The Grizzlies Movie Lesson Plan

The Grizzlies Movie Lesson Plan helps teachers share this true story which shows us it is possible to respect the culture and traditions of our ancestors while working to create a better future for ourselves.

After completing The Grizzlies Movie Lesson Plan, students will have greater knowledge of having a vision, overcoming obstacles, and being a lighthouse.

Russ Sheppard took a job at an Inuit school in far Northern Canada. But he hoped it was stopping point before landing his dream job at a prep school back in civilization. Russ thought he was going to whip the students into shape. However, he quickly discovered the reason school is not very important to these teenagers. Poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide are rampant in the community.

So Russ decided to introduce lacrosse as a way to give the kids something positive to do. The kids took to the sport and began to feel a sense of pride for what they were accomplishing. Could a trip to the National Lacrosse tournament help change the lives of these young people who didn’t seem to have any hope?

The Grizzlies Movie Lesson Plan teaches us that being part of a team, just like being part of a family or community, can be a positive and rewarding experience. Yet, it can also draw us into conflict with the people we care about most when things don’t go the way we want them to. We discover that one person can make a difference in the lives of young people, but it doesn’t completely remove the potential for suffering and heartbreak.

In order to complete these activities, students will need to watch the movie The Grizzlies, which has a rating of R (some violence, language, drug/alcohol use and situations involving suicide) and a run time of 1 hour and 46 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 The Grizzlies 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.