Question and Answer: Watching A Movie

With such a great diversity of content, youre guaranteed to find
something that your class will love. Theres video for all themes,
teaching points and skill levels, and the bite-sized clips are perfect for
holding students attention during in-class activities.
1. Question and Answer

This activity is simple but efficient After teaching a lesson, find a video
clip that fits the subject matter that needs to be reviewed. Most of these
types of clips should only be 2-5 minutes and can vary in subject matter
from introducing yourself to restaurant etiquette. Give each student
a questionnaire filled with questions related to the video. Although
questions should be specific to each different conversational clip, here
are a few general questions that would be good to use:
What is a different way to start the conversation?

What are the people in the video talking about?
Where is this conversation taking place and why are the people
there?
2. What Happens Next?

This activity is similar to the Question and Answer activity. Instead of
having students fill out a questionnaire after watching the video, they
should instead practice predicting what will come next after the brief
conversation. This can be done by way of writing down their answers or
simply sharing aloud in class or both!
*If the clip has a clear ending with little room for prediction, stop the clip
a minute early and have the students guess what will happen next. Then
play the rest of the video to see if they were right.
Activities using conversation clips work best for conversational
comprehension and vocabulary review. Theyre good to do at the end of
a day of learning new material so that students can see what they have
learned in its proper context.
3. Act-It-Out
Act-It-Out is a student favorite and can be great for beginners or even
advanced students. After watching a movie (the entire film or just a few
scenes), put students into groups of two to five (enough for each person
in the group to have their own role). Once the students are in their
groups, instruct them to write their own script mirroring one of the
scenes in the movie.
Beginner level students can write down the script word for word. For
more advanced students, encourage them to find different ways to get
the same point across. Have all of the groups act out their scenes in
front of the class and have a great time!
4. Tell the Story

This activity can be as simple or as complex as the teacher or the
students need it to be. On the simple end, after watching a movie have
the students write a one to two paragraph summary of what happened
in the movie. For advanced students, require summaries to be longer
and have greater depth. Turn this in-class assignment into a project by
making it a full-length essay with a poster or PowerPoint presentation
including a timeline of the movie.
5. Who, What, When, Where, Why?

If the teacher chooses to play an entire film in class, this is a great
activity to ensure that students are paying close attention to the whole
movie. Before the movie, instruct students to separate a piece of paper
into four columns. On the top of each column, write the words Who,
What, When, Where, and Why.
After each scene plays, pause the film and have the students
answer Whowas in the scene, What they were doing in it, When they
were there, Wherethey were, and Why they were there. One great way
to go about this activity is to pick a weekly movie and play a little bit of
it each day. Students will eventually get into the routine of playing this
game, and theyll need your assistance less and less as time goes on.
6. Character Descriptions
Before playing a film clip, write on the board the names of all the
characters in the film. Give the students a brief explanation of each
character. Have each student pick a character based on these
descriptions. (Its okay if students overlap and have the same
characters). During the film, tell students to pay special attention to
their character and take notes on who they are and what they do. At the
end of the movie, have students write one to two paragraphs about their
character. Here are some starter questions to set you on the right path:
What is your characters name?

What is their job?
Where do they live?
What are their goals?
Are they in a relationship? If so, with whom?
For advanced students, make this into a bigger project by asking them to
prepare a presentation, researching the character and the actor that
plays the character.
7. Tell The Future/ The Sequel

This activity can be adjusted according to how much time there is to
spend working on it.
If you have 10-15 minutes, try it out this way. Play a scene from a movie
and have students either write or shout out predictions of what they
think will happen next. Play the next scene and see whos right!
If you have more time, theres another more involved approach to this
activity. After watching the movie, have students get into groups of 3-5
and write a sequel to the movie. Have them create a brief story-line of
their movie. Theyll need to name the main characters that they want to
include along with any additional characters. Then theyll have to give it
a catchy title! Students enjoy getting very creative with this activity and
the presentations are always fun to watch!
Activities with movies and films are great for keeping students engaged
and having fun. Theyll be learning without even knowing it! Stuck on
what movies or TV shows to play in the classroom?
Here are some great ones to start with:
For Kids:
Shrek
Finding Nemo
Charlie Brown
Toy Story (1, 2, & 3)
For Adults:
Father of the Bride
A League of Their Own
The Great Gatsby
Meet the Parents
When Harry Met Sally
A Beautiful Mind
The Truman Show
Thelma and Louise
The Great Debaters
8. Current Events
This is a great activity that encourages students to be working on their
English even when at home. Have students get into a rhythm of doing
one current event presentation per week (or per month for larger
classes). Instruct students to watch the news at home and pick a current
event that is likely to be talked about multiple times daily. For their
presentation, they should include a brief clip of the current event and
have some good information about the event to present to their class.
9. Be the Newscaster
Give students time in class to research the internet for news videos and
instruct them to pick two to three of their favorites and take notes on
them. This can be done individually or in groups of two or three. Have
students write brief scripts as though they were the newscasters
reporting on the news and then have them perform their work in front of
the class! For extra fun, add a news logo for their background using the
projector. Students that arent presenting should take notes on what
their newscaster peers are reporting.
10. Solve the Problem

For this activity, play a 10-20 minute news clip explaining a current
situation thats happening. The problem can be a small local problem or
a global crisis. Be sure to explain the highlights of the problem and make
sure that the students have a good grasp of what the problem is. Then,
have students get into groups, come up with solutions to the problem
and present the solutions in front of the class.
*To avoid conflict, try to stay away from problems that involve heavy
political stances.
Using ESL Videos in class is not only a lot of fun for both the teacher and
students, but it helps take students to a whole new level of speaking
English!

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With such a great diversity of content, youre guaranteed to find

1. Question and Answer

What is a different way to start the conversation?

2. What Happens Next?

4. Tell the Story

5. Who, What, When, Where, Why?

What is your characters name?

7. Tell The Future/ The Sequel

10. Solve the Problem

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