[Maria Luísa Sobral]

After watching the selected scene of ‘American Beauty’, my 2 chosen Ss are Story and Setting and the 2 Cs are Colour and Light and Composition.
I’ve seen the film, when it came out, but I’m analysing the scene per se as if I’m seeing it for the first time. All the elements are very well conjugated to take the viewer into a dining-room from a possible suburban house, inhabited by a middle aged couple with a daughter. It’s dinner time and there are three people at a rather large table. The camera draws the viewer’s attention to the man, casually dressed in dull colours, screaming in contrast with the ones worn by the woman, who is all dressed up, each one sitting at one ehas nd of the table, distant, very distant; it’s not difficult for the viewer to painfully understand that there is no love lost between the couple. There’s also, the third character, the daughter, who arrives late, also dressed in uninteresting colours, but with eyes well marked by a strong black eyeliner, giving the impression of not knowing what she’s doing there. The viewer senses a dense, heavy atmosphere, there is almost no light, colours are dark, almost gloomy, ominous, in spite of the light music playing.
Appearances seem to be an important value to portray as the daughter has to stay when all hell breaks loose amidst a dialogue full of irony, hypocritical remarks and rage, starting with the wife who nervously laughing announces that the husband had left his job. The crescendo builds up to the drastic moment when the husband throws the serving dish with the wilted asparagus (another irony?) at the wall, breaking and deciding that the music was to be another one.
Although the camera has taken the viewer through the unpleasant row of a middle aged, unfulfilled in crisis couple, it also showed a sort of lifeless teenager who didn’t dare to speak, maybe because she was afraid or maybe because she was totally disconnected. And as the viewer, I felt for her, watching this very short scene of a satirical, lively, domestical tale genre.
MLuísa

[Maria Luísa Sobral]

1. Totally agree with these governments. I had never heard about ‘Viewing’ being the 5th skill to integrate the curricula in any educational system, let alone being an active part of the teaching/learning process in the mentioned countries. We, human beings are reason and emotion and multidimensional and live in an increasingly multivisual, multimodal world and need to learn and acquire all the necessary tools to better understand and live in it.
Undoubtedly important, speaking, listening, reading and writing,can only be enhanced by viewing, which will help students how to actively use their previously acquired knowledge to better understand reality and the complexity of the world we live in and how fast it’s changing.
On what the VTS strategies used in the different classrooms are concerned,I think they all gave students a voice (from primary to secondary students) contributing to a more lively, attentive, cooperative where everyone wanted to participate. Images are really powerful and are at the core of our reality.Classes also showed students revealing respect for the colleagues’points of view and ideas, validation from the teacher, more guided in the primary case. Another important aspect was to give students time to observe, think, let what they were viewing “talk” to them, predict, present their interpretation, trying to reflect on what was shown to them. I think whatever fosters our curiosity is always worth trying.
I liked the See, Think, Wonder framework the most, especially the video showing the secondary class. The images shown were powerful, down to earth, about nowadays reality, the state our world is in, with its all disparities. The 5th skill in action teaching our students by providing them with the tools to deal with a multivisual reality.
2. The video ‘A Visual Manifesto for Language Teaching’ totally relates to the 5th skill. There is sound, a beautiful piece of music and it’s narrated by a beautiful female voice. However the video, as short as it is, are all the images, all the frames, the pixels, the movement, the dark and the light, the presence of colour and its absence. Images are really at the core of our very existence,from the moment we are born and blessed with the gift of sight.
However, we teachers in particular, do need to stop and slow down, so we can think, discern, select, go deep, think critacally, reflect, become a whole human being to be able to teach our students and help them acquire and develop this such valid skill, which may led them a better future. I think the message is be actiive, be selective, don’t let yourself be engulfed by the bombarding of all that comes through your devices or anywhere you look and above all try to see beneath the surface and understand the message. And yes, I absolutely agree with it.
MLuísa

[Maria Luísa Sobral]

Hello everyone! It was a great pleasure meeting you all yesterday :).
I’m Maria Luísa, my surname (sorry rather a long one) is Conniot Dias Sobral. I’m a teacher of English at Escola Secundária Tomás Cabreira, a state secondary school, in Faro, Algarve, South of Portugal. I usually teach vocational courses (what we call cursos professionais) to teens aged between 15 and 18 years old. Hopefully at the end of these 3 years, learners will be able to join the work market or they may proceed with their studies, should they choose to and sucessfully take the necessary national exam(s) to apply to a university.
By taking this course, I’m very much looking forward to learning new skills and strategies to meet my students’ expectations, even surprise them and get these youngsters interested enough to collaborate with gusto.
Furthermore, I consider films and videos a fantastic way to capture their attention and interest. My students are all different, all from different backgrounds, but I strongly believe that films/videos are something they all like to some degree. So learning how to use them effectively in my teaching practice will no doubt be a plus. Another goal, I would very much like to achieve is to learn (at least get the basics) how to choose films/videos and build/adapt resources that will have purpose and meaning both for my students and myself. I’m truly ready to work together with you all.Thank you. MLuísa

[Author]

Posts