What Does Gracie Do to Overcome Her Family Crisis

GRACIE'S Choice

SUBJECTS — Health; U.Due south./1991 to Present;

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING — Alcohol & Drug Corruption; Families In Crisis; Mother/Girl; Parenting;

MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Responsibility; Caring.

Historic period; 12+

Rated TV-PG; 2004; xc minutes; Color. Available from Amazon.com .

THE Best OF TWM

One of the Best! This moving picture is on TWM'due south list of the ten best movies to supplement classes in Health, Loftier School Level.

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MOVIE WORKSHEETS & STUDENT HANDOUTS

DESCRIPTION

This is the story of a teenage girl with four younger siblings, a drug-addicted female parent, and co-dependent grandmother. Gracie manages to keep her family together through hard work and perseverance, eventually convincing a court to allow her to adopt her younger brothers over her mother's objections. At the stop of the movie, Gracie is living the life of a single mother and bettering herself by taking courses at a community college.

With one of import exception, this movie is a reasonably accurate reflection of a truthful story. Non shown in the movie is the fact that Amy (the name of the real daughter portrayed in the motion picture) became meaning at age nineteen. She decided to keep the kid simply refused her fellow'south requests that she marry him. He was unwilling to take the responsibility of caring for her younger brothers and she was unwilling to put them into foster intendance. Amy chose to raise her son along with her brothers every bit a single mother.

SELECTED AWARDS & CAST

Selected Awards:

None.

Featured Actors:

Kristen Bell as Gracie Thompson; Anne Heche as Rowena Lawson; Diane Ladd as Louela Lawson; Shedrack Anderson III advertizing Tommy; Roberta Maxwell equally the Judge; Kristin Fairlie every bit Rose Carlton; Brian Akins equally Ryan Walker; and David Gibson McLean as Jonny Blicker.

Director:

Peter Werner.

BENEFITS OF THE MOVIE

This picture shows the devastating furnishings of drug addiction on a family and codependence in operation. However, the most important lesson comes from the actions of Gracie, a girl who overcomes great difficulty, keeps her family together, and progresses with her life.

"Gracie's Option" will give students in health classes a visceral agreement of these lessons. In English Language Arts classes, the movie will motivate students and bulldoze assignments.

POSSIBLE Bug

MODERATE. "Gracie'southward Choice" contains scenes of drug abuse and physical abuse, but they are all shown in an appropriate light. There is no gratuitous violence.

PARENTING POINTS

Tell your child that this film is based on real events and picket it every bit a family. Naught more is required. Nonetheless, if your child is really interested, impress out the Reader'south Assimilate article on which this motion-picture show is based: A Lifelong Fight by Rena Dictor LeBlanc.

HELPFUL Background

In 2000 Reader'due south Digest published an article about a girl named Amy who was struggling to proceed her family together.

The commodity elicited an intense reader response and it was ultimately adapted for the Lifetime movie, "Gracie'south Choice." While the movie captures the essence of Amy's story and is accurate equally to the important facts, some changes were made by the filmmakers. In addition to her three younger brothers and one younger sister, Amy had a twin sister, Jessica, who left the house at age 14. Amy and her twin had irreconcilable differences. Their mother, Jan, was indeed a drug aficionado, and very rarely concerned herself with the welfare of her six children.

The childrens' grandmother tried to take care of them merely, equally shown in the film, the grandmother enabled her daughter's drug addiction and continually gave Amy's mother "2nd" chances. Amy took on the motherly part that she and her siblings badly needed. As their mother sank deeper into addiction and put her children'south lives in danger, social workers intervened and separated the children. They were autonomously for half dozen months. Upon their render, Amy vowed that she would do everything she could to foreclose her family from being separated once again.

Amy held down multiple jobs, found a cheap place to live, and at the aforementioned time juggled caring for her four siblings. Her younger sister eventually went to live with an aunt, non a young man. Amy started legal proceedings to adopt her siblings and was awarded temporary custody of them when she was xviii. Later, the adoption was approved and Amy became the legal "mother" to her three brothers.

But there were more than complications to come. In the motion-picture show Amy's mother tells the courtroom that Amy and her boyfriend are having sex while the kids were at home. Not shown in the moving picture is the fact that despite using nascency control, Amy became pregnant at historic period 19. Despite already caring for three children, Amy decided to go on the baby and gave birth to a son. Amy's relationship with her beau deteriorated when he asked her to choose between him and her siblings. Amy chose her family unit and eventually saved upwards enough money to move into a small rented house. Amy is now a single mother to iv boys, working, and going to college function-time.

USING THE Film IN THE CLASSROOM

Structuring the lesson with "Into/Through/Across," we advise the following:

INTO:

The but introduction that needs to be fabricated to the movie is to tell the class that information technology'due south based on existent facts and that they'll get to read about what really happened after they've seen the movie. Teachers might also have students read TWM'southward handout on Codependence — What Happens When a Family Member is an Alcoholic or a Drug Addict .

THROUGH:

Scout the film and review several Discussion Questions . Wellness teachers should conduct a word based on the questions that focus on the curriculum standards for which you are showing the film. ELA teachers should select questions that will relate to the skills-based consignment that will exist coming.

Beyond:

Have the class read the Reader's Assimilate article on which this movie is based. Then either talk over in course the Quick Give-and-take Question  and several of the other Discussion Questions . An alternative is to have the course write an essay on any of these topics.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING

In club to stress the fact that the movie accurately reflects most of the story, we have used the names from the Reader'due south Assimilate article.

Alcohol & DRUG ABUSE

1. What was the effect on Amy'southward family unit when her grandmother took Jan (Amy's female parent) back again and once again, despite the fact that January was still using drugs? Did any good come from it?

Suggested Response:

No, the grandmother's actions were not proficient for any fellow member of the family. Allowing Jan to find a refuge in her home and therefore avoid many of the unpleasant consequences of living an intoxicated lifestyle, simply allowed Jam to continue to be a drug aficionado. It would have been better for Jan if the grandmother had kicked her out any time she was intoxicated and required that she exist in rehab and make clean earlier assuasive Jan dorsum into the habitation. Allowing Jan back into the house was also bad for Amy and her brothers and sisters because they needed a stable habitation without the disruption caused by an addicted person. When the social service agencies said that they would put the children into foster care if Jan was allowed back into the grandmother's home, for the sake of the children, the grandmother should take kept Amy's female parent out of the house. It was also bad for the grandmother to have January in the business firm because January destabilized the family unit and caused the grandmother stress.

2 Amy's grandmother was suffering from a psychological condition. What was it? Justify your answer.

Suggested Response:

Amy's grandmother suffered from codependence. The justification is in the respond to question #i.

three. Make a list of the people who were enabling Amy's female parent, Jan, in her drug addiction.

Suggested Response:

Jan'south own mother (the grandmother) and Jan's various boyfriends.

PARENTING; FAMILIES IN Crisis

4. What, if anything, is wrong with placing children in foster care?

Suggested Response:

A well-administered foster intendance arrangement is a good thing and good for near kids placed in foster care. Most foster care parents are loving, committed people who provide a stable, temporary habitation for the children placed with them. (For an example of a wise and caring foster care parent, see Angels in the Outfield .) Yet, Gracie and her siblings wanted to stay together and maintain their family unit. Foster care would have required at least some of the siblings to exist separated.

5. What binds a family together?

Suggested Response:

Dearest makes a family. Bloodlines are helpful in binding families together but they are non necessary. Adopted children are loved as fully as biological children.

half dozen. How do you define heroic actions? Were Amy's actions heroic?

Suggested Response:

A good definition of heroic actions are those which require "courage and daring" or which are "supremely noble or self-sacrificing". Merriam Webster Dictionary Definition of "heroic" To aid her brothers, Amy sacrificed her own interests, including her scholarship to college; her relationship with her boyfriend; and the possibility of living a normal life taking care of her son in a family with a husband. She undertook a daring task, taking intendance of her family herself and asking a court to take the unusual step of terminating her mother'due south parental rights and allowing Amy, an eighteen-yr-old daughter, to adopt her three younger brothers. Undertaking these responsibilities took courage. Heroism is not limited to acts taken on the battlefield or in saving people in dangerous situations by people such equally soldiers, law officers, and firefighters. In the Reader's Digest article, the existent-life guess is quoted as saying to Amy, "You saved three kids." While Amy may not have been equally publicly heroic as a fire fighter, she kept her family together, despite everything working confronting her.

7. Was Amy's boyfriend correct to inquire Amy to allow her brothers to go into foster intendance and alive with him and their son as a family unit?

Suggested Response:

At that place is no one correct answer to this question. The boyfriend had no obligation to have care of the brothers. Taking them into his family would have required a totally different life from what he had the correct to expect. Even so, an statement could exist made that if he loved Amy, he would have agreed to take on the task of caring for the brothers.

8. Did Amy have a responsibility to have care of her family unit to the extent of foregoing a scholarship to a university or losing her relationship with the father of her child?

Suggested Response:

There is no one right answer to this question. Here is how TWM would answer it. Yep and no. Yes, in the sense that Amy's siblings were her family unit and there was no ane else to take care of them. As a member of the family unit, she had a responsibleness to treat them. No, because the role Amy took on as the caretaker for her brothers should have been filled by a parent, grandparent, or another developed. Amy was a young person. She didn't decide to give nascence to her brothers. In order to take care of her siblings, Amy had to give up dreams and opportunities that young people should have, such every bit a scholarship to a prestigious university and marriage to the father of her child. Many people, perchance well-nigh people, would accept pursued their ain lives, taken advantage of the opportunities that they had earned, and allowed the brothers to become into foster intendance. No one could say that this was the wrong decision. Taking care of her brothers was, in that sense, not her responsibility.

ix. Practise you know of anyone who has overcome difficulties similar Amy? Can you tell us their story?

Suggested Response:

At that place is no one right answer to this question.

10. Practice yous know of anyone who, similar Amy, has looked at the bad function models of the adults in their lives and rejected them by living a expert, nurturing, and productive life?

Suggested Response:

At that place is no one right answer to this question but there are millions of the people who take done this, especially in neighborhoods ravaged by drugs and alcohol. For an case in public life, see the clarification of the early life of Chris Gardner in the Learning Guide to "The Pursuit of Happyness" .

eleven. Amy accidentally became pregnant at historic period 19 even though she was using birth control. Does this modify your opinion of her? Do you still consider her a hero?

Suggested Response:

At that place is no one correct answer to this question. Some people will consider Amy immoral to accept had sexual practice with her beau before they were married. Many will have the position that accidents happen and that fifty-fifty the nigh celebrated hero can experience mishaps. Withal, others volition take the position that having sex before matrimony at age 19 is non wrong and that Amy was being responsible by using nascence control.

MOTHER/DAUGHTER

12. Depict the relationship between Gracie and her female parent equally shown in the movie.

Suggested Response:

A strong answer will include the concept that the female parent abased her responsibilities and her girl had to have them on or the family unit would disintegrate.

MORAL-ETHICAL Accent (CHARACTER COUNTS)

Discussion Questions Relating to Ethical Issues will facilitate the utilise of this film to teach ethical principles and critical viewing. Additional questions are set out below.

Responsibleness

(Exercise what y'all are supposed to do; Persevere: proceed on trying!; Always do your best; Utilise self-command; Be self-disciplined; Think before you deed — consider the consequences; Exist answerable for your choices)

See questions 6 – viii in Parenting/Families in Crisis and in Female parent/Girl

CARING

(Be kind; Be compassionate and evidence yous care; Limited gratitude; Forgive others; Assistance people in demand)

See question #5 in Parenting/Families in Crisis.

ASSIGNMENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A Lifelong Fight by Rena Dictor LeBlanc.

This Learning Guide was final updated on July 22, 2011.

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Source: https://teachwithmovies.org/gracies-choice/