The animated shorts Distracted and Dear Alice tell similar stories of two young girls who crave their parents’ attention. However, the parents are too distracted by their cell phones to give their daughters the attention they need.
Distracted and Dear Alice
What’s Included
- Video Links
A page with links for finding the film - Two Activities
- Students compare the two main characters.
- On the next organizer, students compare the stories.
- Answer Keys
- Google Slides Version
You will also find a link to the Google Slides version of the organizers.
Dear Alice [3:40]
Distracted [1:59]
Film Summaries
Distracted
In this animated short, a father works on his cell phone. His daughter repeatedly tries to get her father’s attention by showing him things about her life: her stuffed toy, an A+ on a math assignment, and a drawing.
In one scene, the camera sweeps around the distracted father. The father looks older and continues to be distracted by his phone. A photograph on the wall shows the girl at an older age. The father finally looks up from his phone. The father drops his phone when his grown-up daughter is leaving home.
Dear Alice
In the animated short, Dear Alice, a mother talks on the phone while her daughter tries to show her a picture she has drawn. The mother tells her daughter that she is busy. Alice turns her attention to a passenger on the bus. In return, the passenger shows her kindness by returning her dropped drawing.
At the end of the film, Alice adds to her drawing a picture of the passenger. Both look happy. Alice waves at the boy as he gets off the bus. The mother is clueless during the entire interaction.
This film is unique in that the perspective of the story is shown through the boy, an observer of the situation.
Both
The young girls look to be about the same age at the beginning of the films. In both stories, a parent does not give his/her daughter the attention she needs. Both girls try to show her parent a drawing.
The viewer of Dear Alice wants to show the mother the animated short Distracted. Could the mother learn a lesson from this dad before it is too late?
If you missed the link above, here it is again. Get the printable activities plus links to the Google Slides version by clicking on this button.
More Samples from the Teaching Writing with Animated Shorts Series
- Comparing Two Shorts with the Animated Short Distracted and Dear Alice
- Literature Skills with Crow: The Legend
- Problems and Solutions + Inference with the Animated Short On the Same Page
- Setting and Comparing a Short Film to the Novel Refugee with the Short The Box
- Character Change and Mood with the Animated Short One Small Step
- Details from the Story with the Animated Short Broken: Rock, Scissors, Paper
- Problem and Solution Chain and Theme with the Animated Short The Catch
- Your Course of Action + Comparing Two Films with the Animated Short Coin Operated
- Summarizing and Comparing Two Films with Miyako and The Monster Under My Bed
Check out all six products in the Reading and Writing Series. Units are also available as bundles.
Reading Series
1 comment
I saw a lot of website but I believe this one has got something extra in it.