I do think, as teachers, we sometimes become so caught up in the curriculum that we forget to think outside of the box. This summer, I really felt as if I could take creative liberty with my lessons. For the particular group of students I was teaching, I found that many of them were quite drawn to moving pictures, song lyrics, movies and videos. In fact, I found that the reading comprehension strategies that were quite difficult in a written passage were quite easy for them when given a different medium. Thus, I often introduced a skill with a small video or thought-provoking clips from an inspiring movie. During the week in which I was teaching character analysis, round vs. flat characters and complex character traits, I came across an excellent mentor text "Remember the Titans." Naturally, I did have to give my students some background information regarding this movie because almost all of them had not seen this movie before. However, I found this movie to not only be motivating but an excellent platform to discuss complex character traits. In addition, is an excellent movie to discuss race relations as well. Many of my students had plenty of thought-provoking questions and statements regarding the time period in which this movie took place. Below are a few of the videos I used when discussing character traits and scenes.