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A Quickstep to the Movies
This page outlines a quickie lesson plan for writing a movie review or
getting students ready to see any recent movie with a critical eye.
Target audience: high intermediate-advanced ESOL learners
What you need:
Internet with a 56 Kbps minimum connection and any of the free online video players, such as RealOne, Windows Movie Player, or QuickTime, all of which
are free and downloadable.
What to do:
1. Have your students preview of some of the
vocabulary used in movie reviews: Go to Randall's ESL Cyber
Listening Lab
and select "Movie Review" in the right-hand column. Students
listen to
the conversation about a movie while filling in the blanks on some
questions.
2. Go to Yahoo Movies to check
out the Critics Reviews
of the selected movie (put the movie name in the >Search Movies
___Search box). You might want to select one Critics Review on the high
side and one on the low side for your students to read. Also decide if
the language/vocabulary of the reviews is appropriate for your
students. All of the reviews link to a trailer of the movie.
3. Have your students read at least one review and watch the trailer
(see sources below). You might put your students in groups to each read
one of these reviews, report back, and discuss the differences they
found. Have them copy the substance of their
feedback to an MS Word or e-mail document or blog to send to you or to
collect
for their portfolio of this set of activities.
3. You may also be able to find an Alan Silverman review of the movie and accompanying audio at Voice of America Music & Entertainment (Search for his name and then select the advanced search within the date range.) Though Silverman does
not write for lower level students, his reviews include the names
of the major characters, a plot synopsis, and some of the background of
the film, so it is good for more advanced readers and writers. Students can listen to the audio file as
they read.
4. Your students have by now collected enough information to write a
good review, or to see the movie with at least some idea of what they will
be looking at. Below is a simple format to use. |
A quick format:
Name of the Movie
Reviewed by _________
Plot synopsis: [Summarize what happens in one-two paragraphs, but try
not to give away the ending]
What was the best actor/actress/scene?
Did you enjoy this movie? Why or why not?
Your rating [could be A-F, 0-2 thumbs up, etc.] and why:
[even if you
didn't like the movie it might be very well done and others might like
it.]
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Follow-up:
Students might
- Read the book the movie was based on
- Write a script for a scene that was "left out" of the
movie, and
- Act it out.
- Act out a scene from the movie but in a different
time or culture.
- Create a multimedia presentation about the movie and
its significance.
- Watch the movie together (over several classes if needed), and discuss it using the reviews that they read.
- Etc. (don't forget the popcorn)
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RESOURCES FOR MOVIES ONLINE
Apple Movie Trailers
Has links to trailers at the major movie sites, without lesson plans.
Internet Moving Image Archive
Contains over 3,000 feature length films out of copyright, usually in B
& W and running around an hour, as well as Open Source Movies, TV shows, news programs, ads, etc.
RealOne Guide
Has dozens of short videos
ranging from hit movie trailers and pop music concerts to top stories
in the news.
Interactive Listening Exercises: Movie Trailers
Glenda Hanson's English On-Line site has a few trailers with accompanying exercises in grammar and vocabulary.
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Last updated 2 September 2008; copyright
Elizabeth
Hanson-Smith (with many thanks to Aiden Yeh for suggesting many parts
of this lesson plan in an e-mail 2 October 2002)
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