[Kieran]

Hi Gail,

Great! I’ve given you feedback on the lesson overview in the other thread.

Many thanks.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Gail,

Thanks very much for your lesson overview.

How to Become a Better Person: Ten Virtues of the Modern Age
I would choose this for young adult/adult advanced learners of English since there is a lot of high language here (together with visuals) and the subject matter is quite theoretical.

Good choice. It’s appropriate for advanced students but also has rich visual support.

I would also try to capitalize on their life experience.
I would do a lot of work before viewing the film. Have them name 5-10 Virtues of the Modern Age (they may need to see a bit of the film to understand what is meant by virtues). I also would have them name 5-10 vices or curses of the modern age (I think these would come up along the way – while searching for the virtues.)

This is a lovely way to activate the students’ schemata.

Viewing activity: either I would stop along the way and have them think of examples from their lives or I would have them watch half and choose one virtue that they could speak about – and then the other half and choose another. I think it may be too much to watch the film from beginning to end and choose one.

I agree it’s better to break this one up as there’s a lot of language which could lead to cognitive load if played all at once.

Post-viewing: Tell a story that exemplifies either a virtue or a vice. (this could also be done in groups.) This could be either a speaking or a writing prompt. It could also be the basis of a film they could make.

This is a great activity to personalise the language.

Thanks again for your lesson overview, Gail.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Gail,

Thanks very much for your great analysis of the framework.

A

ha, here is a great framework for digital storytelling or movie making. Deceptively simple. Fine for students who have experience. Daunting and extremely time consuming for others. I am speaking from personal experience, but I had to learn everything from scratch, whereas some of the students did this kind of thing in high school or have experience on YouTube, social media, etc.

These are all great points. This framework and other similar frameworks are easy for more experienced teachers and students but the novice has to learn from scratch and this is obviously more challenging but, at the same time, more rewarding.

It is not too difficult to make the movie itself, including the storyboard and the narration. Finding music and adding it is more difficult and time consuming. This step can be skipped by inexperienced students.

Good point about finding and adding music which should be copyright free.

Again, I have found that university students don’t necessarily have the time for a project like this. It is fun and worthwhile, and it is definitely a learning experience.

Great point about time. Film-making is very time consuming but as you point out it’s also fun, worthwhile and an excellent collaborative learning experience.

Thanks again for your great analysis, Gail.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Gail,

Thanks very much for your great comments.

I would prefer the 5 second or 1 minute over the 1 second. I found the one second hard to retain.

Good point. Some teachers and students find the 1-second films too short and can’t get into them while others love them.

The “how to” and dialogue are ones I’ve tried and they are fine.

‘How to’ videos are a great introduction to video making and really engaging and motivating for students.

BTW I took an online course on digital storytelling at U of Texas – very worthwhile and you can learn a lot about digital tools for making films. Storytelling is good for language learners. It could be added to this topic.

The storytelling course sounds great. I did a similar digital storytelling course at FutureLearn which was developed in collaboration with the University of Birmingham: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/digital-storytelling

Thanks again for your great comments, Gail.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Gail,

Thanks very much for your comments.

I think you could add “How to” videos – especially in the realm of cooking or arts and crafts. I have used these in conjunction with recipes or directions – especially to teach the relevant vocabulary (food related, for example), or imperative forms or time words and sentences.

Yes. ‘how-to’ videos are brilliant in the language classroom. I think the reason I didn’t include them in this Topic is that I included them in a ‘Student-generated Film and Video’ Topic.

here are also a tremendous number of exercise videos on YouTube – and these are also good for body parts, verbs describing movement, imperatives and the like.

Yes. There is such a variety of ‘how-to’ videos. As you point out, the language used for them is great for body parts, verbs describing movement and imperatives.

Thanks again for your comments.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Gail,

Thanks very much for your great evaluation of the new genres.

Actually most of these are very useful and the students like them – of course it all depends what you do with them.

I’m delighted you find the new genres useful. You’re absolutely right that you choose the genre based on what you want the students to learn.

I’ve never tried the viral shorts.

Viral shorts are popular with students and they cover many themes.

I love Ken Robinson’s work – but find the very detailed animated lectures too much – overwhelming and distracting.

Good point. Some students seem to find the illustrations and text really helpful while others feel they distract from the narration and are overwhelming.

I had never seen the split-screen shorts. How do you find them? It is an interesting idea for doing comparison and contrast. Thanks for introducing me to this!

I find most of the split-screen shorts on Vimeo. Another way is to do a “split-screen short film” search on Google. Here’s a link to the results.

Thanks again for your great evaluation.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Gail,

Thanks very much for your great evaluation of the activities and excellent recommendations.

I found this one of the best topics thus far. I really like the creativity involved in many of these activities – rather than the usual fill in the blank, word bank, bingo, multiple choice etc. Thanks so much for these neat ideas.

I’m delighted you liked the topic and activities so much. I agree with you these activities are more creative and engaging than the typical fill the gaps, word bank, multiple choice activities that are normally used to develop vocabulary.

I really liked the film Words – a great activity with the word cloud preceding the film.

I also think Words is a brilliant film. It can be used over a number of sessions as there is so much vocabulary represented in the film.

I use games on Kahoot a lot for vocabulary. Students love the competition – the game element adds fun to class and students can work together as teams.

Yes. Kahoot activities are very popular with students.

VoiceThread has some interesting timed games that can be used for vocabulary and grammar. For example, you set up a checker board with collocations and they have a certain amount of time to match all the words. It’s hard to explain here – but fun.

This sounds brilliant! I like the way you use VoiceThread.

Thanks again for your great evaluation, Gail.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Gail,

Thanks very much for your great evaluation of the short films.

I enjoyed reading the other students’ analyses of how these films foster empathy.

Yes. It’s really beneficial to read what other colleagues think of the films.

I prefer the films that put you in the shoes of the main character – “Bells Reader”, “Moments” and ” Stand Up” – they are all very strong.

These three films do help to put you in the shoes of the character and for this reason are really powerful.

The film about the paralympic games was also incredibly strong, although I felt less empathy and more amazement at the abilities of the people shown. It had a certain shock effect because of the wide range of disabilities and achievements shown.

Yes. This one takes a different approach to the three films you mentioned above.

The Alphabet of Illiteracy also had a certain shock effect – I felt it did not foster empathy, but rather appealed more to my intellect – understanding that these awful ills of modern society are the source of much suffering. I found the connection to illiteracy less direct.

Yes. This one also takes another approach and is very wide-ranging in its subject matter. The organisation behind the video argues that research shows that people who are illiterate suffer more in all of areas shown in the film than a literate person – I think this is the connection with literacy they are trying to make.

Unfortunately, the bad quality of the film “Mankind is No Island” mars it. The flashes of words do get a message across, but somehow I feel the film is less effective than “Moments”.

Very good point. I agree that low film quality makes it less effective. It was shot on a mobile phone in 2008 on a budget of $58, but the quality is still very poor.

Thanks again for your great evaluation, Gail.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Michael,

Thanks very much for your excellent lesson plan outline.

Pre-viewing activity

Communicative Goal
Individuals: Could try to predict what they would see.
Small groups: Could compare notes, and speculate together on what they might see.

This is a nice pre-viewing activity. To scaffold the activity we could ask a question such as ‘What images spring to mind when you hear the phrase ‘old Korea’?

Viewing:

Providing students a handout with shot numbers and times, the check one of the following boxes:
1) I know this and can name it (in either Korean or English)
2) I know this, but can’t name it.
3) Don’t know it.
4) Bonus! I can tell you where this is located in Korea [doesn’t apply to all slides]

Great activity. I can see this working really well.

Post-viewing

Here, they would collaborate in their groups to complete the handout, if possible, and then the whole class can finish it off and have a discussion about why the filmmakers chose the objects that they did.

I like the idea of having a discussion about why the filmmakers chose the images they did.

Thanks again for your excellent lesson plan outline, Michael.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Michael,

Thanks very much for your great evaluation of the short film you selected – ‘Old Korea’.

language
There is no language here, only some ambient music (which is generic ‘eastern’, not traditional Korean)

The fact there is no narration or dialogue means it can be used at any level.

length
4′, which is just about perfect.

Yes. 4 minutes is ideal.

relevance and interest
This would be relevant to students in the “Global Korean studies” program.
I think it would be interesting to them as it is a mix of famous / familiar ‘old / ancient’ Korea and not so famous.
It also moves slowly (but not too slowly!) from shot to shot, making it easy to follow.

Yes. The short film would seem to be perfect for this type of course.

task potential
I think there is enormous potential here.

Yes, this film has a lot of potential.

1) As a pure ‘intro’ to old Korea (previewed before class)

Yes, it would make a nice introduction to old Korea.

2) As self-test of how much you can identify, by name.

This is a lovely idea.

3) As in-class group work, quasi-competition style, to see how many things groups can identify – with bonus points for identifying where, specifically, certain things are.

Yes. I think the element of competition would work well.

4) As a model for an end-of-term project, where the students would (or could) use the same style, but with their own images, and using their own voices to narrate.

Great idea to use the short film as a model for student production.

Thanks again for your great evaluation of the short film, Michael.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Michael,

Thanks very much for your excellent answers.

I really like this framework. I *don’t* think it would work in the K-culture class, but there is a ‘summer intensive session’ that students have in which they have 2-week / 4-week ‘mini-courses’ that they take. I feel like this would be ideal for that!.

The framework will obviously work better on some courses than others. I think you’re right that it would work on a summer intensive course.

I agree with the commenter above who mentioned that editing might be a problem, but this is something that would depend on the group dynamic and also something I could help groups with on an ad hoc basis.

Teachers often ask about the editing. As I mentioned in another response , most young people can already edit a video or learn how to do so quickly.

As for the online ‘problem’, I would build this into the whole experience: “Do what you can” + “Be creative”. As you said, let them run with it.

Letting them run with it is the right approach, in my opinion.

I’d also try to group Koreans in with non-Koreans, which some students resist (at least at first) but tends to work out in the end.

Mixing Koreans in with non-Koreans is a good option.

I don’t know that I’d be worried – or make them worry – so much about technical flaws, but focus on the experience of making the film.

The process is vitally important as is the language they use during the process.

Having an online ‘movie night’ with popcorn and drinks as a wrap up is a winner!

Showcasing their final products – their film – is a vital part of the process.

Thanks again for your excellent answers, Michael.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Michael,

Thanks very much for your great analysis of the filmmaking activities.

1 Second Film:
As is, expect I would make them focus on something ‘Korean’ – it can be something they love, or something they’re curious about – anything!

This one easily lends itself to a cultural focus. In fact, all of them do!

5-second films:
I could have them do these in *either* Korean or English – whichever isn’t their first language. If possible, they could also work in bi-lingual pairs in order to have some peer-help. Same topic as the 1-second film.

I like the idea of bi-lingual pairs giving each other support. Nice!

1-minute film:
Possibly, as a longer 2-part project for the term. They could do this twice: once in English/Korean (whichever *is* their L1), and then, later, in whichever language *isn’t* their L1.

Great idea to do this in both languages!

Film Reviews
This could be an alternate choice for a project, though I wouldn’t require students to do it in Korean unless they were at a sufficiently high level; probably English only.

This would obviously depend on the students’ Korean level.

Filming a Dialogue
This looks fun, but I wonder about the logistics – it would really depend on the specific scene. That being said, we could have students perform the scenes in their own language (and their own ‘culture’ – i.e., modifying it as they choose to fit into their own cultural norms) and then compare them. That would be fascinating – if we could make it work!

Good point about the logistics. You’d have to choose the scene carefully to make sure it’s feasible to do in the classroom.

These all sound like things the students would actually enjoy doing!

Yes. Students do generally enjoy these filmmaking activities.

Thanks again for your great analysis, Michael.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Michael,

Thanks very much for your answers.

Have you used any of these new short film and video genres with your students?
No, but I’m hoping to in the future as they look excellent!

I’m happy you’re enthusiastic about using these new genres.

Which genres do you think would be most popular?
I think viral videos would be of most immediate interest, but I’d try out ‘unknown’ genres on them as well.

‘Viral’ videos are often popular with students.

Thanks again for your answers, Michael.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Michael,

Thanks very much for your answers.

Of the generic activities, I think #1 could be adapted for my students , but with the Korean vocabulary. I would add, because we’re watching mainly Korean films with English subtitles, that they ‘notice’ not (only) which character says the expression but how that expression is translated. This could prompt so good learning and class discussion.

I like this noticing activity. It would definitely prompt good learning and class discussion.

Of the detailed ideas, I think “Words” has the most possibility. This could be used to *both* improve their awareness of, and skills with, collocations and phrasal verbs as well as look at how difficult it is to ‘translate’ these into Korean (i.e., it’s often impossible).

“Words” is an incredible film. It can be used over a number of classes. One class could be dedicated to each of the eight verbs used in the film.

Thanks again for your answers, Michael.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Michael,

Thanks very much for your excellent answer.

Thinking about my upcoming classes (not only K-culture but also advanced discussion) I think that two films: “Moments” and “We’re the Superhumans” would be great choices. This is not only because analysing them in terms of the cinematic techniques used, but because these two things are ‘hidden’ in Korean culture. That is to say they are present, but there is still a stigma attached to them and they are not discussed – they are largely ignored in most discussions of Korean society unless you are working with people in those sectors.

Those are two good shorts to work on. Many societies try to hide homelessness and disability.

I think it’s very important for (Korean) students to learn that difficult topics need to be discussion openly and honestly.

Absolutely. I agree that students need to learn that difficult topics need to be discussed openly and honestly.

Thanks again for your excellent answer.

All the best,

Kieran

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