Queen of Katwe
Phiona develops as a chess player through practice, family negotiation, and community support. Examine opportunity and setbacks without reducing her community to a story of poverty.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
SEL & Inspiration Movie Guides
Explore emotions, trust, persistence, and community through character choices and scene evidence.
Available Guides
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
William combines reading, observation, and local materials while his family faces a food crisis. Examine problem solving alongside the social conditions that make learning and cooperation difficult.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
McFarland, USA
A cross-country team develops amid work, family obligations, and a coach’s changing understanding of his community. Examine teamwork and opportunity through the runners’ contributions.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
My Octopus Teacher
A filmmaker’s repeated encounters with an octopus become a personal account of attention and connection. Separate recorded behavior from narration and examine the ethics of observation.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Own the Room
Five student entrepreneurs prepare to present their businesses at an international competition. Examine how evidence, resources, and personal storytelling shape a pitch and the documentary’s account of success.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
The Speed Cubers
Max Park and Feliks Zemdegs compete while sustaining a supportive relationship. Analyze how practice, community, and documentary choices complicate a simple rivalry narrative.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
I Am Eleven
Children discuss daily life, concerns, and hopes across varied settings. Compare individual perspectives while examining the choices involved in translation, interviewing, and selecting a global portrait.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Spellbound (2002)
Eight young competitors prepare for a national spelling bee in different family and school contexts. Examine practice, opportunity, and how editing turns a shared event into multiple personal stories.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
WALL-E
A waste-collecting robot’s curiosity helps expose the consequences of a society that has delegated its choices. Analyze visual storytelling, responsibility, and the difference between fictional solutions and environmental evidence.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Zootopia
Judy’s investigation exposes prejudice within a city that advertises opportunity for everyone. Analyze evidence, stereotyping, accountability, and the limits of the animal allegory.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Coco
Miguel’s pursuit of music uncovers a family story that has been misremembered. Examine how songs, objects, and testimony connect identity with remembrance.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Turning Red
Mei’s red-panda transformation makes tensions around emotion, independence, and family expectations visible. Analyze the fantasy as a metaphor while considering how boundaries and care can coexist.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
October Sky
Homer and his friends develop rockets while negotiating the expectations of a coal-mining town. Examine evidence, learning from failure, and the support needed to pursue an unfamiliar future.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Cool Runnings
A Jamaican bobsled team navigates unfamiliar sport, stereotypes, and conflicting ideas of success. Examine cooperation and integrity while checking the film’s inventions against the historical team.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
The Sandlot
Smalls joins a neighborhood baseball group and helps turn a local fear into a larger story of belonging. Examine mentorship, unreliable assumptions, and nostalgia’s selective view of childhood.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
The Greatest Showman
A musical presents ambition, belonging, and the costs of seeking elite approval. Analyze the songs’ arguments while checking the film’s celebratory portrait against Barnum’s documented exploitation.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
A child befriends a stranded visitor and works with his siblings to help him return home. Explore empathy, trust, communication, and the tension between care and control.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Mr. Holland’s Opus
An aspiring composer becomes a music teacher and discovers how decades of relationships reshape his idea of achievement. Study mentorship, accessibility, and the tension between professional goals and family attention.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Footloose (1984)
A newcomer challenges a town’s dance ban while adults and teens negotiate grief, authority, and expression. Evaluate arguments and distinguish constructive resistance from dangerous behavior.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
My Girl
Vada navigates friendship, family change, and loss during a summer of growing understanding. Explore how the film communicates feelings and what supportive responses can look like.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
It’s a Wonderful Life
George Bailey’s interrupted ambitions and community ties become the focus of a fantasy about value, responsibility, and interdependence. Read its hopeful ending alongside the pressures it depicts.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Rudy
Rudy pursues a place at Notre Dame through study, work, and athletic effort. Examine persistence alongside support, opportunity, costs, and the film’s shaping of a real life.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Saving Mr. Banks
A writer and filmmakers negotiate the adaptation of Mary Poppins while childhood memories shape the story’s emotional argument. Examine authorship, collaboration, and the limits of biographical storytelling.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Inside Out
Riley’s move disrupts familiar relationships while personified emotions struggle to respond. Study how listening, expressing difficult feelings, and accepting mixed emotions change the story.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Remember the Titans
A newly combined team confronts racial division while its players and coaches learn what shared responsibility requires. Study belonging and accountability alongside the history beyond the sports story.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Stand and Deliver
Students prepare for an advanced mathematics exam under demanding conditions, then confront doubts about their results. Analyze the relationship among effort, access, trust, and recognition.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Akeelah and the Bee
A talented student develops her spelling skills through practice, mentorship, and community support while navigating grief, pressure, and uncertainty about belonging.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
Finding Nemo
After Nemo is taken from the reef, Marlin crosses the ocean with Dory while Nemo works with aquarium companions. The adventure explores trust, help, persistence, and protective care.
Teacher guide · 2-page PDF · Digital worksheet
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