In this unit, students learn about agape or sacrificial love by viewing, discussing, and writing about the film (or play) Les Miserables, based on the novel by Victor Hugo. I used the Tom Hooper film starring Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway.
Since the film is long and can be hard to follow, we watched it in short bursts, pausing to clarify characters and situations however needed.
After each viewing session we spent several days talking about the plot, characters, settings, and so forth. My main goal was to make sure they understood what was happening in each scene, and how each scene related to the whole. We would also listen to the songs together.
This lesson desribes the process we followed and includes a unit assessment with a character quote matching exercise, reflection questions, and two essay questions.