[Kieran]

Hi Maria Luísa,

Thanks very much for your excellent answers.

First of all, thank you for sharing all these activities with us. I do think that the activities are all great to bring students to fully understand how their learning process is also part of their responsibility, with all our help of course.

I’m delighted to know you like all the activities.

How? By getting them actively involved in varied activities, namely those directly related to Media Culture and all the different forms of communication, daring to be creative, imaginative, acquiring new skills, such as those of film-makers, story-tellers, and at the same time, learning the language.Students become active ‘actors’ rather than passive subjects of a system.

You make excellent points here. The active role students play in their learning while making films or videos is absolutely vital.

he film review I would rather ask my B1+-B2 students to work on, but I believe that giving a list of simple questions and selecting a simple easy film I could adapt and ask my lower level students to do the same task.

You’re absolutely right that although this activity probably works best at B1+, it can be adapted for lower levels.

One that all of them I’m sure would enjoy doing is the ‘How to video’. My favourite ones are the ‘How to video’ and the ‘Making a film review’ since they give students a choice, help activating their schema, encourages them to use real everyday language, while also encouraging them to use specific vocabulary according to what they’ve chosen to work on.

Yes. As I mentioned in the webinar ‘ the ‘how-to’ genre is probably the best one to introduce video-making in the classroom.

If they can be proud about their own work, then I’m sure we’re on the right track.

This is a great point. Students do often feel really proud of the tangible product/artifact they ahve produced.

Thanks again for your excellent answers, Maria Luísa.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

You’re very welcome, Stella 🙂

[Kieran]

Hi Maria Luísa,

Thanks very much for your great answers!

My reasons why: both topics verse on the very important subject of Values and as I see it they are inseparable and connected.

What you say makes perfect sense to me!

We are all only too aware that our students (and not only I have to add) would “die” if they ever find themselves without their smartphones or their internet should break down. For most of them, their social network persona, the ‘Likes’ they get on what they post, the number of ‘Friends’ is much more important than anything else.

Mobile technology and social media, for better or worse, have had a huge impact on the lives of young people.

Looks are very important these days, yes, so many people are living of their looks, life has taken the very fast lane, and we just don´t stop to really think and see the other. Thus teaching/discussing values with my students is so very important. I should like to think I will help them to really look at what surrounds them critically, help them to develop their empathy, respect for the difference and help them raise awareness for the cultural different habits of others.

I agree with you that the presentation of values is of great importance in our classrooms. As you say, it does help students develop critical thinking skills and foster empathy and intercultural awareness.

This coming week I’ll be working these subjects with my students and I’ll be using the activities with “Stand Up”, “We’ve all been there” and “Momentos”.

These are great films to use in class. Please let us know how they work with your students.

Thank you for such wonderful ideas!

I’m delighted you like the ideas so much 🙂

Thanks again for your excellent responses, Maria Luísa.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Mary,

Thanks very much for introducing yourself. Great to have you on the course and to see you at yesterday’s webinar.

Your new position and project at the Quality and Qualifications Ireland sounds really interesting.

I’m looking forward to working with you on the course.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Maria Luísa,

Thanks so much for your thoughtful response to the questions.

I’ve used Branded shorts, the main topic of my lesson was ‘Young people and Consumerism’ so short ads videos came in handy to work with them and they enjoyed it very much, ending up making a short video themselves doing a survey inquiring their peers about their spending habits;

I really like the way you used the branded shorts. Getting students to create their own short video is a great activty and builds their visual and media literacy.

I’ve also used short videos talking about social issues and those do, almost always, bring about lots of debate and students enjoy those very much, may be because school is one of the few places where they can discuss and talk about serious issues with their peers and adults (their teachers)

Short film and videos that deal with social issues are often very popular with students and generate a lot of debate and discussion.

I do an activity with my students (they enjoy doing it, most of them) called ‘Paint me a Song’, I had enjoyed doing some years ago. It’s like this: Individual work; students had to choose a song in English that really meant something to them; they had to produce a representation of how the song made them feel or inspired them, the way they saw fit, for example making a drawing, a painting, a collage, a carpentry art work, they could in fact present any form of art/object; then they should write a short text stating the type of emotions, giving some reasons why. Their pieces of Art and texts would all be part of an exhibition in the school entrance hall at the end of the term.

I love this activity! Students creating their own artwork is a great way for students to develop the skill of visually representing.

The other 3 genres, I haven’t heard of them before, but they are surely very interesting and enticing for me to have a go an try them.

I’m delighted to know you’d be enthusiastic about using the other short film genres.

Thanks again for such a thoughtful and insightful response to the Activity, Maria Luísa.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Maria Luísa,

Thanks very much for your great answers!

Short films, when carefully chosen never forgetting who our students are and at what level they are at, bring ‘theme-related vocabulary in a clear visual context’, which will certainly grab our learners’ attention, since they can acquire so much knowledge through listening to the dialogues or sound, watching images or the body language and gestures of characters, their expressions, I mean I dare to say that almost any of my students will be able to grasp the full meaning of what they are watching with not much difficulty.

An excellent point on the importance of selecting short films which are level appropriate and relevant to our students’ interests. Carefully selected short films do do help students grasp vocabulary more easily than with the traditional listening comprehension texts.

For example the Venn diagram, I’ve used the same exercise but using columns (the middle one represented the common area)

The Venn diagram activity is a very simple but effective one.

the ideas using collocations or reconstructing the dialogue, I’ve never used, but I would with my more advanced students, maybe B2 and B2+.

The collocations and reconstructing the dialogue activities do work well at these levels.

Usually, my students’ favourites and mine are the ones that mentiion feelings/emotions and speak to their heart.

These short films which have a strong emotional impact are highly effective.

Thanks again for your excellent responses, Maria Luísa.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Stella,

Thanks very much for your analysis of how you could incorporate the Seven-stage Extensive Viewing Framework into your institution.

I could raise the issue of founding a film club at a teachers’ meeting, find colleagues who would be interested in collaborating with me and getting permission from the director.

Yes, it’s very important to get other colleagues on board before trying to get permission from management.

Once everything is clear, we can discuss the idea idea with the students, conduct needs analysis to find out more about their preferences and interests and ask for parents’ consent.

Getting both students and parents on board is vitally important.

The students would improve their listening and speaking skills, their vocabulary, their cultural awareness and multimodal awareness.

Stating these benefits to colleagues, students and parents helps to sell the framework.

I think that the 7-stage framework would appeal to my students and would be applicable and effective with young learners.

Absolutely. The framework works very well with young learners.

Thanks again for your analysis, Stella.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Stella,

Thanks very much for your great evaluation of the extensive viewing guides.

I like the way the guides display the keywords and provide synopses for the films seem very helpful. The structure of the guides is easy-to-follow. They are organised in a clear way.

I’m delighted to hear you think the guides are clear and well structured.

I think that these films could be used with teens and adults. The guides would be very useful for students over B1 level.

Yes. The guides are designed to be used with teens and adults. You’re correct about the level – they’re designed to be used from B1 and above.

As regards “Boyhood” and “Marriage story”, I could probably use “Boyhood” with my 6th grade students because the protagist is only 6 years old at the beginning and gradually he gets older. So at some point he is the same age as my students and in other parts of the movie, he is close to them in terms of age, and shares familiar experiences.

Yes. It would be relatively easy for your students to identify and empathise with the main character as he is of a similar age to them.

I would be concerned with showing some scenes which are intense or scenes which contain offensive language at school.

Good point. While I think it’s important for students to be aware of swear words we have to be careful with younger learners. Similarly, we have to be careful with scenes which show sex or violence when working with younger learners. In class, I never show any scenes with sex or violence to students of any age.

Thanks again for your great evaluation, Stella.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Stella,

Thanks very much for your great answers!

I think that it is really important to incorporate activities which promote students’ visual and multimodal literacy in the classroom. The skill of viewing should be added to the already recognized four skills because the development of this skill can help students reflect, understand better, interpret and provide argumentation on their meaning-making decisions and choices.

A very good summary of the benefits of developing the skill of viewing.

The visual and auditory resources offered by the media nowadays are an indispenable part of the meaning-making process which viewers are involved in. Communication is multimodal by nature, so language should be taught as one of the meaning-making resources available for communication.

Absolutely! These multimodal texts are a vital part of the meaning-making process which viewers are involved in.

The ‘visual manifesto’ video is definitely related to the fifth skill of viewing. The multimodal orchestration of the video makes the viewer understand the significance of making meaning through visual and auditory resources that are involved in a purposeful interplay.

I very much like what you say about of making meaning through visual and auditory resources that are involved in a purposeful interplay.

Thanks again for your excellent responses, Stella.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Stella,

Thanks very much for your great analysis of the scene from American Beauty.

Action takes place in the dining room of the family’s house. The furniture of the room seem classic, probably vintage or old-fashioned, giving the impression that this dining room was decorated some years ago and since then it was left unchanged, like nobody took care of renewing it and making it more modern or cheerful. The curtains are white and strictly bound and motionless, always staying at the same place, the walls are dark-coloured in grey and the frames of the pictures on them are gold.

Excellent analysis of the room, decoration and furniture.

The setting makes the viewer sense a older graciousness which was gradually lost by being neglected, like the relationship of the couple. The family is sitting at a large table, the daughter is sitting in the middle as she is actually placed in her parents’ argument and relational problems. The spouses are in distance, facing each other and having the table between them, indicating a barrier to their communication.

Yes, the setting does give us very valuable information about the people and their relationships.

A jazz song accompanies the couple’s quarrel. Its lyrics contain phrases like “irresponsibly mad at you”, “call me irresponsible” etc which reinforce the meanings that are made through the couple’s quarrel.

Very well noticed. The lyrics do add to the intensity of the scene.

The silence that follows makes the viewer think what has happened for a while.

Yes. The silence does add to the dramatic impact.

The new song that starts after a couple of second sounds similar to the previous one. It shows that the situation has not really changed. It is still problematic.

Excellent observation!

But now the husband comments on the music, saying that he does not like it, as he also feels and now wants to express about his own life.

Yes, his comment on the music does seem to be about what he doesn’t like in his own life.

Mostly medium distance shots are used, showing the person who participates, either verbally or visually through eye movement, or facial expression, in the interaction. So the face of the person but also his/her posture and a part of the setting are shown. Eye-level shots are mostly used, but sometimes low angle shots that demonstrate that the person depicted is positioned higher, because he/she says something important maybe, are also employed.

Great analysis of the shots and angles used in the scene. The low angle shots are usually used to show that the person is of importance and has power.

Cold colours are mostly used for example on the walls and on the curtains. The man and the daughter also wear cold coloured clothes while the woman wears more lively colours, yet in a strict style top.

Excellent analysis of the colours and tones associated with each character.

Lighting comes only from the candles, showing that light is rare and little in their life. Their life seems to be dull and dark.

Great analysis of the light. Did you notice that the mother and father are shown in very dark light while the daughter is lit by the candlelight to show she is the good person in the scene?

Thanks again for your great analysis, Stella.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Maria Luísa,

Thanks very much for your great answers!

I’m totally and utterly in love with the activities. I was hooked throughout our last webinar. Knowing myself and my students it’s obvious for me that the next thing to do is to try the activities in my classrooms with my students. Our schoolyear has just begun!

I’m delighted to hear you like the activities so much and are enthusiastic about trying them out with your students.

These activities are vey much ideal for a lot of reasons, namely, they use short films which can be stopped and used frame by frame so to speak, they are innovative, full of creativity, bringing contemporary issues (sometimes sensitive and difficult ones) into the classroom, which may spark debate, develop critical-thinking, stimulate feelings of empathy, help someone dealing with an issue when sheding a different light on that exact issue, well the benefits are immense(in my opinion).

This is a really nice summary of the benefits of using this these short films.

I’ve never used these type of short films, but I’ve used trailers instead applying some of the activities described. I usually start by carefully choosing an appropriate one I believe they might not have seen or know about and start by just writing the title on board and elicit what they think it may refer to; students usually work in pairs and write down their ideas; Usually ask them to “dress” the character(s) in both the physical and psychological aspects and I continue by showing parts of the trailer and students try to imagine and create a narrative; a before of what they are watching, the story, and how it might end. The all story is written (I give them identical A4 pieces of paper), we have a board, students do not sign their stories which are pinned on the board, I mark them A, B, C, D…, students read the stories in silence. Then I ask (answers are not mandatory) who would like to say which story was his/her favourite and why. I also recommend (strongly) they see the original film to compare.

I really like how you’ve trailers with your students. The activity is really well structured and scaffolded.

Thanks again for your excellent responses, Maria Luísa.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Maria Luísa,

Thanks very much for your great answers!

I have to be honest and state that I like them all, think they’re all very usable, adaptable to so many different students and levels, great to work all the different skills, “force” students out of their slumber sometimes (’cause it’s a different, interesting way to learn) and can include all of them, excluding no student

I’m delighted you like the activities so much. One of the beautiful things about using silent short films is that they work as a leveller which helps to include all students.

on what concerns the written text to be done as homework, I’d rather my students would do them with me in class, so I could guide or give some help to the ones who might need it. In class I can always encourage them, at home I’ve so may times found out, it’s difficult.

This is an excellent point and I don’t see any problem whatsoever in doing the writing activities in class.

I’ve already used, with students of different levels, what I think was a variant of “Back to Back” but it was with a written text using a “reader” and a “writer”, called ‘running dictation’ (but it was a bit loud and troublesome, but students enjoyed the feeling of competition); I’ve basically used these activities but not with short silent films.

This makes perfect sense as I have essentially adapted these already existing activities to use with short films. Again, it’s a case off not having to reinvent the wheel when it comes to working with film and video!

I do recognize that having no dialogues or very little is a fantastic way to get to a vast audience, without the barrier of the language, thus promoting both the use of the target language, students’imagination and creativity, fostering also their sense of belonging, community, and hopefully empathy, especially when dealing with sensitive issues that these short films are capable of raising in the classroom.

Another excellent point! Removing the barrier of spoken language is key to making film more inclusive in the language. There’s a need to move away from always using film and video as ‘glorified listening’ classroom. There is definitely a place for using film and video for listening comprehension but it shouldn’t be the only or even main use. Students are now watching so much more film, TV and video outside the classroom than just 10 years ago. Their listening comprehension is improving as a result si we don’t necessarily need to use film and video in the classroom for listening comprehension all the time. We can also use it to develop spoken and written communication and developing values such as empathy and compassion.

Thanks again for your excellent responses, Maria Luísa.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Maria Luísa,

Thanks very much for your great evaluation of the generic activity worksheets.

Totally agree with all the benefits stated. We are dealing with young people whose world is moving at the speed of light and whose attention span is not what we teachers would like it to be (let’s be honest, our own is not at its best at times…), so short films have all the ingredients to grab their attention, motivate them to work with, be willing to use the language, learn new vocabulary and also (hopefully) enjoy doing it! I tend to be optimistic, and I like to think and believe that it might even inspire some of my students to have a go at making short films.

Absolutely! Short films in the language classroom do have all of these benefits you’ve stated.

I’ve read the 5 generic activity worksheets and I can say that I could have all my students to work with them.

I’m glad to hear you think you could use all 5 of the worksheets with your students.

I would need to be very careful with the choice of either the short film or the video or the ad or even the film sound track.

Yes. The choice of short film or video is vitally important.

or example for my lower level students the activity sheet for video ads has verys easy, direct type of questions and it’s very good to promote speaking and writing (a short summary); the setting analysis sheet, would work better with my older students, as I think they would need to use some inference skills; the sound grid sheet can be used for any level, very good to develop/apply vocabulary/language such as adjectives, quantifiers; the film sound track, I find it very adaptable. I could use with different levels, might change some of the words in the questions depending on the students (level, attention span, the need of pre-teaching vocabulary).

I really like the way you’ve analysed which activity sheets would work best with each group of students. Your analysis makes perfect sense to me.

In fact, I find them all very usable and adaptable to any level.

This is an excellent point. The worksheet activities need to be adapted to suit the level.

Thanks again for your great evaluation, Maria Luísa.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Maria Luísa,

Thanks very much for your great analysis of the Seven-stage Extensive Viewing Framework and how you could incoporate it into your institution.

First and foremost, I strongly believe students will benefit greatly when I use this Seven-stage Extensive Viewing Framework with them (because I’m certainly going to give it a go), both my lower level or my mid/higher level ones.

I’m delighted to know you’re so enthusiastic about the framework and feel it would benefit your students

Arrange a meeting with both my departament coordinator and fellow teachers of English to let them in into this fantastic system/tool/strategy, sharing the work I’ve been doing

A meeting with your departament coordinator and fellow teachers to explain the framework makes perfect sense.

Present it to the school Director. I would prepare a project/presentation where I would use all the knowledge and strategies I’m learning here, stating what it is, the expected goals, how it would benefit students on what the learning of English is concerned, when watching/listening to a film

The preparation of a project and later presentation of the project to the school director is a logical second step.

I would dare to invite the Director of the school to participate in a session as a trainee, together with other colleagues where we would view a film and I would apply the Seven-stage Extensive Viewing Framework, so she could better grasp and understand the idea.

I love the idea of having your director and colleagues participating in a practical application of the framework is a brilliant idea and one that would help you ‘sell’ the framework to them.

I would also promote the idea of creating a Film Club in the school Library (this could benefit a greater number of students).

I love the idea of creating a Film Club in the school library!

This project could also pave the way for teachers of other foreign languages that are taught at my school, such as French.

Expanding the Film Club to other language is an excellent idea.

Funds to buy the necessary technology (projectors – good ones); some resistance from the Library coordinator as there are other projects already using the space.

I like the fact that you’ve considered possible obstacles in the implementation of the project.

Thanks again for your great analysis, Maria Luísa.

All the best,

Kieran

[Kieran]

Hi Victoria,

Thanks very much for introducing yourself. Excellent to have you on the course.

It’s great to have a teacher of a language other than English on the course, as it adds another perspective for all of us.

I’m looking forward to working with you on the course.

All the best,

Kieran

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