Essential Questions for Earth (90 minutes):

1. How is the movie organized?
2. What is the rhetorical effect of the way in which nature is portrayed?
3. What is the theme of this movie?
4. To what extent, if at all, does this movie take a position on climate change?
5. How are appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos used to persuade the audience?
6. How is music used to signal and direct the viewer's emotions?
7. How does the diction and tone of the narrator appeal to the target audience of families and their children?
8. For your animal that you chose, describe its habitat, food sources, dangers, seasonal cycles, and climate requirements.
9. Read and write a short (50 to 100 words) personal reaction to “Disneynature Balances Cuddliness and Reality.”  

Before We Watch . . . 

Read and discuss Essential Questions

Divide into three equal groups:

1. Polar Bears
2. Humpback Whales
3. Elephants

Discuss Rule of Thirds webpage.

Which of these 10 photos from the movie Earth are characterized the most by the rule of thirds? 

Film Terms:

Ethos = the credibility of the speaker that is established by any of the following techniques:  

1. through establishing a genuine voice or tone,
2. citing information from knowledgeable or experienced sources,
3. or, in persuasion, acknowledging, conceding and refuting opposing points of view 

Pathos = an appeal that stirs the audience's emotions

Logos = an appeal that uses facts, statistics, or a logical argument that compels the audience through the use of logic

Journals

Please complete Part 1 of 4 Nature Journals.