The Mighty Macs Movie Lesson Plan

The Mighty Macs Movie Lesson Plan helps teachers use the true story of a group of women who showed what they were capable of when they believed in themselves and worked together.

After completing The Mighty Macs Movie Lesson Plan, students will have greater knowledge in seeking excellence, overcoming obstacles, and being a lighthouse.

Will you quit when the struggle to reach your goals gets difficult?

Can you use your inner faith and belief to accomplish something others thought was impossible?

In the 1970’s, the women’s basketball team at Immaculata College made history by winning three consecutive national championships. But when Cathy Rush took the job as the head coach no one could have predicted that. On the brink of being dissolved, Rush resurrected the program and instilled confidence and belief in her players that they could achieve the impossible.

The movie The Mighty Macs tells the inspiring true story of how Coach Rush and her players refused to quit when things got tough and defied the odds to bring excitement to the game of women’s basketball.

The Mighty Macs Movie Lesson Plan will help students reflect on and discuss why it is important to not quit on our dreams and how we can use our internal stories to give away our gifts and abilities.

In order to complete these activities, students will need to watch the movie The Mighty Macs, which has a rating of G and a run time of 1 hour and 42 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 Mighty Macs 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.