Waternoose
Suggested answers:
Young
Live snakes hair
Purple hair
One eye
Thin
Celia
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Ivy Wong
Teaching Materials on Monsters, Inc.
Copyrights owned by the author
Task 2
Draw and paint the most frightening monster in the box below.
Describe the monster, the following questions may help you
1. How many legs, eyes, heads, mouths and arms does it have?
2.
3.
4.
5.
What color is it?
Is it tall or short? Fat or thin?
What animal does it look like?
Any other special features?
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Ivy Wong
Teaching Materials on Monsters, Inc.
Copyrights owned by the author
Task 3
Discussion
Situation: Boo is in danger, Randall wants to catch Boo for experience. If you were
Sulley and Mike, what would you do to save Boo? Discuss with your group, write and
draw your solution. Make a new ending for the story.
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Ivy Wong
Teaching Materials on Monsters, Inc.
Copyrights owned by the author
Task 4
Write a letter to your favorite character. Explain why you like him/her.
The following questions may help you.
1. Who do you like most?
2. How does he/she look like?
3. How is his/her character?
4. What is special about him/her?
5. Why do you like him/her most?
6. What do you want to tell him/her?
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