Hoop Dreams Movie Lesson Plan

Hoop Dreams Movie Lesson Plan helps teachers show their students what it is like for two young African-American males to pursue their dream of playing professional basketball so they can escape their environment which doesn’t promise them much hope.

After completing Hoop Dreams Movie Lesson Plan, students will gain an understanding of what it means to pursue their dreams, seek excellence, and focus on fulfillment.

What are you doing today to pursue your dreams?

How will you respond when things don’t go your way?

Every school day, African-American teenagers William Gates and Arthur Agee travel 90 minutes each way from inner-city Chicago to St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominately white suburban school well-known for the excellence of its basketball program. Gates and Agee dream of NBA stardom, and with the support of their close-knit families, they battle the social and physical obstacles that stand in their way. Hoop Dreams is an acclaimed documentary that was shot over the course of five years.

Hoop Dreams Movie Lesson Plan shows us the journey of pursuing our dreams and the complexities of family, culture, and environment.

In order to complete these activities, students will need to watch the movie Hoop Dreams, which has a rating of PG-13 and a run time of 2 hours and 55 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 Hoop Dreams 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.