Teacher Discussion Forums

chascosta · Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 8 Location: Brazil

In fact I'm looking for activities to use in class. I know I can separate parts of the movies and work different aspects, however, I'm running out of new ideas and getting tired with the old stuff. Three months ago I used the movie "Fat Greek wedding" ( Casamento Grego in Portuguese), I'm not sure if this is the right title in English. I played the movie for about 10 min. and the sts had to answer some questions about weddings in different cultures, they just loved it.

See you.

joshua2004 · Joined: 20 Nov 2004 Posts: 264 Location: Torreon, Mexico

They could create a comic book off the movie or a short play from the movie. I am working with a group of my students on a play right now off a short story. Its not easy, but we´re going to figure out how to make it work. I once heard from an old teacher of mine that to make up a play, the students need to first story map it out and then create a script. So thats what I`m going to do.

Do you want activities just with movies?

keith · Joined: 17 Oct 2005 Posts: 20

Have a look here for some ideas:
http://www.eslbase.com/articles/video.asp

Keith
http://www.eslbase.com

rainbluesky · Joined: 12 Oct 2005 Posts: 2

Thank u very much for ur ideas Smile

While teaching English to some Chinese students about 18 or 19 years old, I ofter let them watch some English movies, but they feel little interest Confused

.

Now, thanks to ur useful ideas, I got the reason. I just sit them down in front of the screen and hit ‘play’ with no excersises and no linguistic importance, so no wonder that the students will go away from the class.

Also, the webpage http://www.eslbase.com/articles/video.asp, mentioned by Keith , put forward many methords in using DVD in ESL class, which I plan to try in my class Very Happy

.

kurisuti · Joined: 03 Nov 2005 Posts: 9 Location: USA

Here is another website to find videos & exercises on: http://www.english-behind-the-scenes.com/site/index.php

Robert C · Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 1 Location: Xinyang, China

I looked at what was here and at the linked site. It does not seem that will work for me. I was given a class (five classes) and what I was told that they, the administration, want me to do is to show movies and talk about them.

I Just did the first part of 50 ist dates, it is a general "boy meets girl, girl dumps boy" movie. I stoped it at the girl dumps boy stage and then did the lecture.

The format I am trying to do is to show the movies for two one hour sessions per week in the evening. I feel a bit guilty about using class time to show movies. and then discussing th emovie in class.

I am asking questions like, who are the main characters, why did they x, what do you think that they will do next. I also make an attempt to explane any words or concepts that may evade them.

It does not help that the college has no english films so I am palying the stock I brought with me (mostly sci-fi, lord of the rings, and Harry Potter). I was not told that this is what I would be doing untill the saturday before class started.

I am hoping for any suggestions to liven up the peocess. I can see this getting pretty boreing after about ten weeks. I will also say that the students are low intermediate level students (college sophmores) and are not likely to speak up. This class is in China.

Thank you for any help you can give.

kisi · Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 24 Location: China

Hi there,
I have put a number of movie worksheets on my site at http://www.esl-galaxy.com/video.htm
These are based on videos like Indiana jones, Harry Potter and Mr. Bean worksheets. They work for me. They may work for you. Don't also forget to check out lots of other sections of the site like using music, ppt, multimedia, kids stuff and more.
Remember to check out my new site with assorted teaching and learning materials for ESL(nothing like most others-I am not boasting-Just trying to share something good) http://www.englishmedialab.com/
My students use my site a lot and I get great feedback from teachers and students all over the world. These two sites may greatly ease your teaching and learning.
Goodluck
Kisi

lucia santos · Joined: 01 Apr 2008 Posts: 1

I would like to know if there is some website that I can get the movies scenes and the exercises.

alexcase · Joined: 07 Mar 2004 Posts: 96 Location: Tokyo

My video worksheets page includes example of some activities that usually work better than just free discussion such as guessing things first then watching to check, describing what happens to a student who isn't watching, and trying to match what happens to trick sentences such as false friends. Most of these are easily adaptable for almost any video you might have:

http://tefltastic.wordpress.com/worksheets/videos/