Peter Jackson's 2009 film of The Lovely Bones gives teachers a natural comparison assignment. Students are curious about the movie, and the movie makes different choices from the novel. That curiosity can be turned into real analysis if the assignment is designed well.

Left alone, comparison essays collapse into "the book was better." The student lists differences, shares an opinion, and stops. Nothing in that structure requires evidence or interpretation.

A stronger approach asks what each medium can do that the other cannot. Prose can hold Susie's interior voice for pages, while film has to work through images and sound. Each adaptation decision tells you something about what the filmmakers thought mattered most.

Below are guidelines for setting up the assignment and grading it fairly. They apply whether students watch the whole film or selected scenes. Expect to adapt them to your class.

Framing the Comparison

Give students a lens, not an open-ended invitation. Ask how the film handles the novel's tone, or how its visual design portrays heaven compared with the book's prose. A lens narrows the field and makes strong theses possible.

• Thesis: makes a claim about what changes between the two versions and why it matters.
• Textual evidence: quotes from the novel and specific moments from the film.
• Medium awareness: discusses what prose and film can each do.
• Balance: treats both versions as worth analyzing, not just one.
• Conclusion: draws a point about adaptation or storytelling, not only about this pair.

Scoring Without Rewarding Taste Alone

Students will have preferences, and they should. Your rubric should reward reasoned judgment, not the preference itself. A student who prefers the film and supports it well earns the same credit as one who prefers the book.

Ask for at least two specific comparison points, with evidence from both versions. Keep an eye out for claims about the film that a student cannot support with a scene. If they cannot name the moment, they may not remember it clearly.

Practical Grading Notes

Because students may draw on different scenes, comparisons can vary widely. Use a checklist for evidence rather than a fixed answer key. Consistency in scoring comes from the criteria, not the content.

Encourage students to keep viewing notes with timestamps. It makes their evidence checkable and their writing more precise. It also makes grading faster.

Giving Feedback That Builds Analytical Habits

Comments should push students from what changed to why it changed. "What might the filmmakers gain by cutting this scene?" is a better note than "expand." It models the question they should be asking themselves.

For classes with many sections, a rubric-driven feedback tool can help keep those comments consistent. The teacher can still add personal notes on the most interesting arguments. That way the volume does not flatten the quality.