MichaelMoore.com : Books + Films : Fahrenheit 9/11 : Teacher's Guide

Thinking in Pictures, Feeling in Words

This film also uses evocative images. In this lesson coming after the film, students are given time to either write or draw in a way that allows them to sort through and give expression to those images and feelings. Allowing students to respond creatively will add dimension to their intellectual responses and will deepen their critical reflection by highlighting the people, stories and relationships in the film. Working creatively, either in pictures or in words, also gives students a chance to turn troubling images into instructive art.

This lesson gives students a choice between writing and drawing. Alternatively, the teacher may decide only to offer one option or assign both separately.

For the writing option, students may choose to write poetry or interior monologues. Writing allows students to personalize the film. Many of our students’ writing after we showed Fahrenheit 9/11 recently came directly from their own lives. For instance, two of our students wrote about loved ones in the military headed for Iraq.

Drawing offers students a chance to think in pictures and imagine complex interrelationships. It allows those students who are more visual and less verbal to communicate their understanding in subtle and complicated ways. Students borrow from the film or create their own metaphors to describe the situation.

After completing their creative pieces, students share their work and draw final conclusions based on reading the “collective text” of their classmates. Those conclusions and the pieces themselves can be a springboard for a final persuasive piece.

Materials Needed:

Copies of Fahrenheit 9/11: Writing Models — one for each student.
Copy or overhead transparency of Fahrenheit 9/11: Metaphorical Drawing Model — to share with class.
Copies for students of Fahrenheit 9/11: Suggested Prompts (optional)
Blank paper
Crayons, colored pencils

Suggested Procedure:

1. Before students watch the film, explain they will have a chance to draw or write when the film is over. As they watch they should note:

key lines they could use in a poem or interior monologue (a writing from the imagined voice/perspective of someone or something in the film)
people or things from whose point of view they could write
images/relationships in the film that they could use as metaphors to describe the situation and the complex connections

2. Explain the writing option:

After the film, pass out a copy of Fahrenheit 9/11: Writing Models to each student. Use the models to demonstrate good writing. We find that reading the examples is not enough. Ask students to identify in the models some of the elements of good writing, as illustrated below.
Read through the examples out loud or have students volunteer to read. Ask students to look for any “stolen lines” — i.e., words or phrases lifted from Fahrenheit 9/11 or other readings or films students may be familiar with — in the pieces. Ask them to share out ones they find. They can borrow lines or phrases from the film too and use them in their writing.
As they read Andréa Yancey’s “Nobody Knows,” ask students to look for repeating lines. Encourage the use of repetition in their own poetry to add weight and structure.
After they read Bianca Reynolds’ “One Less,” explain the “Two Voice Poem” (also called the “dialogue poem”) model. It juxtaposes two complementary or opposing viewpoints or experiences, playing off each other’s lines and sometimes sharing the same lines. The “Two Voice” poem highlights the similarities and the differences for two individuals in a particular situation. In this case, Bianca juxtaposed the experiences of the mother of someone who enlisted in the military and a Senator whose child is not in the military.
Ask students to look back through the writings and highlight or underline the concrete imagery (things they can taste, touch, see, feel, hear, smell). Ask people to share out some of those concrete images. Encourage them to use specific images in their writing to make it vivid.

3. If your class is unfamiliar with this kind of writing or you feel they might have a hard time coming up with ideas, pass out copies of Fahrenheit 9/11: Suggested Prompts or share one or two from the list.

Note: If you decide to have students do both of the writing and the drawing options, stop here and have them do their writing. Then after sharing their writing (Step 7 and 8 below) resume the lesson and explain the next part of the activity.

4. Explain and share the Metaphorical Drawing option :

Make sure they remember what a metaphor is: a comparison between two dissimilar things (e.g., my life is a river).
Refer to one or two powerful images used in the film —for instance when Lila Lipscomb talks about her family’s history in the military she refers to them as the “backbone of America.” Ask students to think about extending that metaphor. If they were to draw that backbone, would it be broken, strong? What would it be attached to? “Where would it be?” This could turn into a metaphorical drawing.

5. Record on the board or an overhead students’ own suggestions for metaphorical drawings as they share out. (If your class has a hard time coming up with ideas pass out copies of Fahrenheit 9/11: Suggested Prompts or explain one or two of the visual metaphor prompts listed. )

6. Ask the students to allow each other creative space by being quiet. Provide drawing paper and utensils for those drawing. Give them at least a half an hour. Many students may want to take them home to finish.

7. Once students have completed their pieces in class or at home, put your chairs in a circle and ask students to share aloud. Ask students to take notes on common points, repeating images, or insights as their classmates share. You might ask them to record favorite lines or take notes on (and then write on) specific questions:

How does war affect people?
What were the key relationships illustrated in the metaphors?
Where in the pieces did you see or hear hope?
Where in the pieces did you see or hear resistance?

8. Discuss the common images, ideas, and themes they noticed or discuss the questions above. You can weave this discussion into a final discussion on the film (see Film Discussion Questions) or keep it focused so that students will still have a lot to talk about with the Silent Discussion (if they have not yet done that activity.)

Extending the Lesson

The interior monologues, poetry, or visual metaphors can also be used to help students write persuasive essays on some aspect of the film or unit. In fact, students sometimes find that without much effort they can turn their metaphorical drawings into thesis statements for their essays. And the creative writing can be used as a dramatic introduction to a persuasive essay about war or corporations or the media or military recruiting or other issues raised in the film.

Fahrenheit 9/11: Writing Models

Fuel
by Tiffany Hendrix
Franklin High Portland, Oregon

“It’s like what’s happening in Baghdad. Like it’s ‘the roof is on fire; the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. We don’t need no water, let the %&#@ burn” — U.S. soldier (Fahrenheit 9/11)

My mother’s skin is no longer the color of creamy coffee topped with milk. It is a charred black, like the color of coal we use in our fireplace. Her face is no longer soft and smooth. It is wrinkled, bloody, and resembles the dark bark of a dying tree left after a forest fire.

My father is nowhere to be found. He has been gone for many hours. He left to get help this morning when the birds were still singing — before the smoke drove them away. I fear my father’s fate is the same as my mother’s and that he too has become fuel for the raging American fire that is claiming my neighborhood.

It is quite warm due to the many fires, yet my body quivers uncontrollably. My jaw aches from my chattering teeth, and my eyes burn from the rolling smoke. Debris rains down on me. From my place here on my front walk I lie looking at the remains of the shell that used to hold my mother’s lovely spirit. I wonder if I am safe, or if my fate is like my mother’s as well. Does God intend for me to survive and continue fueling the Americans’ hate and fear? Or does He want for me to leave my body and join Him, allowing my body to fuel this fire?

I fear for my father if he is alive, and I am weary of what my future may hold. I do not understand what is happening. Why did a light man in a strange uniform walk down my street calmly, just passing by the other charred houses, not helping us at all? Why was he smirking and softly singing a strange song, “The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. . .” He also used a disrespectful word. I do not like that man, or the others who resemble him who have destroyed my home, my neighborhood.

The man walked by me lying in my walkway, and he looked at me in disgust. His face contorted in anger. I feared he would strike me. it seems as if he thinks I am just fuel for his murdering fire.

The Empty Soldier
by Andrea Townsend
Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana

When you kill someone you kill part of yourself. I know each day I feel the numbness spread, as I spray green specters with machine gun fire. That’s what I do. When the dust clears I watch the space between the crosshairs as stillness slowly descends. I can see sparks of life go up and out of this dead land and a scrap of myself flittering away like ash on the breeze or a moth spiraling into the sky.

What are we doing? I was never meant to see so much blood, so many husks where houses used to be. I’m tired of screaming, tired of shooting, tired of the heat of burning buildings radiating against my skin, tired of the smoke that burns my eyes. I’m tired of my friends who think we are living in a video game and distract themselves with songs and jokes and incessant playing of that roof song. They told me we were coming here to rebuild not to set things on fire and let the “mother-f____r burn.” But now that phrase is on repeat in my brain, filling the newly vacated space left behind when my compassion and my understanding and reason left town.

Fahrenheit 9/11: Student Poetry

When I was His Age

My grandma told me
People empty their bladders
When they die
That is how I knew
The boy was dead.

I saw a chunk of his wrist
Gone and blood where a sideburn
Used to be
His uncle
Carried him toward the truck

My temples shouted
Don’t you see the urine stain
On his khaki shorts
Old man
It’s too late
Mom
There are so many of you
But all they will let you do is
Collapse on the wet ground
And bury your son’s body
In a box

And I watch tears
roll down your cheeks.

Toyomi Yoshida,
Franklin High School
Portland, Oregon

Not Us

Thousands dead
His war of greed
No one fed
From his money tree

Roots of red
Wails of despair

Wake up
This isn’t our war
We weren’t meant to kill
To be numb
To pull the trigger

Blake Weber
Franklin High School
Portland, Oregon

Nobody Knows

Nobody knows
until it’s too late
& the Marine is on your doorstep
with a folded flag
(those flags are extra starched)

Nobody knows
when your heart stops
& the world stops
& you freeze in place

Nobody knows
how tears somehow become the blood
of your brother
or your dad
or your mom
or your anybody
and you can taste them
& have them fade
but they never exactly wash away

Nobody knows
except me
& that Marine
in his dress blues
& white gloves
(to say his hands are innocent of blood)
is standing in front of me
with an extra-starched flag
with a generic apology
arms out
but not holding up
my fallen body
or my fallen brother.

Andréa Yancey
Franklin High School
Portland, Oregon

Georgie Porgie

Georgie Porgie
puddin’ and pie
lied to America
and made people cry
The crying people
were ignored
like the crying soldiers
who killed the crying civilians
death of the mind
in a soldier’s head
when he raids the house
following orders

I have a friend
destined for Iraq
Will he become
the soldier for American money?
Risking his life?
Will he kill?
Will he kill?
Will a shrieking woman’s crying
be silenced
by a bullet
from a gun
held by him?

Will he stare her in the face
and empty out his soul
revert back to his training
and shut her up?
Will he feel good about it?
Will he look at the crying boy
next to his momma
and see his yet born son?
Will he feel sick?
Will he try to rid his body of evil
by vomiting?
Will the blood and vomit stick to him
like a memory
lingering in the back of his head?
Will he pray
Will he pray
for forgiveness?
Will it be granted?
Or will he drink til his body is numb?
Will he be able to
conceive this horrible thing?

That woman will never
see her son grown
That boy will cry
until he starves to death
He will cry like the mother did
like the soldier who shot her
like the people who were lied to
So I ask you, Georgie Peorgie
Do you enjoy it?

David Gerber
Franklin High School,
Portland Oregon

One Less

This poem is meant for two voices. The bold type is the mother of an enlisted young man and the plain type is a U.S. Senator who voted for this war but whose children will not be fighting in it.

I have two children.
I have two children.

One is dead.
Both are alive.

He fought for freedom.
They live in freedom.

I told him to enlist.
I made sure my kids did not enlist.

I couldn’t afford their college.
I paid for them to stay home.

A war of lies.
A war of lies.

All for oil.
All for money.

I lost everything.
I lost nothing.

Freedom is gone.
More power.

My son is gone.
One less vote.

I had two children.
I have two children.

Bianca Reynolds
Franklin High School
Portland, Oregon

Fahrenheit 9/11 Suggested Prompts

Poetry Suggestions:

Start your poem with a line from the film
Write in the voice of someone from the film: a child, a soldier, a mother
Write in the voice of an object: a gun, a flag, a microphone

Two Voice poem:

Soldier who says, “It’s a rush” and soldier who says, “You cannot kill someone without killing a part of yourself.”
Lila and the woman protesting the deaths of Iraqi children in D.C.
Lila and a senator whose child is not in the military
U.S. soldier and Iraqi insurgent
Flint citizen and corporate executive attending the conference of business people on investing in Iraq
Military recruiter and peace activist
President Bush and one of the 9/11 families suing the Saudis Interior monologue and story suggestions:
Woman in Iraq after her family’s house was bombed, “Where are you God?”
Soldier at Walter Reed Hospital or going on a night raid
Soldier who refuses to return to Iraq (Abdul Henderson)
Congressional Member of the Black Caucus as every Senator refuses to support their challenge of the election
The man handcuffed and on the ground during the night sweep
A military recruiter at the mall in Flint
Lila when she gets the phone call saying her son is dead
George W. Bush as he sits in the classroom after hearing about 9/11
Lila’s flag
One of the bombs that lands in Iraq

Metaphorical drawing suggestions:

Policy makers behind the make-up
Lila’s family as the backbone of American society
The U.S. public as a confused puppy being given conflicting commands

You can also download the Bowling For Columbine TEACHER'S GUIDE

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.

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Table of Contents

1. Gut Reactions to the film

2. General questions for class discussion or written essays

3. Media/filmmaking questions

4. More in-depth questions for discussion or essays by topic

5. The United States and Iraq: Choices & Predictions

6. Math and Fahrenheit 9/11

7. Silent Discussion of Fahrenheit 9/11