ENVIRONMENTAL YOUTH FORUM
CURRICULUM GUIDE
GRADES: 9-12
TABLE OF CONTENTS Instructor Resources A Letter to Educators Discussion Questions Interpretive Essay Prompts Additional Resources Standards About CFI
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Student Handouts About the Film Contextual Information Viewing Activities
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Dear educators, Thank you for attending the California Film Institute’s virtual Environmental Youth Forum (EYF) screening of The Ants & the Grasshopper. Our EYF school screenings focus on increasingly relevant issues of global empathy and active citizenship, and we believe this film will be a powerful and engaging text to use in your classroom. We know that this year is likely one of the most challenging of your professional career, and we hope that this film and study guide can support the incredible work you’re already doing. These curricular materials are designed to get students to engage deeply with film by the common-core aligned skills of developing an evidence-based interpretation of a text. The discussion questions on the following page offer a variety of options for fostering small-group or whole-class dialogue. If your students are already familiar with a process of writing evidence-based interpretive essays, consider using one of the suggested essay prompts for a short writing piece. Additionally, individual handouts for before, during, and after viewing are provided as stand-alone activities to be used individually or in sequence. Thank you so much for your tireless work! Sincerely, The CFI Education Team
The Ants & the Grasshopper Curriculum Guide | CFI Education
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1.
What are the central issues addressed in this documentary? What has changed between the start and the end?
2.
What are some surprising facts you learned from this film? How do these facts shape your understanding of the central issue of the film?
3.
Does this documentary feel objective and/or balanced in its presentation of the issues? Why or why not?
4.
What did you see in this film that reminds you of other stories from your life or other stories you know?
5.
Were there any perspectives relevant to the central issues of the documentary that were not included? How would those voices have changed the film?
6.
What are some background details you noticed in this film? How do these details provide information about the time or place in which this film was made?
7.
Consider other films you’ve seen. What makes this film unique or important? What are some connections between this film and other films?
8.
What did the film show about the relationship between gender and agriculture in Anita’s village? Why do you think this was important to the filmmakers?
9.
What are some of the daily challenges that Anita’s community faces to supply basic necessities like food and water?
10. What local actions could members of your community take to support Anita’s community in Malawi?
INTERPRETIVE ESSAY PROMPTS 1.
What is meant by the title of the film, The Ants & the Grasshopper? Who are the ants? Who are the grasshoppers?
2.
How do Anita and Esther address and respond to the challenges of climate change? Are their methods effective? Why or why not?
The Ants & the Grasshopper Curriculum Guide | CFI Education
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
FoodPrint: Find Your Foodprint https://foodprint.org/quiz/ An online quiz from GRACE Communication Foundation’s FoodPrint that informs respondents about the environmental impact of their dietary choices. House Agriculture Committee https://agriculture.house.gov/ A congressional committee focused on issues related to agriculture, conservation, livestock practices, and nutrition, this site can be used to find members of congress who citizens can contact with concerns and suggestions on these issues. FoodTank https://foodtank.com/ A nonprofit think tank dedicated to issues of food system reform. Their website regularly publishes articles on sustainable agriculture, urban agriculture, food waste, climate change, and more. People’s Kitchen Collective http://peopleskitchencollective.com/ One of the organizations visited in the film, People’s Kitchen Collective is a food-centered political education project at the intersection of art and activism based in Oakland, California. Sunrise Movement https://www.sunrisemovement.org/ A youth movement with ongoing campaigns to stop climate change and elect leaders who prioritize climate change as a top priority.
STANDARDS CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
ABOUT CFI The nonprofit California Film Institute celebrates and promotes film as art and education through year-round programming at the independent Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, presentation of the acclaimed Mill Valley Film Festival and DocLands Documentary Film Festival, as well as cultivation of the next generation of filmmakers and audiences through CFI Education programs. Follow the California Film Institute on social media @cafilm @californiafilminstitute @cafilminstitute californiafilminstitute The Ants & the Grasshopper Curriculum Guide | CFI Education
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Name:_________________________________________
ABOUT THE FILM Anita Chitaya has a gift: She can help bring abundant food from dead soil, she can make men fight for gender equality, and she can end child hunger in her village. Now, to save her home from extreme weather, she faces her greatest challenge: persuading Americans that climate change is real. Traveling from Malawi to California to the White House, she meets climate skeptics and despairing farmers. Her journey takes her across all the divisions shaping the U.S., from the rural-urban divide, to schisms of race, class and gender, to the thinking that allows Americans to believe we live on a different planet from everyone else. It will take all her skill and experience to persuade us that we’re all in this together. This documentary, ten years in the making, weaves together the most urgent themes of our times: climate change, gender and racial inequality, the gaps between the rich and the poor, and the ideas that groups around the world have generated in order to save the planet. The Ants & the Grasshopper Curriculum Guide | CFI Education
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ABOUT THE DIRECTORS: RAJ PATEL and ZAK PIPER
Raj Patel (co-director/producer) is a James Beard Award-winning activist and New York Times bestselling writer. He has testified about food and hunger to the US, UK and EU governments, and his book on the food system, Stuffed and Starved, has been translated into a dozen languages. He worked for the World Bank and WTO and was tear-gassed on four continents protesting against them. His academic career spans Oxford, the London School of Economics, Cornell University, and the University of California at Berkeley, where he taught with Michael Pollan. He is currently a research professor at Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin. Zak Piper (co-director/producer) is an Emmy-winning and Producers Guild Award-winning documentary filmmaker most known for producing the critically acclaimed film Life Itself, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and later won a Critics Choice Award. Zak also co-produced the acclaimed film The Interrupters, which was hailed as one of the year’s best films by The New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, Entertainment Weekly, and LA Times. Prior to these films, Zak co-produced At the Death House Door, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Academy Awards. Zak is currently producing or directing a number of documentary projects in development or production.
THE WORLD OF THE FILM The Ants & the Grasshopper follows two women from the Bwabwa region of northern Malawi as they explore climate change and food security issues in their home country as well as in the United States. Malawai is a landlocked country in southern Africa with an estimated population of 18.6 million people that is expected to double by 2038. Eighty percent of the population works in agriculture,1 and rainfed subsistence agriculture remains a primary food source in this developing The flag of Malawi country. Despite being relatively peaceful and governmentally stable since becoming independent in 1964, Malawi has struggled to diversify its economy and job opportunities in non-agricultural sectors. Malawi is home to temperate highlands in its northern regions and hot regions in the low-lying south. It has a tropical climate despite its equatorial location, due to its higher altidude. The rainy seasons runs from November to April, with almost no rainfull between May and September. Aerial view of Bwabwa in Northern Malawi
1 https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/malawai/overview
Questions to Consider: 1.
Why would climate change be particularly important to the people of Malawi?
2.
What geographic locations or communities in America does Malawi remind you of?
The Ants & the Grasshopper Curriculum Guide | CFI Education
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BEFORE VIEWING:
FOOD IN YOUR COMMUNITY Directions: The film you are about to watch compares agricultural practices in different parts of the world. Before watching, reflect on what you know about the food and agricultural practices in your community by filling out each section of this graphic organizer.
Climate What is the climate like in your geographic region? How does the climate affect what grows in your region?
Water What are the sources for drinking and irrigation water in your community? Where does it originate? How does it get to you?
Crops Where does food originate in your community? Where is it grown? Where is it sold/purchased/acquired?
Soil What are some foundational values, beliefs, or practices in your community related to the growing, preparing, and consumption of food?
The Ants & the Grasshopper Curriculum Guide | CFI Education
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What did they learn?
What did they learn about American farming practices, values, and perspectives on climate change?
The Ants and the Grasshopper Curriculum Guide | CFI Education
Who were the individuals or organizations they spoke to in this community?
Who did they meet?
ANITA’S JOURNEY NOTECATCHER
DURING VIEWING:
Location
Wonewoc, WI
Atlantic, IA
Keystone, IA
Crescent, IA
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If there was no change, why do you think that was?
How did the people here change their thinking or actions after Anita’s visit?
What did they learn?
What did they learn about American farming practices, values, and perspectives on climate change?
The Ants and the Grasshopper Curriculum Guide | CFI Education
Who were the individuals or organizations they spoke to in this community?
Who did they meet?
ANITA’S JOURNEY NOTECATCHER
DURING VIEWING:
Location
SF Bay Area, CA
Detroit, MI
Preston, MD
Washington, D.C
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If there was no change, why do you think that was?
How did the people here change their thinking or actions after Anita’s visit?
AFTER VIEWING:
RESPONSE QUESTIONS Directions: Respond to each question, referring to specific scenes, events, and dialogue from the film as evidence for your interpretation. 1. Who in the film do you think was most affected by their interactions with Anita, Esther, and the film crew? How did the film affect them? ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Would you consider Anita’s trip successful? Why or why not? ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What important lessons should farmers, politicians, and average Americans take away from this film? ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. What was the film’s message about gender in Malawi? Is this message relevant in America? How might gender roles relate to the issue of climate change in either Malawi or elsewhere? ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ 5. Predict how Anita’s trip could impact her home village, or the lives of the people she met on her trip. ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ The Ants & the Grasshopper Curriculum Guide | CFI Education
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