Embedded Files
Prom Episode
TAL 186 Prom.mp3Listen on the This American Life website
Listen on the This American Life website
Essential questions
Essential questions
The following questions address the major themes and thinking points of this podcast. You can use the questions to help you journal, take notes, or think about what you hear in this podcast.
What high school events are important to you? What do you look forward to?
When thinking about important events, how does fantasy compare to reality?
Have you ever had an important event ruined or cancelled? How would you react if this happened to you?
Content Overview
Content Overview
This episode deal with aspects of American prom. There are references to drinking, drugs and drug use, and sex. The first act features a town that was partially destroyed when a tornado hit during the senior prom. Lives and property were lost.
Episode summary
Episode summary
This episode is all about prom and what it means to US Americans. This episode explores expectations vs. reality, including what happens when your prom is disrupted by a tornado.
Prologue: A high schooler explains how he wanted to use the prom to be with the popular students.
Act 1: A tornado hits the prom in the Midwest. Before the prom starts, everything is normal. After, they realize their town has changed.
Act 2: Francine Pascal, the writer of a popular series called Sweet Valley High School, explains the stories she wrote about prom and why it is so important in the US.
Act 3: Ira Glass follows a group of friends during their prom night to learn what really happens.
Act 4: A town in Wisconsin celebrates prom in a creative way, including with a parade in which some students feel like celebrities.
LISTENING GUIDES
LISTENING GUIDES
These resources are here to help you while you listen to this episode.
Transcripts- Some people find it hard to listen to an entire podcast. This is a link to the transcript (written version) of this episode.
EVEN More!
EVEN More!
If you liked this episode, and want to read or listen to more about Prom, check out these resources.
Read
Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson
Prom Nights from Hell edited by Meg Cabot
21 Proms edited by David Levithan
24 Girls in 7 Days by Alex Bradley
It's Our Prom (So deal with it) by Julie Anne Peters
Listen
Replay: Prom Season from NPR
"Prom" from The Moth Storytelling Hour https://themoth.org/stories/prom
Watch
Prom (2011)
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
She's All That (1999)
Prom Night in Mississippi (2009), a documentary about a high school in a small-town in Mississippi preparing for its first integrated senior prom.
How to Dance in Ohio (2015), an HBO documentary about a prom designed for students on the autism spectrum.
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