Job Discussion Forums

[ls650]

I'm curious to hear how others use videos in the classroom.
As an example, I will sometimes show students a DVD in English, usually with the sub-titles on. I'll often then ask the students to write a review, or to describe some of the events in the video using a grammar point we've studied in class.
Do you use videos in your classes? If so, how?

[Justin Trullinger]

More later...I'm posting on the run, but I have a quick question-

What language do you use the subtitles in?

Justin

[valley_girl]

I rarely use videos in the classroom. When I do, they are generally documentaries. For example, there is a section in Quest 3 Listening/Speaking about apes and sign language. Specifically, students learn about Koko the gorilla and her trainer Penny Patterson. After doing a couple of lessons in this chapter, I picked up a video showing Penny and Koko signing to each other. I think it was a National Geographic video. Anyway, the students loved it and it really helped them to gain a better perspective on what they were reading.

[Glenski]

In my high school, I sometimes use commercial videos/DVDs. With classes only 45-minutes long, it takes at least 3 class periods to see a whole movie, so I don't do that. Sadly, some teachers do, and I don't see the point since they don't require much, if anything, from the students after viewing them.

I use some short ones (2-3 minutes long) to demonstrate good and bad speech techniques. One that is fairly good is Peter Viney's Made In America series of 8-minute mini-shows, complete with a workbook of activities.

I also make my own video clips to present various materials, whether to demonstrate a speech technique or for listening practice. No subtitles there, of course!

I have also used full-length videos/DVDs in a special movie class over winter break. Students get to see the whole movie in two sittings, and they get quizzed about content and their opinions of things. Subtitles are on for these. Last year we compared Ferris Bueller's Day Off with Rebel Without a Cause.

I also teach a high level reading class, and this year I'm going to try showing pieces of a movie that was based on a novel the students are reading. They'll have to predict what characters look like, who they are (with the sound turned off), and compare events in the book with how they were portrayed in the movie.

For speech and debate presentations, students are videotaped so we can review them and better assess their grades instead of relying on instantaneous scoring with the usual interruptions and difficulties that occur in the classroom.

[Brooks]

I tend not too, since at least one (or several students) fall asleep.

[Sweetsee]

I will for classes that have worked hard, generally before a vacation as a reward. I will choose something moving and dealing with human value topics, one about a young chinese girl thrust into a teaching position in a village comes to mind, famous director whose name escapes me.

[Glenski]

[Super Mario]

I teach ESL in an Australian high school. The curriculum actually specifies "visual texts" be taught. Given the amount of video/TV/film students are going to watch during their lives, compared to the time they'll spend reading novels, developing critical awareness in this area seems sensible.
Anyone who thinks teaching visual media is soft or a cop out obviously has never tried to teach it properly.

If English subtitles are available I'll generally use them.
The Disney movie "Holes" is a great one for senior secondary, as is "Bend It LIke Beckham". I'll generally screen each one at least twice, pausing at appropriate points for discussion. There's a lot of teacher material available, and students complete several tasks, written and oral.

[Brooks]

I prefer having all students to learn. I don`t want them to sleep.

This week we have kangeiko, and boys (except in the 12th grade - optional for girls)
have to arrive at school before 6:30 a.m. So boys (and some of the teachers )are waking up as early as 4:00.
So, kendo and judo practice goes from 6:30-8:00 a.m. this week.

I have used videos in the past, but I find they can be hard to understand, especially for low levels.
With returnees I have used films in class:

the Diary of Anne Frank, Our Town, and I used Matilda, which is a children`s story written by Roald Dahl.
The Shawshank Redemption is another film I recommend showing.

The Cambridge handook on teaching with film is quite good. It has lots of ideas.

[Glenski]

Brooks,
My solution is as simple as it gets. Give a zero for sleepers. Personally, I don't care what time they get up. I'm up at 5am every day and in bed at almost midnight, and I'm 3 times older than my students.

It sounds to me like you are showing the entire film. Whether you do that at 6:30am or midday, you must realize that this easily runs the risk of putting even the most interested, vibrant students to sleep, no matter what the movie content is. Picture yourself in front of a foreign film, and you begin to get the idea.

I'm not trying to second guess your lesson plans, but how much of the films to you show in one sitting? Do you preface them with some warm-up activity? Do you outline ahead of time what the students are supposed to do while (or before, or after) watching it? What exactly is the point in showing the films that you do?

Unless your students are all into art appreciation, I'd strongly recommend that you show pieces, some no longer than 60 seconds, some only as long as 10 minutes, with designated activities to avoid putting anyone to sleep or causing them to lose interest.

For low level students, you can still show movies and now worry about their lack of understanding. You'll have to prepare a lot of stuff, of course, but if you find that too daunting, then I would recommend thinking twice about why you are even showing the film.

[denise]

In my current job, we have to show two movies per term, from a really small list of approved ones that we`ve got at the school. Normally I prefer to bring in whatever is appropriate and connected to the material (or to real life--before a holiday, I try to find a holiday-related movie, etc.). I don`t have much of a choice now, but still I try to create some sort of connection between the videos we`ve got and the topics we`re covering in class.

Activities usually center around some sort of summary or blurb that I get from the internet, which may or may not be doctored to include grammar and vocabulary we`ve been covering. Then some listening exercises--giving them quotations and asking them to identify the speaker, giving them blurbs of text out of order and having them put them in order, etc. And maybe some post-viewing comprehension questions or opinion questions.

With Martin Luther King, Jr.�s birthday coming up, I`d love to be able to bring in a video of his "I have a dream" speech. The library at my school in Japan actually had it. No such luck here, though! I did at least manage to find an audio recording of it.

d

[Justin Trullinger]

One thing I love about South America- the pirate DVD industry. It means videos are easily available, for all tastes and uses.

For short classes, I use TV clips or episodes, rather than full length movies. (Friends, the Simpsons, and for SOME adult classes, Sex and the City have all been hits.) I would rarely actually use a whole film in class anyway- too easy to lose focus. But I frequently use part of a film, then make the video available for students who want to take it home, watch it, and write an extra credit essay. For larger classes, this sometimes means I need several copies. But piracy is cheap.

I believe in the importance of video as an good source of real world style listening. Although I would never watch "Friends" myself, it's got a lot of high speed, everybody talking at once dialogue. Good for advanced learners. But it has simple plots, physically comunicated, so that even beginner students can follow them. And the ability to respond to basic comprehension questions when they've only really "understood" 30% of the language or so is motivating.

I also like the way that English subtitles are effective in linking the spoken word with the written word.

Justin

[gaijinalways]

I love using videos for various purposes. You can do summaries with a 'blind' partner (one student looking away), have students do worksheets with related vocabulary, have students work on retelling the story, explain aspects of dialogue (higher level), reinforce some related points with content classes,etc. You can have students do listening exercises or search ones for specific words in a dialogue or particular objects. I also use videos when talking about holidays (Halloween, Christmas) as students enjoy seeing the real decoratons used and tring to describe them.

I have also used negotiating videos with high level students, but these are more of a special use type. The students have to describe and discuss about appropriate use of voice, posture, and strategies for negotiating, both successful and not.

[matttheboy]

When i was teaching large-ish classes of young adults (18-30) i used a few videos. By far the most successful was Shrek. I made a work sheet with comprehension questions, gap fills, true or false and a few other little things. Before watching the film we had a class based on fairytales-what they are, what they represent, sexism, racism, the most famous ones etc and then students would talk about fairytales from their own countries.

We'd then watch the film over two 1 and a half hour classes, stopping at important moments to recap and also to do the gap fills and answer the comprehension questions. After watching the film, students would form groups and be given a number a pictures cut out from magazines. They would then write their own fairytales based on the pictures and present in front of the class. Some groups would write dialogues with parts for everyone in the group, some would write a story and read a section each.

For home work, students would write a critical review of the film.

In total, it would take about four one and a half hour lessons and students always enjoyed the class. Where i was teaching, students always complained (quite correctly if you ask me-they're paying for a service, after all) if they thought they were doing something boring or that they perceived as being a waste of time. This never happened with me.

I also used 'Fawlty Towers' when i was teaching in England (with worksheets and other materials) as it's bleeding funny and a great way of introducing the students to many British stereotypes.

To anyone that suggests that using videos in class in a cop out or a way of wasting time/avoiding work then you're not doing it properly. Watching videos can be extremely useful and help students get used to watching TV or help them realise that they can understand the TV if they put their minds to it. It can introdue new grammar points and create discussion amongst other things. It is also a great way of giving students a mini-break from the 'drier' teaching materials whilst still ensuring that they're doing serious work. True, if you're showing a video about the mating habits of the Outer-Hebridian rat-vole then students might fall asleep. That would simply mean, however, that you've failed as the teacher by choosing inappropriate material.

[gaijinalways]

Gee, I forgot, also taught a Disney class (most fun I've had in ages with a class) where I used 4 main videos (Mary Poppins, The Lion King, Pinnochio, and escapes me at the moment). Used various clips to talk about dialogue, what was happening in a scene, story line, and related issues to real life; i.e. in Pinnochio, talking about bad behaviour, or in Mary Poppins, talk about picking up at home.