Most students enjoy watching a good movie, whether at the cinema or on TV. Here are a few ideas for making use of their interest and knowledge to create some unusual activities.

Instant film scripts

  • Ask your class if they can think of any spoken sentences that typically occur again and again in films - things such as “OK everybody. Put your hands up.” or “Oh darling. Don’t go!”.
  • Give students some thinking time to discuss possible answers in pairs then collect all their sentences on the board until you have a good number, taking the chance to correct mistakes and practise some exaggerated intonation.
  • Make groups with four or five students in them. Each group must now select some lines from the board and put them in an appropriate order to create a complete mini film scene. They cannot add extra words! 
  • Each group should write down their dialogue, rehearse it and later perform their scene in front of the class.

Favourite film keywords

 In groups students agree on a film they have all seen e.g.  “8 Mile”. They must make a list of three key words that catch the essence of the film - but not including the film name or the names of any of the characters, places, actors or actresses. Example words for 8 Mile might be: rapper, contest, city. When ready, each team reads their words to the others who try to guess the film names.

Casting

  • Groups agree on a film they all know and list as many characters as they can remember.
  • Tell them that Hollywood is considering remaking the film but to save money they want to use students from their class as actors.
  • Groups must now discuss which students would be good for playing each of the roles, aiming to make a good cast list.

This is a good discussion task - but be a little careful; don’t use it with classes where there is any antagonism or negative feelings as there is some potential for unkind casting decisions and arguments!

Watching the detectives

  • First teach the class the 'truth rule' - i.e. if someone says something it becomes true and cannot be contradicted later on. 
  • Tell the class that they are all in a cinema and the blank board is the screen. Invite them to watch the board and imagine the movie being shown there. 
  • Say “The detective’s white car is stopping outside a house.”  Invite students to imagine the next part of the film.
  • When a student can “see” something he/she says a sentence about what is on the screen - e.g. “The detective is going into the house.” 
  • When the next student is ready he/she continues with what happens next (always following the truth rule).
  • Slowly a story will evolve as if from nothing - which is amazing as the board is completely blank. You can vary the story type by changing the opening line.

Topics

Imaginative materials

Ever wondered what to do with your old receipts? Well stop wondering! Jim Scrivener gives us some great ideas for using everyday random items such as receipts, timetables and bags, plus other inventive ideas to brighten up your lessons.