Job Discussion Forums

[Voldermort]

A little more than half way through the year and already I feel like I have nothing more to teach. Although I do not teach very many classes I teach them more frequently. Each week I will see the same class 4 times. This alone is not the problem, following the course book is.

I teach Senior high school grade 1 and we are using the "Senior English for China, 1B" workbook. A rough guidline for following this is to spend 2 weeks on each unit. But here is the killer, I am only to do the 'Warming up' and 'Listening' sections of these units. Obviously this is impossible, so I often have to throw in my own somehow related topics.

We have just finished the 'Festivals' unit (14) upon announcing the completion the students actually got out of their seats and cheered. So you can just imagine how boring this is for teacher and student alike.

I have got to the point now where I have nothing left. I have exhausted my reserve of lesson ideas, topics not to mention energy. What the China should I do? I have to start a new unit tomorrow "The Necklace" which is all about drama. The book is little help, throughout the unit it's a case of "make a story/dialog act it out". The poor kids have been doing this the whole year and I'm sure if I do it once more they will riot. So I could include movies.

So the question is, how can I teach about movies/drama for 2 weeks (8 lessons) without taking the lazy route of simply watching a movie and reviewing it (which I do once a month as a reward for good behaviour).

[kev7161]

How about different genres of movies: drama, comedy, action/adventure, horror, musicals, etc.?

Show little clips of the different genres (find REALLY good ones too, take some time and don't just throw something together) and find out which ones the kids liked the most? Do a poll or survey (but have the kids do the survey to each other and compare results - - heck, have them go out into the school between classes and take the survey). Watch the movie of the genre that is the most popular, then have the kids critique the movie (orally, of course, or have them write their reviews then read them aloud). Share some reviews from newspapers first (easily found on the internet too) so the kids get an inkling of writing styles of "western" reviewers. Instruct them how to evaluate the acting, the settings, the clothing, the music, etc. Divvy up the room into those who liked the movie and those who didn't and then let them have a go at a debate on why it was just so wonderful and how it could have been improved.

Wow . . . I don't mean to criticize, not at all - - I understand burn-out . . . but I just thought up the above scenario in about 5 minutes. The whole idea though is to get some new terms and phrases and words into the kids' current vocabulary, then let them use them to do some (hopefully) fun and interesting projects.

[KarenB]

Do they actually have the story of the Necklace in their textbook? Maybe you could have them put on a play about the story? (Or is that what you've been doing all along with other units?)

An idea for using movies -- esp. when you have the students 4xweek (and you have time), is to show a movie and read the book at the same time. I'm currently doing this with a middle school student I'm tutoring. We're doing Narnia (the movie is readily available at your nearest black market DVD outlet; if you don't have a copy of the book, you can get most of the classics off the internet). Anyway, what we do is read a chapter of the book, and then watch the part of the movie that covers that chapter. That way, they're getting vocab, reading practice (take turns reading paragraphs), listening (reinforced by visual in the movie), and so forth. Plus, middle school students tend to like this movie.

You can do the same thing with other movies that you can find the text for.

Another thing you can do is use movies or TV shows to teach culture. For instance, you can easily get copies of "Friends" in China -- so you could show one of the shows and then generate discussions on aspects of friendship, etc. (with high school students, I recommend discussing the topic in advance, to help them understand what's going on). There's even an episode of "Friends" where Rachel borrows and then loses Monica's earring, which could go right along with your current episode on the "Necklace". You could discuss lending and borrowing, what you would lend, what you would borrow, what you would do if a friend lost something you lent (or if you lost something you borrowed), anyway, this kind of discussion could lead into the Necklace story (and also the Friends episode if you can find it.

[Voldermort]

[Drizzt]

I can empathize because I used that same book when I was teaching high school during my first job in China. I remember it started off ok with that first chapter on foods, and it just went downhill from there!

That book is terrible.

IF you don't have to strictly follow the book, I recommend taking a look at "Keep Talking: Communicative fluency activities for langauge teaching" by Friederike Klippel . I use this book now with my college students, but many of the activities are adaptable to lower levels.

Also, "Lessons from Nothing" by Bruce Marsland is also excellent since many times in China you don't have access to many teaching resources. You'll most certainly have to order them off amazon.com, but it if makes the next half of the semester less stressful, then it's well worth it!

[Voldermort]

Thanks for mentioning those books. I will most certainly be ordering them in the near future. This is one of the problems with living and working in China, the sheer lack of resources. I mentioned in an earlier post having just been to a bookshop. Well, after listening to the MP3's I am very much disapointed. The gramar is just wrong, even by Chinese standards. I suppose I could still use it with a "for a bonus point, what were the...".

Anyway, for the next two weeks I think we will be comparing movie types; describing actors, scenes and directors; and quite possibly creating dialogs for silent movies. So I now have to find movies such as Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardie. As a starter tomorrow, I will have them create a questionaire, discuss genres, and create a chart of the classes favourite type of movie.

[kev7161]

Sounds like you have some good ideas brewing - - good luck and keep us posted on how the unit/activities went.

[Voldermort]

[NateM]

There is also the Idea Cookbook if you get really stumped. We're also hoping to get something similar developed over at China School Review. If any of you have good lessons to share, they would be well appreciated.

[MrBeijingles]

I feel your pain. I teach English film to second year college students. They watch the film outside of class and then the next two classes are devoted to that film, for a total of three and a half class hours devoted to one movie. It's really hard because the movies I like, they hate and the movies they like, having nothing of substance to use in class.

I've tried so many things and they always fall like a lead balloon. It also doesn't help that no one likes to speak in class and when you ask them if they liked it, you can hear the crickets outside louder than them.

[kev7161]

. . .

[kev7161]

I would love to teach a film class. I can think of a TON of things to talk about when it comes to movies:

1. The actors/actresses - - personal life information, their film library, where they came from, what did they do before they became actors (most of this stuff can be found on the internet with a quick Google search), awards they've won, if any . . .

2. The movie itself - - Is it a remake? So many are these days. How about comparing the original with the remake (such as King Kong, for example). What was the budget? Where was it filmed? Was it an adaptation from a book or comic? Who was the director? What other films has he/she directed in the past? Was this director ever an actor? These are things the students could research on their own.

3. Critique - - I would not say, "Did you like the film?" That's too much of a yes/no question. I'd say: "What did you like about the film? What did you dislike? How could it have been improved?" Don't just talk about the acting of course, but look at scenery, special effects, costuming, music score . . . all the stuff they give out the Oscars for.

4. Pick out a few of the juicy scenes and have the students memorize and perform these scenes. Nothing too racy obviously. Switch roles - have the girls play the "boy" parts and vice-versa. You know they'd get a kick out of that!

5. Have the students complete a rating system, giving certain aspects of the film grades, then compare results and discuss.

6. Pick some students to be reviewers - - pick two that have opposing viewpoints on the film and have them be "Ebert and Roeper" at the movies (two American movie critics) and give their point/counter-point reviews in front of the class.

[Ariadne]

MrB.. Are you sure the students are seeing the films you assign? Maybe they don't have much to say about them cause they haven't actually watched them. Homework is always tricky. Re films that students like, are you just working with films made in England, or English language films? My students really liked "Bend It Like Beckham". There are plenty of things to discuss too. They also enjoyed "Second Hand Lions", "A Knight's Tale", and (believe it or not) "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers".
"Whalerider" was a total flop. (I loved it, they didn't.) I haven't shown it to students yet, but "Catfish in Blackbean Sauce" might get the kids talking. "The Wedding Banquet" deals with some topics that could be controversial, but it has lots for Chinese students to identify with.

Good luck with your classes.

.

[NateM]

[MrBeijingles]