Guess the movie

[fluffyhamster]

This activity has worked EVERY time I have tried it. It requires little preparation (well, only that you have some idea of what movies will be popular/are well-known with your students, and make a list to remind yourself in class) and no materials, but really does get students listening and excited!

Part 1: Quickly put the class into fairly big groups (6 to a group is fine, the more ears the better!), and draw a rough plan on the board of where each groups is. Tell them you are going to play a very simple, easy and fun game. It's called "Guess the Movie". All a group has to do is shout out the film title if they think they know the movie (there are no deductions for wrong guesses). It will help if there is another teacher available to help listen out for the guesses - you might be too busy talking and acting to judge who exactly was first to guess (I hate asking students to put their hands up, and hands are more difficult to see than voices are to hear and "place"!)!

Now for the fun bit. Try to start off with a movie you can get excited about. I am in Japan, so I often choose something like "Battle Royale".

Start relating the plot in nice and clear basic (present tense) English (use lots of simple co-ordinators such as and): "There's a group of high school students, and they're on their school trip, on a bus, and they all 'fall asleep'...(mime is okay here)...and when they wake up, they are in an old school on an island. Their homeroom teacher comes in and says, 'You have to kill each other! There can be only one winner!'..."

I don't ever get much beyond "island", or at most "kill", before several groups have started shouting out their guesses and one of them's guessed correctly. Shout "YES! Well done!", put a mark on the board and immediately show you have another "story" ready to roll...

Of course, you can't do this all day, the excitement will wane eventually, so it's eventually time to go onto Part 2 (you can skip this part and go straight onto Part 3 if you feel Part 2 would be a little too repetitive): Total up the scores and see who is in the lead, and tell the students there will be another round soon. For now, ask each group to think of a few movies that they would like you to tell them the plot to, and to imagine how you will go about it (i.e. predict what language/keywords you will be using). Only give them a minute or so. Then go around the groups briskly and tell them the plot to whichever movie they mention that you know (hopefully that will be the first one they mention!). Don't do two movies per group, only one. There are no points being awarded at this stage, it is just a student-controlled/directed further listening practice/noticing stage.

Now, Part 3: Ask the students what movies have been mentioned so far. Write a title on the top left of the board. Then ask them to try to remember how you began talking about the plot. Elicit existential there, or subject/character pronouns e.g. There's a videotape, and if you watch it, you will die in seven days (Ringu); There's a big rock, and it's flying through space towards the earth (Armageddon); He's an artist and (he's playing cards and) wins a trip on a big ship (Titanic)...

Once they can see how easy the language is, ask them to get a piece of paper out and spend a few minutes choosing and writing the (beginning of) the plot to another movie or two (point out that it is actually often possible to relate entire plots in only a few sentences). What they write will form the basis for the "final round" of the game (and may help resolve any ties or give a trailing team a chance to draw level). You could mention that good English will earn a bonus point for the group reading it out (the group that guesses first gets a point, as before).

You will need to give some thought to how you will generally tell each movie's plot in the opening guessing game stage, and what order you will tell the movies in. Also, try to make sure there is a range of genres, something for everyone; perhaps include a few slightly more unusual or complexly-plotted or historcial movies too.

Follow-ups could be to watch movies, write capsule reviews and compare them to e.g simplified online/Leonard Maltin reviews etc; movie review vocabulary (especially "critical" words), gap fills/choosing appropriate words to describe actors/acting etc etc. Many many possibilities! Don't forget online stuff like the IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes etc.

[fluffyhamster]

I have a "drawing" activity which can be used in addition to or instead of the above game. I posted it on the Secondary School Education Forum's "Lesson plans on comic strips" thread. The link is here:
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... php?t=2203