Showing a movie was a success because it gave all of them a new set of common information, increased their motivation to learn, and inspired me to find a connection to the world beyond our city.
To wrap up the movie, I gave them a simple old-fashioned test about the movie appropriate to their proficiency levels. For level one, I focused on simple questions about relationships, personalities, and activities.
For level 2, I gave them more detailed questions and used the past tenses. I also included an open-ended essay. “Tell me about what you learned about the Dominican Republic from the movie, the speaker, and your research.” I asked them to write it in Spanish and allowed them to use English if they didn’t know the word. Later I gave them a few moments with a dictionary to look up the crucial missing words.
For both levels, I had an individual research project that they are going to present to the class (in target language). This was my second attempt to do a project-based learning activity. They picked a topic they wanted to know more about and choose a way to present it (videos, Glogster, collages, spoken presentation, artwork). I gave them a stamp sheet that had some generic ideas and guidelines. Some chose to work in a group. Others wanted to work alone. Along the way, I showed examples of how to find the information in Spanish. Also I just chatted with each student about their progress. I am excited to see the results of their creativity!
Overall the movies inspired us all to learn more. I think that students were “fired up” about the social injustices that they learned about, especially with the movie “In the time of the Butterflies.” Now I’m thinking that my curriculum needs to include more topics like this. Furthermore, every unit needs to include an experience (movie, speaker, workshop, art, etc.) and a world connection. Kara Jacobs asked teachers on Twitter about thematic units. I follow her site for great resources. This post by SpanishPlans got me thinking about perspectives. So glad I have the summer to update to include all that we have shared!
How do you assess their learning after a movie?
We just got done watching La Misma Luna: another awesome movie. Although we didn’t officially assess this year, we did give some really nice reflection questions for after the movie. I’ll be happy to forward them if interested. I really like your ideas and may try to implement them next year. Thanks again!
For more advanced students, I like to assign various role plays after showing a film. I choose characters in the films and hypothetical situations related to the film’s plot. The students must then perform the role plays for a speaking grade. I allow English notes, but no target language notes for level 3 and 4 students. I assess not only their speaking proficiency, but also the extent to which their role plays demonstrate an understanding of the film’s plot/themes/etc.
I recently showed LE BALLON ROUGE to my 8th graders (mostly NH to IL). One of my wrap up activities was for the students to create a Pic Collage (they each have an iPad) to show, and explain with text, where the boy goes to with all of the ballons at the end of the movie. I also asked them to create activities that could be used to help expand the film study (and other thoughts about the unit, through Survey Monkey). One of the best responses was for students to create a dialogue/scene between the boy and his red balloon. I LOVED IT! Thank goodness for their creativity…how could I not have thought of such a cool idea? Ah…youth.
Did you have any difficulty with your parents or principal in showing that movie? I have wanted to show it but know it has a few scenes which might cause problems.
This was supposed to be in reference to the teacher that showed La Misma Luna.
I showed this movie to 8th graders. They loved it and I didn’t see anything questionable. Which scenes are you worried about?
Mentioning fired up for social injustices, I believed my level 3s were mature enough and capable enough language wise to tackle a study of la guerra sucia in Argentina y Las Madres de la Plaza due Mayo. Part of our study included watching clips of “La historia oficial” (censored in some scenes for violence and language). They got so into it, they begged to watch the rest! So as a followup, they had to write a letter to a character in the movie or to a generic madre/abuela, militar, o desaparecido. I tied it to their studies of the Holocaust (they read Night in 10th grade). I show a lot of different media with lots of activities, but I have to say I was so.pleased and they took an interest in such a complex topic.
This is what I’m wanting to do to motivate them. Do you have a site or way to share any of your resources?
I initially put together a packet with info on Argentina, articles on las madres/las abuelas in English (I wanted them to have a firm understanding in the input before I required TL output), short guides for the La historia oficial scenes, a YouTube madre interview I found, and a YouTube montage vid using U2’s “Mothers of the Disappeared.” I didn’t write down how I lead discussion with each part of the packet, but I certainly can. I can email it or Wiki whatever if you want 🙂
Sarah, I know this goes back quite a ways, but I would love to see what you did with this. I’m preparing a unit on La Guerra Sucia for next semester right now. I’m on twitter at @lovemysummer
Hi Sarah- I was wondering if you could email or post your worksheets and resources. I would love to include such a unit for my students this year!
gracias,
Mayce