Planning lessons around a movie,

film or video.
Didáctica de la Especialidad Media II
Prof. Ezia Valenzuela G
 Why videos?

⚫ Highly motivating
⚫ Real language
⚫ No need of sophisticated material
 What activities?
⚫ 1. Pre-viewing. Activities done before watching the video. They help
prompt student schema and background knowledge. Often a
way for the teacher to assess student’s knowledge and interest.
⚫ 2. Viewing: Students have a task while watching the video. They
perform tasks and activities during the video, either with or without
the teacher pausing the video.
⚫ 3. Post Viewing: After watching the video, the students practice
the language forms and vocabulary encountered in the video.
Students might discuss, retell, roleplay or complete exercises
during this stage.
 Many teachers find that video provides
considerable benefits in English language
teaching and learning. Some gains that may
be expected are:

⚫ Students engaged.
⚫ They listen to real language.
⚫ Movies and videos are valuable source to identify and
see how these functions are worked out by native
speakers.
 Many teachers find that video provides
considerable benefits in English language
teaching and learning. Some gains that may
be expected are:

⚫ They present contextualized functions: we also see their

social background, intention fears, expectations and
attitude towards their reality and other characters.
• Functions of irony and humor are not frequently found
in most teaching textbooks: they are part of any
conversational discourse.
 Many teachers find that video provides
considerable benefits in English language
teaching and learning. Some gains that may
be expected are:

⚫ Activities can be applied at different taxonomy

levels: recognition, discrimination, production
and critical thinking.
⚫ When should we use a video?
⚫ How much should be played?
⚫ How many times should the video be
played?
⚫ Some ideas around the stages of a video
lesson:
• Before viewing
• Viewing the video
• Follow up
Educational videos

⚫ What do you miss most?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpcT_D6hhbQ&t=144s
⚫ How much is it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmYVz4EXsPg
⚫ Do you like movies?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xthcpmG9SA
▪ What are you doing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yCkbGGHygI
▪ Where are your things?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdJNzv2OKOQ
Resources

https://busyteacher.org/classroom_activities-
listening/movie-worksheets/
Shorts for the EFL classroom

Geri's Game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IYRC7g2ICg&list=PLM-
Z_y8eeqXwSxwyWsOgaBnN7eDxvwg2o
For The Birds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nbVTUYVKxg&list=PLM-
Z_y8eeqXwSxwyWsOgaBnN7eDxvwg2o&index=1
Snack Attack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38y_1EWIE9I&list=PLM-
Z_y8eeqXwSxwyWsOgaBnN7eDxvwg2o&index=6
The present
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjqiU5FgsYc
Watch your feelings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AGgbIQyqR8
Videos and grammar recognition

⚫ Past Simple and Present Simple | Talking about Interests and

Hobbies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSGLS1ViAcE
▪ Mother’s Day adjectives

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r23qtPrBeQ
Video clips

⚫ How is she feeling?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOkyK
yVFnSs
What strategies can we implement?

⚫ Tip #1
Keep the Video Short (2-4 minutes)
- attention spans are limited when watching visual content. Chunk up,
divide up videos with focused activities.
- Tip #2
Always preview the video.
- Be sure to watch the whole video yourself before using it in class. You
never know what content might be inappropriate or hurtful to your
students.
What strategies can we implement?

⚫ Strategy # 1
Discuss It. Give students some previewing questions for the topic of the
video. Students discuss and prompt their background knowledge. Watch
the video. Now, discuss again using some prepared questions.

⚫ Strategy #2
Report It. Students are reporters. List the 5 Ws on the board. After
watching the video, the students must answer the 5 W questions. Who-
What- Where- When- Why
What strategies can we implement?

⚫ Strategy #3
Listen For It. Teachers prepare a cloze version of the
transcript (words are missing). Students listen for the words. Watch the video
again, pausing and checking the answers together. Another option is to provide
students with a graphic organizer or chart. They watch the video and fill in the
categories.

⚫ Strategy #4
Re-tell It. Students in small groups re-tell the story or the action of the video. One
student starts and others must continue to re-tell by adding a sentence. Perfect for
practicing transitions (First, Next, Then, Finally).
Re-ordering activities are also great. Students are given sentences or pictures and
must put them back in the right sequence while re-telling the story.
What strategies can we implement?

⚫ Strategy #5
Predict It. Simply pause the video at a point and ask the students, “What do you
think will happen next?” Students discuss and give their own answers. Provide a
prompt for the students like
⚫ I (don’t) think that ________ (won’t) will ________________________.

⚫ Strategy #6
Play the sound only. Have students discuss what the scene might
look like.
What strategies can we implement?

⚫ Strategy #7
Silent viewing. By adjusting the volume control, students can watch
the film without sound. This is very useful. Students can focus only on the
visual information as a way of ‘previewing’ the written text. They can make
predictions, supply their own dialogue, or give a simultaneous description
of what they see.

⚫ Strategy #8
Still picture. Using the pause or freeze frame button will give a still
picture. This can be used to concentrate on vocabulary, to predict what
will happen, to check comprehension or as a cue to remind students of
what they have seen.
References

⚫ Intajuck, Y. (2013). Maximizing the Utilization of Video in the EFL/ESL

Classroom.
⚫ Walker, C. (1999). T e a c h e r ’ s G u i d e t o U s i n g F i l m a n d T
V.PenguinReaders
▪ https://es.englishcentral.com/browse/videosREE
▪ https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/esl-movie-lessons/