Using a Movie Trailer in Class
I have a class that deals with teaching contemporary novels this semester. We will learn something about how to teach the appendant movie to a book.
I really like the idea to teach a movie in class. When I was at school we watched movies as well but only as a kind of gift after dealing with a certain book. I think you can do a lot more than that! I am a big fan of movies and I like the idea to use trailers or movies within the English classroom.
I am going to hold a presentation on teaching the movie About A Boy. For this reason I was looking for some interesting approaches and techniques on how to teach a movie in an appropriate and entertaining way concerning new media. I came up with an interesting spot on YouTube concerning this topic.
Here it is:
According to the speaker of the spot, especially trailers are very effective in usage because most of the students like movies and a trailer comprises the plot of a movie in a little amount of time without giving the whole story away. He presents some simple but very effective exercises for using a movie trailer in class:
- Choose a movie trailer: There is a huge variety of trailers available on the internet. By choosing one it is important to pick a trailer that has the right level and content for your learning group!
- Pre-teach the keywords: Before you watch the trailer with your students make sure that they know all the words that are used in it. For this select the words your students might not know and teach the unknown vocabulary to them. Another possible pre-watching task could be to ask your students to summarize their ideas about the possible plot of the movie. These can be thoughts about the name of the movie and its possible connection to the story. When you do not tell the students if their thoughts are right or wrong another exercise to the trailer can be to compare the thoughts they had with the actual content of the trailer and work out the differences!
- Show the trailer: The speaker had the idea to show the trailer the first time without sound, just watching the pictures of the trailer. After this, the students can tell their ideas about the characters, the plot, what might happen and other things that might be important. I really like this idea because I think this gives much space for discussions and the students are encouraged to talk. Then watch the trailer a second time with your students, this time including the sound.
- Discussion/Writing/Screenplay/Ideas: After watching the trailer there are various different options to work out the whole plot with your class. Additionally there are many possibilities for creative activities concerning the trailer. You can let your students do a roleplay, they can work out a particular scene of the trailer more fully or can write a possible end for the movie.
I really like the idea to teach movie trailer because there are many opportunities for entertaining exercises students will like and you can plan the exercises specifically to the needs of your class. Additionally it is very effective because this approach is connected with multichannel learning and the students improve their listening and reading skills (subtitles) and they can practice talking in a free and authentic way!
With the ideas of this spot I will plan the exercises for my presentation of teaching the movie: About a Boy. I will put the finished outline of the presentation with my ideas concerning the topic in my e-portfolio soon!
