Thread: Movies in class Part II

Since Thais never go anywhere, don't do much, and haven't much to write about I tried showing complete moves in writing class' and am seeing some good results with asking them to write reviews. I mean how many times can you ask them what they did on vacation?

What I consider good guidelines are:

Movies with kids in them .. Back to the Future, AI, Time Machine, etc.

Action/Sound .. if there's no movement or noise they go to sleep.

Token Asian actors. Amazing how they'll follow up on the token Asian more than other character in their reports.

Turn on the subtitles or even the Thai language option. What the Hell, they'll rarely listen to the the English anyway. I've learned a lot of Thai by reading English subtitles in Thai movies, I think it'd be the same for them .. Thai language, English subtitles can't be a sin. Whatever the movie's language their report will be in English.

This is especially good for past tense practice. Also I've seen a good results after teaching them how we talk about past events by using the present. In this mood they become a storyteller. Storytelling in the present is a great deal more captivating IMO and easier for them.

There isn't much chance of their cheating, it isn't True or False production.

hmm yeah good idea, if only my school had a TV!

We have 10 classrooms with 10 TVs. None of them has a remote, two of them have a VCD player with no remote and three of the TVs don't work. They invested heavily in the science lab with a five-year-old OHP, a decent sound system and a Pent III computer. It's so hot in there it's challenging, even to a Thai. There are four fans but two of them make so much noise they up-stage the movie. The science lab, that's were you'll find me.

Good idea. Thanks for sharing it.

Anybody ever seen 'Touching the Void' on DVD in Bangers, per chance?

It's a good idea, though a potentially time-consuming one. I've done this, but I prefer to use television shows on DVD as they tend to be shorter (I've found Cadfael goes over well--he's a monk who solves crimes!). This also gives you the option of showing another episode from the same show if the students like it. I do turn on the English subtitles, but never the Thai ones.

If you don't have a collection of your own, Tsutaya now has some of the US serials like CSI available for rent. They're not really to my taste, but the kids might like 'em.

- Reg

Another great idea.

These are the kinds of things I know I should be doing

but I'm simply not putting the prep time in to organize them.

One of these days....

I never want to see a student look bored! Ever again!

*jumps off ass and runs to the resource room*

But I be a stick liver, Reg. The best I can do segment-wise is via the time differential disc A and disc B, as in a conversation about what has happened so far.

I do The OC once a term. a few episodes. kids like it cause there are good looking rich people in it.

There's A LOT of good stuff on youtube, too, and their videos are very short. That way you can easily fit them in the lesson.

With a full length movie you always run into patches that are too difficult, too boring, too distracting, need to be sensored, fast forwarded etc.

At the moment we are watching Barnyard, about ten minutes of a movie a day plus a worksheet and a roleplay if possible. At one point students didn't know what a gopher is, so I downloaded "Gopher broke" from youtube (or metacafe, I don't remember). Two minute cartoon, very funny, very "educational", was worth a seaparate lesson.

There are also plenty of interesting "follow instructions" videos which can generate discussion on whether some things would work or not and why. Or just watch movie trailers and discuss them.

I found that if you are looking for something specific, youtube is the best, but browsing for something interesting is better done with something like metacafe as it doesn't have as many contributions and you can browse today's catch already downloaded on your hard disk.

Yes, the boring parts. This is the theme of that phenomena called The Golden Curve, eh?. What I've done is to it keep it running and ask questions about what is going on so far. Another is to put Ss up front with his/her back to the TV and let the Ss describe the actions to them. Another is to FF but at a clip-rate where the scenes can be followed. Strange as it seems, my biggest problem is squeezing a whole disc into my 50-minute class, with tardiness and settle down time plus review time. Makes youtube look like a better game. If this weren't my last week it'd do just that.

I don't mean youtube is better, it's not even an alternative, just another way of using your video equipment. It wasn't there last year while "movies in classrooms" threads go back to pre-DVD times.

Yes, youtube has some useful stuff, but the video quality's not the best for a large projection.

I forgot you were out in the back of beyond, JD. Tsutaya seems ubiquitous, but maybe they missed your humble village while mapping out their conquest of Thailand.
- Reg

I showed the kids 'The Goonies'. It went down a storm, it's a great movie for kids and adults alike and it took up 3 periods.It's perfect for the end of a term and I set them questions on it. What is Chunk's real name etc...

I wented to show them 'Gremlins' but couldn't find a copy here.