Name: Cool Runnings (1993): Complete Movie Guide
SKU: 643f350af389c7001169a5cd
Price: 39.99 USD
Availability: InStock

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Cool Runnings (1993): Complete Movie Guide

Designed to engage middle-grade students, from grade 6 to 8, particularly those with interest in Physical Education and Health, this comprehensive teaching resource provides an excellent way for educators to teach significant life values and knowledge about various sports.

Developed around the popular 1993 comedy Cool Runnings, based on the true account of the Jamaican National bobsleigh team's journey to the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988; this resource provides both insight and inspiration. The film showcases how four determined athletes represent their country on a global platform while dealing with obstacles including discrimination and ridicule.

Comprehensive learning approach:

Cool Runnings (1993): Complete Movie guide's standout feature is its comprehensive approach towards learning through entertainment. The package includes thought-provoking questions devised to keep learners engaged throughout the film screening — suitable for either whole group discussions or small group activities.

Fact vs Fiction Powerpoint presentation: A detailed comparison between real events versus movie fiction revolving around Jamaican bobsled team - great supplement for post-movie analysis.
Teacher version: Aids in focusing better on individual student needs – ideal for diverse classroom environments or homeschooling scenarios. Ready-to-use making it highly time-effective too!
Editablse student version: Adds room for personalization as per unique requirements – can be used as homework assignment or extra challenges designed per capability levels of each student.

Easily manageable & Comprehensive:

The 'Cool Runnings' teaching resource supports multiple file types hence easily manageable digital addition. It efficiently encompasses education and entertainment making learning about sports, values and the world truly engaging.

What's included

A two-page student viewing sheet with twenty-five numbered questions, Name and Date lines and the instruction "As you watch the video, please answer each question. The answers are in chronological order."
Three time-coded sections: questions 1 to 8 for 0:00-30:00, questions 9 to 17 for 30:01-1:00:00, questions 18 to 25 for 1:00:01-1:35:00
A two-page "Teacher KEY" repeating the same sheet with every answer supplied
A ten-slide "Fact vs. Fiction" presentation with two slides showing what the real team looked like
Six fact-check slides on the athletes' names, the coaches and training locations, the reception at the Olympics, the film's bobsled chant, the funding of the trip and the cause of the crash
A sources slide crediting two published articles on the real team
An Irv Blitzer quotation printed on the student sheet: "A gold medal is a wonderful thing. But if you're not enough without one, you will never be enough with one."

Resource types: Activities

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Follow a film's plot closely enough to answer twenty-five sequenced questions in real time
Distinguish what a based-on-a-true-story film invents from what actually happened, using six specific checks
Recall named details from the film, including the sled's name, the qualifying time and the team's placing after the second day
Interpret a line of dialogue, completing and explaining Irv Blitzer's remark about what a gold medal is worth
Evaluate sources by seeing how a fact-check is supported, in this case by two named published articles

Teaching tips

Time codes on each block make it easy to pause the film at 30 minutes and again at an hour and check answers before continuing
The Fact vs. Fiction deck is best held back until after the viewing, since several of its slides give away what happens in the race
Question 9 asks for three fund-raising methods and the key lists four, so it works as a small-group listing task rather than a single-answer item
Two questions ask students to complete a quotation, which makes them a natural bridge into a written response on what the film is arguing about winning
The deck ends with its two sources, so students can be sent to compare the claims with the articles themselves

Skills covered

Active viewing - students answer twenty-five questions in chronological order while the film plays, guided by three time-coded blocks.
Recall of specific detail - items ask what Sanka has the children kiss, what the sled is named, what qualifying time the team posts and what place they hold after day two.
Fact-checking a dramatisation - the deck sets six of the film's episodes against the record, from the invented chant to the real cause of the crash.
Reading a quotation closely - two items require completing Irv Blitzer's line about a gold medal, printed in full on the student sheet.
Handling true-or-false claims - four items require students to judge a statement rather than retrieve a fact, including one about the team's later Olympic appearances.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

How are the twenty-five questions organised?

By time code, in three blocks. Questions 1 to 8 cover the first half hour, 9 to 17 the second, and 18 to 25 run to 1:35:00. The sheet states that the answers come in chronological order, so students follow the film without hunting back and forth.

What does the Fact vs. Fiction deck check?

Six claims. Whether the athletes' real names were used (they were not - the characters are loosely based on real people), who coached the team and where they trained (coaches from the United States and Austria, training in Austria and Lake Placid), whether they were disliked at the Olympics (they were immensely popular), whether the bobsled chant was real (invented for the film), how the trip was funded (two wealthy Americans, not a car sale) and what caused the crash (driver error rather than the technical fault shown).

What kinds of question appear on the viewing sheet?

Four kinds. Short-answer recall, four true-or-false statements, two complete-the-quote items, and one item asking for three examples at once - the ways the team raises money, for which the key offers four possibilities.