Hidden Figures Movie Lesson Plan

Hidden Figures Movie Lesson Plan helps teachers use the inspiring true story of Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughn to show the importance of pursuing your dreams even though you may face frustrating obstacles like segregation and discrimination.

After completing Hidden Figures Movie Lesson Plan, students will increase their understanding of having a vision, rising above, and focusing on fulfillment.

In the 1960’s, America was in the midst of a race to send men to space and explore beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. In spite of these tremendous efforts, the culture of the U.S. made it difficult for both women and African-Americans to use their talents to help reach our goals. However, three African-American women working at NASA used their courage and took the initiative to give their gifts and abilities to a system that treated them as inferior.

Hidden Figures Movie Lesson Plan teaches us that we may not always be recognized for our efforts and contributions, but we can experience fulfillment when we give away our gifts and abilities to help improve the lives of others.

In order to complete these activities, students will need to watch the movie Hidden Figures, which has a rating of PG and has a run time of 2 hours and 7 minutes.

Each of our Leadership at the Movies lesson plans includes the following activities:

✅ Reflection: allows students to journal about one of the movie’s themes prior to watching.

✅ Analysis: questions and prompts to analyze the characters, plot, and climax of the movie.

✅ Practice & Discussion: a partner/group activity that takes the principles of the movie and asks students to take action and grow in their own lives.

✅ Extension: a RAFT (Role-Audience-Format-Topic) writing prompt to help students apply their new knowledge.

✅ Lead for Impact: challenges students to pinpoint how the hero of the story exhibited The 12 Fundamentals of Impact and then synthesize how they can apply the lessons to writing their own story.

WARNING: This is a DEEP LEARNING lesson plan to help students employ a LEADERSHIP approach to SOCIAL & EMOTIONAL LEARNING.

These activities are designed to help students meet the following Social & Emotional Learning Competencies as outlined by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL):

⭐ Develop SELF-AWARENESS and SELF-MANAGEMENT skills to achieve school and life success.

⭐ Use SOCIAL-AWARENESS and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS.

⭐ Demonstrate DECISION-MAKING skills and responsible behaviors in personal, school, and community contexts.

The activities in Hidden Figures Movie Lesson Plan will challenge students to move closer to mastery in the following skills: leadership, cooperation with others, creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, problem solving, and judgment and decision making.