The Rookie Movie Lesson Plan

The Rookie Movie Lesson Plan helps teachers share the story of Jimmy Morris as an example of how it is never late to chase your dreams.

After completing The Rookie Movie Lesson Plan, students will gain clarity and understanding in having a vision, seeking excellence, and enjoying the journey.

Like many youngsters, Jimmy Morris dreamed of making it to the big leagues one day.

But after some injuries and starting a family, chasing a childhood dream seemed like a silly thing to do. That is until the high school baseball players Jimmy coached challenged him to do exactly what he tried to tell them to do every day. Jimmy leaves his job and his family for a shot to pitch in Major League Baseball but he nearly quits when he seems destined to wallow in the minor leagues.

Jimmy’s love for the game and his desire to be a lighthouse to his own children and his high school baseball team pushes him to keep going. The Rookie is a film based on a true story and can inspire us to take action to pursue our dreams in our own lives.

The Rookie Movie Lesson Plan extracts important lessons from the movie which shows it’s never too late to go after your dreams. We also discover when we figure out what we are meant to do in our lives it can help heal old wounds and mend broken relationships.

In order to complete these activities, students will need to watch the movie The Rookie, which has a rating of G and a run time of 2 hours and 8 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 Rookie 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.