Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer) is an 11-year-old girl in south Los Angeles, with a love for words. Spelling words was a way for her to connect to her father who was killed when she was six. Akeelah is a bright student, but she has been skipping class and is barely passing. Akeelah's principal is about to put her in detention when he persuades her to enter the Crenshaw school's spelling bee. Akeelah wins the spelling-bee and now she can go to the state contest. Dr. Larabee (Laurence Fishburne), a college professor and former national spelling-bee contestant, enters the picture. The principal has asked Dr. Larabee to help coach Akeelah. At first, Akeelah is stubborn and hardheaded that she doesn't need any help to win the next spelling-bee. However, Dr. Larabee shows Akeelah that she doesn't know all the words to win. During the summer, Dr. Larabee is a tough taskmaster teaching Akeelah as much as he can. He then gives her 5,000 new words to learn and tells her to do it on her own. With the help of the whole neighborhood, Akeelah learns all the words, and makes it to the national spelling-bee in Washington D.C. .courtesy of imdb.
Here is my reflection on question posted for tutorial.
1. What do you think of the movie in term of entertainment value?
- huh? what kind of question is this? hmm in term of entertainment there is not much to say about a movie like this, because for a movie goers this is maybe the last movie they will look up to in the cinema. However, for me this movie gives a new meaning in entertainment. the movie was based on a true event which highlight a great event for young kid. a tale that not everyone would achieve. entertainment to me is when a movie gives a whole lot of morality and family values, a drama of real people surviving the world. that is entertainment.
2. How does it affect you as you are taking B.ed Tesl course now?
- it affected me well. haha to tell the truth, i cant understand the relation between the course im taking and the movie. if it for the sake of teachers and teaching i think ill manage to answer this question. hmm.. in the movie, the surrounding of the school where akeelah enrol is totally different to compare to what we have here in our country so the teaching might be slightly different. however, certain teachers in the story really positive to their students and give them opportunities to succes in life. that is exactly happened to akeelah. in our Malaysian context, such attitude is far from visible inside a teacher. it affected to a point that , "i should do this to my students." =)
3. How does it affect you if you relate the story in the movie to the teachers whom you know in the past?
- hmm..from the past ive met a lot teachers whom their souls and lives are dedicated to teach and lead students to succes. their roles are very significant in the process of learning in life. is not fair for me to just named one teacher and not the other. so to be fair lets no named any teachers here. lets just say that both movies teachers and real life teachers are all gear up to face the challenge and keep continue their noble job for lives...
4. What kind of practical / theoretical lesson that you learned after viewing this movie?
- Treat your students equally and give them chances to shine.
movie rating - 8 out of 10
