Movies can be a source of inspiration for both students and teachers. Movies to inspire teachers might include Dead Poets Society, Lean on Me, Freedom Writers, Mr. Holland’s Opus, and Good Will Hunting. For students, inspirational movies might include Rudy, Remember the Titans, Up, The Blind Side, and The Help. Table 2.1 contains a short list of movies which might be appropriate for classroom use along with the ideals they exemplify. Visit MarzanoResources.com/reproducibles for a comprehensive list of inspirational movies.
Table 2.1: List of Movies and Ideals They Exemplify
| Movie | Example Ideal |
| Cool Runnings | Hard work and companionship can lead to success, even against the greatest of odds. |
| Remember the Titans | People can learn to overcome their differences to care for one another, even if at first it seems unlikely. |
| Seabiscuit | When people stop believing others’ negative expectations of them, they can go on to do great things. |
| Forrest Gump | Good things happen to people with a positive attitude. |
| Whale Rider | Even when others doubt your abilities, you can prove yourself through fearlessness and hard work. |
| Billy Elliot | People who follow their dreams are rewarded, even if their dreams run counter to the expectations of society. |
Before having students watch a film (or selections from one), teachers should provide a context and a purpose for viewing the video. To illustrate, consider a middle school teacher who wants to show excerpts of the movie Remember the Titans. The teacher might first address the context of the film by talking to students about segregation as well as the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. The purpose, as articulated by the teacher, should always focus on ideals that are represented in the clip and be age- and subject-matter appropriate. As such, the teacher might preface the viewing by defining what an ideal is, describing how ideals relate to inspiration, and asking students to think about this concept. As students watch, the teacher might pause the film occasionally to get students’ reactions about how characters treat each other and how these relationships change. After watching Remember the Titans, the teacher could lead a discussion about the film’s depiction of the hostility toward African Americans during the reintegration of schools in the South. The teacher could then ask students to articulate ideals they felt were shown in the movie. For example, a student might generate the following list of ideals.
▸ People can learn to overcome their differences to care for one another, even if at first it seems unlikely.
▸ People can go on to do great things, even after they experience tragedy.
▸ Hard work does pay off, even if it is difficult and not rewarding initially.
▸ Setting an example by doing what is right can have a huge positive impact on a community.
After each student has generated a few ideals, the teacher can ask students to respond to the following questions.
▸ Can you describe an instance in your own life when you experienced this ideal in action? How did this make you feel?
▸ Can you describe an instance in your own life when this ideal was lacking?
Educators can reinforce students’ ideals throughout the year by referencing previously identified ideals when appropriate.
Stories
Like movies, teachers can incorporate stories into their classrooms as a way to foster inspiration. While there are many inspirational stories online and in print, one particularly well-known source of inspirational stories is the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Each book in the series compiles short stories and anecdotes about life written by dozens of different authors. The series also contains multiple volumes written specifically for adolescents, such as Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul (Canfield, Hansen, & Kirberger, 1997) and Chicken Soup for the Child’s Soul (Canfield, Hansen, Hansen, & Dunlap, 2007).
As an illustration of how these stories might be used in a classroom, a teacher could have groups of students choose stories from Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul (Canfield et al., 1997) and explain why they are inspirational. For example, consider the story “The Most Mature Thing I’ve Ever Seen” (Doenim, 1997), which is about a student defending a new classmate from being teased. In the story, a girl named Lisa is new to a school and feels unwelcome because she is not a member of any of the cliques that assemble around the quad during lunch. As such, she experiences “cruel, hateful stares” (p. 268) from her classmates while trying to find a place to eat. As she walks across the quad, a place other students avoid, she trips, and the other students laugh. A boy helps Lisa up and escorts her out of the quad, which silences the laughter and highlights the cruelty of the other students. Students presenting on this story could give a brief summary of its plot and then read the following excerpt:
The next day at Monroe High School at lunchtime a curious thing happened. As soon as the bell that ended the last morning class started ringing, the students swarmed toward their lockers. Then those who didn’t eat in the cafeteria headed with their sack lunches across the quad. From all parts of the campus, different groups of students walked freely across the quad. No one could really explain why it was okay now. Everybody just knew. And if you ever visit Monroe High School, that’s how it is today. It happened some time ago. I never even knew his name. But what he did, nobody who was there will ever forget. Nobody. (p. 269)
After reading the excerpt, the group members could use the quotation to provide evidence for ideals they feel are exemplified by the story, such as those related to the importance of kindness or the impact of one’s actions. Alternatively, a teacher might assign all students the same story to read and ask them to use ideals to explain why the story is inspirational. Visit MarzanoResources.com/reproducibles for a list of brief stories about inspirational individuals that students can also use to practice identifying ideals.
Quotations
Quotations provide a quick and easy way to integrate inspiration into the classroom, as they are usually explicit or implicit statements of ideals. A valuable feature of incorporating inspiring quotes into the classroom is that teachers can offer them to students with little explanation. For example, a teacher might begin his or her class by displaying an inspirational quote on a PowerPoint slide or whiteboard but choose not to address it directly. Alternatively, the teacher could comment briefly on the quote by providing information about its author and its key ideal or ask students to take a few minutes to think about the quotation’s meaning without further discussion.
For a more in-depth activity, teachers can ask students to rephrase ideals embedded in quotations. For example, consider the following quotation from Albert Einstein: “It is the same with people as it is with riding a bike. Only when moving can one comfortably maintain one’s balance” (as cited in Isaacson, 2007, p. 565). After reading this to students, a teacher could ask them to work in small groups to identify an ideal from the quote that inspires them and discuss how it applies to their lives.
Teachers can also ask students to examine the stories behind given quotations. With access to the Internet, this is fairly easy to do. To illustrate, consider the following quotation by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during his pre-eminent “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963:
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. (as cited in Council on Foreign Relations, 2016)
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