Tag Archives: communication

Internal Dynamics of Families

Gilmore Girls

Title: Gilmore Girls

Date: 2000-2007

Media type: Television

Format: Episode

TV Season-Episode: Season 1, Episode 9; Season 3, Episode 7; Season 4, Episode 2

Audience(s): High School Age, College Age, Adults, Parents

Language: English

Comments or Recommendations for Teaching: Each episode is jam packed with multiple types of relationships, such as authoritarian and authoritative parenting, secure attachment, and many other topics as well. This series would provide multiple points of view and ways that parents can learn more about parenting.

Places to view: Youtube, Amazon Video, Vudu, Google Play, Itunes Hulu, Netflix

Contributor: Sadie Simonett

Families in Society, Family Life Education and Methodology, Interpersonal Relationships

Independent Lens: Twin Girls

Title: Independent Lens: Twin Girls

Date: 2014

Media type: Documentary

Format: Complete

Category: Families in Society, Interpersonal Relationships, Family Life Education Methodology

Keywords: family types (adoption), communication, cultural and global perspectives

Rating: NR

Audience(s): Children Under 12, High School Age, College Age, Adults

Language: English

Film/Episode Summary: Independent Lens looks at a case where twin girls were adopted in China to 2 different families. The families were not informed of each other nor did they know that the child they were adopting had a twin. The families met by chance in China after adopting their children and figured out that the girls were twins. One family lives in Norway and the other in California, the girls remain in correspondence and have met on a few occasions, both express feelings of incompleteness without the other and share many traits.

Comments or Recommendations for Teaching: What ethical questions does this raise? In regard to who or what raise those questions? What does this say in your opinion about the international adoption process? Should the families tried to keep the girls together or was separating them right? What does this say about the influence of nature and nurture on a child’s development and personality?

Contributor: Ian Brunzell-Looney

Internal Dynamics of Families, Interpersonal Relationships

Pieces of April

Title: Pieces of April

Date: 2003

Media type: Film

Category: Internal Dynamics of Families, Interpersonal Relationships

Keywords: family relationship, communication

Rating: PG-13

Audience(s): High School Age, College Age, Adults

Language: English

Film/Episode Summary: In a very poor zone of New York, April Burns and her boyfriend, the Afro-American Bobby, are preparing to receive April’s family for thanksgiving dinner. While Bobby tries to borrow a suit for himself, April realizes that her stove is broken. She tries desperately to find a neighbor that can let her cook the turkey, since she does not want to fail (again) with her family. Meanwhile, in a suburb of Pennsylvania, her dysfunctional family is preparing to travel to New York. While driving, the relationship between the Burns and their black-sheep April is disclosed through the conversations between her father Jim, her resented mother Joy, her brother, her sister and her grandmother.

Places to view: Youtube, Amazon Video, Vudu, Google Play, Itunes

Contributor: Anonymous