Book vs Film: Little Women

 This year, we’re doing the kids’ favorite books: Holes, Little Women, My Side of the Mountain, and Number the Stars—so far!  The first book is Little Women.  There are movie versions from Little Women 1994 vs.Little Women 2019.  There is a PBS series available on tubi, too.

It’s fun to compare the book to the film.  It can be even more fun to compare different film versions.  Which one captures the book better?  I use a literary guide to help kids do some analysis before we write five paragraph essays.  Below are some links. You could spend a month on this unit.

1.  Younger kids may want to have questions to answer for each chapter. Here are some questions to help kids read more closely.

2. Here is a novel guide.  This one is a series of worksheets.  My current class benefits from this style of guide.  They need critical questions and writing prompts.  I’m going to use Little Women, A Retelling and Britannica’s brief biography.

3. Some classes respond to book clubs.  Here is a reader’s guide (with a recipe for Apple turnovers) for a book club.

4.  Great Books uses a ‘shared inquiry’ approach here with deeper questions, such as ‘Why does Jo  give up her writing career to raise children and run a school with Professor Bhaer? 

5. Do you want to do some serious analysis?  Try  this study guide from the Center for Lit.

6.  Little Women—Teach with Movies has some good questions to adapt.  For example, the novel is semi-autobiographical.  Which parts of the book-film seem the most real?

7. General Maxims of Teaching is just one of the resources from The Orchard House.