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Message board > Movies in class.
Movies in class.
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Bruna Dutra
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Movies in class.
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Do you guys use movies in class?
I mean, after having to play the movie for two hours, how do you work with it?
I always work with sitcoms, which last for 20 min in average, and them discuss them. But I love movies and find it difficult to fit them into the program. I have already tried to ask the students to watch it at home, for dicussion in the next class, but when they don �t, they get completely lost.
EDIT: If you believe movies are useful, please, share your motives, I would like to add your thoughts to mine.
Thanks.
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30 Jul 2010
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anitarobi
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I do use movies, consider them highly motivating and useful and hope I will always be able to use them. I use them when the holidays are approaching, or when there is one directly linked to my topic at hand. I have sts watch a part for about 10 mins, and then we do vocab/word games/wss/ppts for 5 (takes really minute planning but it works fantastically), and I usually do that at the end of the lesson. believe me, when we do it like that, the first 30 mins of the lesson go by in a flash, and we usually manage to cover all the �serious � materials in that time, because sts are very motivated, knowing the prize will be the movie in the end. I am very careful when preparing and choosing wss/ppts (I smuggle in grammar and vocab I need), and I keep the games challenging. Watching a movie without subtitles, or even better - with English subtitles, improves my sts � reading and writing skills so much... And needless to say - we all enjoy it, even if it �s something they �ve watched before. I especially love movies based on books, because then they get motivated to read the book as well... |
30 Jul 2010
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GIOVANNI
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Like Anita, I also use movies. I also use movies around holiday time. I always play a movie with English subtitles and prepare a worksheet with vocabulary and questions about the movie. Part way through the movie I stop and we discuss vocabulary and the movie itself. I also try to make it like the movies by preparing popcorn for everyone. The students love this and by the end they learned quite a bit in a fun way.
During the year, I also use youtube quite a bit and we watch documentaries and other material that lasts about 10 minutes or so to watch. I find it is a good way to learn without the students realizing that they are working at the same time. |
30 Jul 2010
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mish.cz
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Films in teaching is the issue I have often been thinking about. I believe films could be of a real use in advanced English teaching, as they provide an interesting and motivating material for class. But the truth is that there is definitely no time at all to work with them in my classes. Moreover, many film are very difficult to understand so the students would have to be at least upper-intermediate to have something from it. These are the reasons why I think that sitcoms or some shorter documentaries are more useful for teaching.�
Should I choose a film to watch and talk about - it would be The Graduate by Mike Nichols |
30 Jul 2010
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anitarobi
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The choice of the movie depends highly on the age, knowledge level, interest and cultural background of your sts... |
30 Jul 2010
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gloriawpai
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As Anita said, I also think movies are very motivating and interesting. I play about 5 - 10 minutes at the most and then I have different activities for my students. I �ve used movies from pre-intermediate students to advanced. There �s a good book, by Longman that gives you lots of ideas using videos. It �s called "Using videos in the classroom". Also, check this link out: http://www.eltcommunity.com/elt/groups/video/blog/2010/05/10/movies-in-the-classroom
It can give you some ideas on using movies/videos. The problem is that it takes time to prepare a class because you are supposed to watch a movie and think what part could be interesting to be used. So whenever I �m watching a movie, I �m focused on using it in class.
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30 Jul 2010
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lshorton99
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I tend to use TV series - maximum 45 minutes an episode usually. They work well because our classes are 90 minutes. I �d watch one episode a unit and tie it into the language being studied. The students become invested in the characters over time which you can �t do in the same way with a film. Also, most films are over 90 minutes so you �re left with 10 or 20 minutes of a film left to watch.
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31 Jul 2010
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summerwinds
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thank u Bruna Dutra for posting such topic. it is a good idea to use movies in the class room, but as lshorton99 said most films are over 90 minutes and some have immoral scenes , so can anybody help me or tell me how can i clip the part i want?
thanks |
31 Jul 2010
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mary-butterfly
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I USE A LOT MOVIES IN MY CLASSROOM AND SOME SERIES LIKE "FRIENDS " too
take a look at this site it �s very nice
moviesegmentstoassessgrammargoals.blogspot.com |
31 Jul 2010
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Fallen Angel
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I have advanced students and my students are used to watching films throughout the school year and they love it. Sometimes films are used to introduce a topic, sometimes to finish it, so they are always related to the topic we are dealing with. I always try to choose recent films that my students will probably like. They usually watch the film without any kind of subtitles, but if the film is rather difficult, I allow them to watch it with subtitles in English.
I don�t usually stop the film, because my students hate it and to be honest so do I. After watching the film, they have to go through some activities on it; they are usually given a complete worksheet on it (setting/characters/plot/vocabulary/sometimes grammar).
Our lessons are 90 m, so watching a complete film is not really a problem, since there are some films that last around 85 m. But sometimes there are other films that are longer than that, but if they are really good and appealing, I play them anyway, we just have to finish watching it the following lesson. Now, perhaps you are thinking that students might lose interest in it, well not at all, at least not my students. It has worked well so far, but I guess it all depends on the kind of students we have and the kind of films we choose for them to watch. The only problem is that they can�t watch as many films as they would like to because we don�t have enough time for that, but they watch around 4 complete films a year.
Hugs from Portugal,
Cristina
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31 Jul 2010
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