Title: Atypical: Episode 1: Antartica. (The full episode can be viewed on Netflix with a subscription)
Producer and year: Exhibit A and Sony Picture Television, 2017
Run time: Episode 1 is 38 minutes (but season has 9 episodes, that all could apply)
Rating: TV-MA (Mild sex and nudity references, some profanity.)
- This episode is about an 18-year-old high school student who has autism spectrum disorder. As he is getting older he wants to start having romantic relationships. The first episode covers how he wants to go about that and communicating with his family, all while being different from typically developing students. This is the best choice for our topic because it involves students with disabilities (which usually don’t have positive media coverage) and it talks about relationships and sex in a way that students can relate to, whether they have a disability or not. This episode is entertaining and relatable for students. It includes a student with a disability wanting to start having romantic relationships and sex. This can relate to our topic of sexual health by talking about healthy relationships and how to start having relationships with other people. After watching the episode, we can have a discussion about the ways Sam, the main character, goes about sharing that he wants to be in a relationship and start having sex. We can also discuss how those around him handle this and what resources he uses besides talking to people.
- The National Health Education Standard for this popular film is:
- Standard 2: students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture, media, technology, and other factors on health behaviors.
- Integrating this into a core topic:
- From the video we will analyze the way Sam’s family handles him wanting to start having relationship and analyze the way he goes about talking to girls (online profile and asking friends for what to say). We could integrate this skill in with reading informational text or literature and analyzing how parts of the text interact (bonus points if the text has to do with sexual health). For example, students will discuss how Sam’s mom reacts to him wanting to have relationships and how this impacts Sam. Then they could read a story with similar themes and discuss how elements, or characters, of the story interact. Then they could discuss the similarities and differences between the analysis of the video and the analysis of the story. This would be good in grades 6 through 8.
- Common Core State Standards:
- For literature: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.3: Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
- For informational text: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.3: Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events).