Classroom reality is that at least one student will be absent or in the office when I show a movie. The best way I’ve found to catch them up is this warm-up that I call “papelitos.”
I made a set of “cards” on Quizlet that had the major events that happened during the previous class. I also made a set of pictures to go with each event. I wrote them in the present tense for my level 1 students and in the past tense for my level 2. Then I mixed up the cards. This may sound silly, but just by adding a large colorful paper clip made them curious about the activity. I tried to mix up how I contained them each day (buckets, colorful baggies, chip clips, silly bands, etc.). Sometimes it’s the little details that matter.
They group up and put the cards in order based on what they watched the previous day. Absent students can still help with the language while learning what happened in the movie. I usually set a timer, and then show the answers (photos like this) on the board. It’s exciting to hear them figure out the new vocabulary. I repeat this activity each day after they watch a section of the movie. In the end, I mix them all up to “quiz” them about the plot of the movie. You can ask about the climax, the conflicts and resolution. Another ELA connection! (Opps! I misspelled Marcela’s name on the cards.)
Q&A with song lyrics
Recently I saw this blog post by Sharon Birch. She made it for song lyrics, but I think something similar can be done with a movie. Something new to try!
How can absent students catch up when they miss part of a movie?
I forgot to mention that this activity prepares intermediate students to NARRATE later on.
Brilliant, but it must take you a ton of time to make the cards and in color too! I suppose once you create sets for a movie you can reuse them each time you show the movie so in that way it’s worthwhile and doesn’t really take too much teacher prep time! Terrific idea for keeping students engaged throughout the movie experience. With my 7th graders I have been showing movies as a reward 20 minutes on Fridays, not as a route to understanding culture but I think I could adopt this model for any movie I show whatever the reason. We’ve only watched three movies this year – Buscando a Nemo, Avengers en español y Home Alone en español – Thank you for another terrific idea!
Welcome! I think it took me 20 minutes to make the cards for the entire movie. Quizlet formats the pictures really quickly. They just have limited pictures to choose from.
I am working on creating a set like this for my classes coming up…but how did you find pictures of the characters from Selena? Yours look so great, but I could only get a couple of pictures of just Selena herself! Any search tips you have would be appreciated!!
On Quizlet, I got lucky that “Selena” brought up 2 good pics. The rest are generic. Ex. I searched “Mexican food” for the restaurant. If you pay a fee, it lets you import your own. OR you can make these cards on PowerPoint and print in the “6 slides per page” feature.
Love your ideas!! Thank you!!!
I just reblogged this so that anyone looking at my thread about teaching with El Internado (a Spanish tv series) will see your awesome ideas!
Thanks! I’m curious to check out this series!
Tip: Especially the first time you try these, see if you can get students to make some of these activities for you. I show examples and then they make them as homework options.
I love using cortometraje in class–few if any have seen these “artsy” films outside of class.
Today we viewed “La dama y la muerte” which has almost no speaking http://youtu.be/tnJCFVUhghU
“Adios, Mamá” is another short that gets kids to talking after. http://youtu.be/PVzm1BsUzuk
I take video still screen shots (which you can upload into quizlet) then either put them into power point as discussion starters or use comic life/word to create a comic book layout where students respond to scenes. We write “quien soy” type riddles on index cards. We take the part of minor characters and give their stories.
The brother’s name is Abie.
glad i stumbled upon this via another blog – this is a great idea! i’ll have to incorporate this when we start doing movie units in my upper level classes
Love your papelitos. I’d like to use them for the Selena movie, but don’t have time to make them. Do you sell them on teacherpayteachers.com?
I don’t sell them because the pictures are copyrighted. My summer goal is to put up a Selena packet and have at least the phrases on that activity.