TOS Review: Z-Guides to the Movies

Recently, my family had the opportunity to use another Z-Guide to the Movies from Zeezok Publishing.  I was so impressed with the Z-Guide we reviewed during the last Crew voyage, that I jumped at the opportunity to review another one.

 

Zeezok gave us the opportunity to choose which Z-Guide to the Movies we wanted.  After some discussion with my 11th grade daughter, she chose the movie Miracle at Midnight. This movie is set during World War II and we both felt this would be an excellent choice to supplement her 20th Century World History studies.

 

So what is a Z-Guides to the Movies? A Z-Guide is a movie specific guide available in either e-book (download) or CD (Shipped) formats that contain 10 activities. You can read more about Z-Guides to the Movies by clicking here.  You can view a sample of a Z-Guide here.

 

 Z-Guides are movie specific and you will need access to a particular version.  The Z-Guide cover lists which movie and version you will need.  Zeezok Publishing has many of the movies available for purchase along with the corresponding guides.  Z-Guides to the Movies retail for $12.99 each.  Zeezok has dozens of titles available.  You can view them here.

 

The Z-Guide for Miracle at Midnight will not be available until February of 2012 however, there are many other great titles available if you are studying World War II.  There are Z-Guides to the Movies available for Elementary, Middle School/Jr. High and High School levels. 

 

Though the cover says that Miracle at Midnight is a jr high level Z-guide, I found that it was appropriate for my high school student.  I successfully used this z-guide with my 7th grader, 9th grader and 11th grader.

 

My Thoughts: I really appreciate the activities that cause my children to think critically and deeply and explore character issues. Our regular history curriculum suggests adding in a movie as way to explore a topic of interest. I love that with a Z-Guide I can sneak in some extra history lessons through a movie.

 

I liked that I could use this guide with 3 of my girls. I could adjust some of the assignments to be a little easier for my 7th grader and I could easily require more from my 11th grader to make it a little more challenging.

 

I didn’t like the answer key for the cross word puzzle activity. The puzzle was not numbered which made it difficult for me to find the answer when the girls were stuck.  I would have loved to have the puzzle numbered in the answer key *or* to have the word written out next to the clue.

 

I didn’t like the order of the activities or the recommendation to complete 2 activities per day.   The guide is a supplement and according to Zeezok is not intended to replace our core history curriculum.  Some of the activities require time, time to research the answer and then time to write the 200 word essay answer.

 

I appreciated the flexibility of the guide.  Though they recommend doing 2 activities per day and completing the Z-guide in one week,  I found it easy to re-arrange activities and some days we did 1 activity , some days 2 and some days 1/2 an activity.  We took a little longer than 1 week but it made the daily time commitment much more manageable for our family.

 

Here are some thoughts from children:

Tailorbear (age 12, grade 7):  “It’s a movie guide. Pretty cool.  I wish we had done a movie that went more with my school instead of my sister’s.   My least favorite activity was the map work.   My favorite activity was figuring out the double entendres in the movie.”

 

Turtlegirl (age 14, grade 9): “The movie was really interesting and the guide helped me think more about it.  I especially enjoyed doing the crossword puzzle despite the fact that it was very difficult.  It was difficult because some of the words I didn’t remember from any of my studies.  I also liked the entendres.”

 

BooBear (age 16, grade 11): “I really enjoyed the questions. They made me think about the movie. I like using the guide to add more depth to movie and to see more than just a good story. I found the map confusing. The way the map was displayed confused me.  I would enjoy doing more Z-Guides.”

 

Overall I feel confident recommending Zeezok’s Z-Guides to the Movies.  Be sure to check out what my fellow crew mates had to say about their Z-Guides to the Movies.

 

 

All information is correct and accurate as of the date of this review.

Disclaimer: As a TOS Crew member, I received this product free of charge to review. This review is my honest opinion with, hopefully, enough detail as to why I liked or did not like a product so that my readers can make an informed decision. I received no compensation.