High School - General Movie Activities

[lisadream]

It's the week before the final exam so I put together this easy lesson, based on the "movie cloze" worksheet at www.bogglesworldesl.org. Depending on the class I may only get through two parts of the lesson, it varies from classroom to classroom.

Level - Intermediate
Aims - Improve english vocabulary about movies, creative thinking and expression in English.
Materials - "Movie Cloze" Worksheet, "Welcome to Hollywood" (1 for each group), Visual Aids of popular english Movies.

Introduction - Write "Welcome to Hollywood" on the board. Ask students "Where is Hollywood?", "Why is Hollywood famous?". Write answers on the board. Explain to students Hollywood movies are famous all over the world. There are movies made in Canada and movies made in Korea, but Hollywood movies are seen all over the world. (Your students will try to list Korean actors and movies in the later activity so it is important to emphasize that the lesson is about Hollywood actors/movies) (5 minutes)
Lesson - A) Hand out "Movie Cloze" Worksheet. Read out words at the top of the page and have students repeat the words. Read the completed cloze and have students fill in the blanks. Read it again and have students say the missing words, give examples from movies like Harry Potter to explain (ie, Daniel Radcliffe is the Actor/Star, but his character is Harry Potter; there are 5 Harry Potter Sequels...) (10-15 Minutes, longer if your students need it read twice or you have the students read it back to you)
B) Review vocabulary by posting pictures from famous English films and ask the students for: the actors, the characters, the genre, the setting. (This activity can go for the rest of the class or you can just review 2 or 3 films. I recommend: Harry Potter, The Devil Wears Prada, Titanic, Spiderman, Mammia Mia) (10 + minutes)
Activity - Divide students into groups of approxiamately 4 students and give each group one copy of "Welcome to Hollywood" worksheet. In their groups, the students should brainstorm lists of their favourite english movies and english actors/actresses. If they ask for spelling I write them on the board because chances are more than one group is going to ask you to spell "Angelina Jolie" and "Pirates of the Carribean". After 5-10 minutes of Brainstorming, instruct the groups to creat their own film (2nd half of the worksheet). Divide the board into enough spaces for each team to write their movie title/stars/genre/setting. The class will enjoy reading eachothers ideas. If there is enough time, you can have the class vote on the best idea and give out a small prize, like stickers. (25-30 minutes)

The activity takes up alot of time, I only use it in my good classes where the students stay on task. Classes that need more structure I found I used the cloze activity as the bulk of the lesson (I made students read out the completed sentences) and then reviewed movies with them to fill out the rest of the class.

[incognito84]

I had a week off with Swine Flu and now I'm back.

Anyway, this lesson is pretty straight forward and should be fun. I'm thinking of integrating movie trailers into the lesson plan but I want to try it first without them and see how I do for time. With the worksheets it is possible that it will run pretty long (I have to do a textbook review as well), so feel free to add your own movie trailers (use apple.com/trailers to download them) to make illustrations about plot/story, background/setting etc.

The lesson should work perfectly for Middle or High School with alterations for the appropriate levels.

There are High (Intermediate) and Low-Medium (Low-High Beginner) PPTs attached.

Lesson format:

Go through the powerpoint. Print one "Movie Language" handout for every two students and go over it with them along with the powerpoint when prompted to do so (the section about genre, plot, actors etc). (~20 minutes)

At the end of the lesson do the "Movie Cloze" and "Movie Riddles" hand outs in that order. Print them double sided.

For the "Movie Cloze" hand out, try to ellict the answers with High level students and simply tell the answers to the Low level students (they will fill them in).

The "Movie Riddles" section should be done in groups of two or three with low level students and singularly with high level students.(~20-25 minutes)

Feedback, please! 

[bleakronnie]

This looks great... I've been teaching about movies for a few lessons and this game looks like a great way to solidify.
I've made some minor adjustments. I'll let you know how it goes, thanks!!

[Scott]

I tried a version of this with my extra class.  They complained and tried to convince me that they couldn't think of three movies.  I got kinda frustrated and started listing off movies that I knew they knew.  "What about Harry Potter?  Ever heard of it? What about Shrek?  Twilight?" 

Once they accepted it was lesson time it went well. 

[incognito84]

I tried a version of this with my extra class.  They complained and tried to convince me that they couldn't think of three movies. 

I had the same problem. I don't see what the problem is about listing movies! I think they are just scared of using the Korean name for movies and don't know the English name for most of the movies they watch.

[bza]

This lesson worked great with my students. I threw in a few extra examples for genre, actor, and setting, and showed them extra pictures from movies.

I gave more examples as well, before having them guess what type of movie it is. For example, when describing genres, I showed a picture of Benjamin Button and said this is an example of a drama.

I think that helped set up the concept for them a little better. I also reduced the amount of questions slightly on the movie vocab sheet, to make sure there was more time for students to present the movie riddles to the class.

The lesson was such a hit, I actually choose it for my open class, which was a hit there as well. So thanks for posting this lesson, its a really great idea that is effective in having students speak and is fun!

[incognito84]

Glad I could be of assistance

[shambles2.0]

I've been working my students pretty hard so far this year, taking advantage of the early year work ethic before it falls into oblivion after midterms, so I decided to give them an easy lesson.

We've already covered a lot of movie terms so the beginning PowerPoint slides are just review of things they should already know.  After we discuss plot I show them 2 trailers (I went with Shutter Island and Iron Man 2, but any will do) and, as a class, I had them give me a quick summary of the movies using the vocabulary we practiced.

I then introduced the assignment.  I figure this is a win-win lesson because now I've got a list of new movies to watch and the students got excited about sharing their favorite movies with me.  After I explain the assignment, I show a quick example recommendation (Pan's Labyrinth) and then set them to work.  After a group read their recommendation I allowed them to show me the trailer, while this took up a lot of time and not every group was able to present, it did keep the students very interested in the lesson.  And hey, an easy lesson is easy for a reason.

There are definitely ways to tweak this lesson to up the difficulty level but I did find that the students were excited to teach me about Korean movies.  And as we all know, if they're excited about the lesson, it's easier for all of us.

*note, don't forget to substitute your name for mine on the worksheet.

[secondtimelucky]

A two-lesson project-based learning plan.

Can't really add any more than is on the handout sheet. It's the easiest thing. I gave out A3 paper so the poster is a better size. Given the timing I'm getting a lot of horror movie posters, so show them a youtube trailer to make them happy too. They like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxtNWi4a0s0

You can also do a similarly easy lesson with 'create an advert' for an imaginary product.

[spidey91]

Hi.  Since the hitherto topic is music, I'd like to share a few ideas regarding a related topic.  Attached are activities for a "Movies" Lesson Plan.  Enjoy!!  Feel free to adjust as you see fit!!

[NMonk]

Hi Lisa, this lesson looks great, I'm going to modify it a bit and re-use it if that's O.K with you? I will let you know the results and what changes I make.

Thanks

[danebrannan]

Cool lesson. I've updated it with suggestions from above. I'll be using this for third graqde middle schoolers next week.

I'm going to stick with the same worksheets, but for the lower level kids and the classes that finish early, I'll go directly to showing them movie trailers and having them answer questions about them.

[KevinA]

Greetings!

I've made a simple lesson to introduce movies and get the students to at least talk about something in class that might hold some interest. I always start off class with a 5 minute review of the previous class so I'm really only working with 45 minutes.
You may notice there is an abundant amount of materials for this class, I always over plan on activities because some classes burn through the materials while others barely get through a few.

Materials:
Mr Bean True/False handout
Movie Language
Movie Riddles
Movies! pptx
(actually Movie Language and Movie Riddles I got off of bogglesworld? slightly modified though not very much)

Process:

(10 - 20 minutes)
"Mr. Bean at the Movies" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=filLi5rg_Bg
give students the handout of Mr. Bean True/False and have them guess whether each sentence is true or false. This gets them a bit more engaged during and after the movie because they compare with their peers. You could also give a piece of candy to the student with the most correct guesses. (I'm opposed to candy so if / when students ask for it, I give them a round of applause).
For lower level students I explain some of the harder vocabulary. The hard concepts are shared, his date, pretend, hidden.
Have students guess true or false by marking with a check.
When they watch the video they should mark the actual answer with a circle. (video linked above)
Review the answers and see who has the fewest wrong guesses.

(10 - 15 minutes)
This part is my favorite in class. For a minute or so I have each class practice saying the word 'genre'
The Korean pronunciation is a bit off so I start by having them pretend they are starting a chainsaw (similar to the sound in the Mr. Bean clip)
Then review each genre with the class to prepare for the guessing activity. Students already know the genres, but the visual references are nice. I actually used this power point for winter / summer camps so that is why there are many you-tube links to movie trailers. Play them if you want or not.

(20 minutes or less, leave 5 minutes for review / small talk questions)
High level classes I skip the Move Language handout.
Low level classes I skip the Movie Riddles handout.

High level classes I run through the Movie Riddles handout, writing on the paper (I have a doc-cam) and the students wait until I finish the 5 clues then they guess. I usually pick Transformers though they don't know Shia Labeouf but they know Megan Fox.
Break the class up into groups of 4, have them start with one box at a time, guess, then repeat if there is more time.

Low level classes I give them the Movie Language, explain the terms then I do the Movie Riddle handout and as a class they try to guess the movie. A lot of fun for these students.

The last 5 minutes is always review and small talk. Students can and do ask all kinds of random questions. In one class today we talked about M/V and JYP's music video "Itaewon Freedom".

[amanda1407]

Teach genres, setting, and plot. AFter teaching, allow the kids to write about their own movie. Present and have the class guess the movies.

Used for smaller lower level classes.

[cibulka_08]

Hi Lisa, great lesson.  It's very difficult to get get my kids to be involved, but they always seem to love movies.  I ended up showing them a clip or two from each genre to get them motivated.  Thanks

[luke]

Sorry for the leson-dump session, but it's been a while.

With this one, talk about Hollywood and movies. The kids will all know what movies they like and don't like and will have sen movies recently. Talk about celebrities and their favourite movie stars, then go through the slides.

Have them 'create their own movie' by completing the storyboard.

Please let me know how it goes if you use it.

Cheers.

[Graumpot]

I've been developing this lesson for a while and its about time to post it. It covers a basic overview of the different movie genres and some dialogue. The lesson is quite video heavy with short examples of the different genres. It might be a bit tough to do the presentation with the bomb game over standard lesson; but it could work well as a summer camp lesson.

My students are pretty low level so the dialogue part is pretty basic but I didn't want the lesson to have no speaking component. I also tried to have the students speak more with the bomb game.

The intro to the game should run automatically but then you will have to click to get to the selection slide.
The scoreboard is explained on the last slide of the presentation. It is directly cribbed from Vitamin D's Solar Quizdom Game.

This is the first time I have actually built a game like this so any suggestions for improvements or problems would be greatly appreciated (and for the lesson as a whole).

The lesson has some unique fonts so I will also upload those in case you want to edit the presentations.

I would recommend downloading the videos and keeping them in the same folder as the presentation to make sure they run properly.

I want to say thanks to all the other movie lessons on waygook, I used a lot of the same ideas. Also thanks to Vitamin D, whose games I used as inspiration.

[Graumpot]

Here are the videos

[Graumpot]

continuing

[Graumpot]

yet more videos