movies

[Narine Hovhannissyan]

Please help me to understand if I am doing it right or wrong. The problem is that when I am watching movie with my AP or Fr IV students I am not stoping the movie for every 15-20min. And wathing a movie can take two classes at least. But after every day we discuss the passage before finishing the classe and I assign them to write a two or three paragraph about the passage, or analize the characters. I mean we are having different activities regarding the movie. One of our ESL teachers said that it is absolutely wrong, and that I have to stop watching every 15 min., and of course with no subtitles, though I do not basically put the subtitles, and if I put them it is only in French. So, please explain if I really do it all wrong. You all have so much experience than I do, so I am counting on your help.

Thanks a lot!

--

Narine Hovhannissyan

Head of Language Department

AP/French Teacher

QSI International School of Yerevan

tel: 374. 10. 349130

www.qsi.org

 

[Lucy Wise-Gladwell]

There is no absolute right or wrong. You do what you feel benefits your students and what feels comfortable to you. I use movies fairly often, and I do many different things with them depending on the level and interest of the class. With a level 1or 2 I see no problem with using subtitles, then give vocabulary to re-tell the story in French. I just showed "Petit Nicolas " in level 2, with subtitles in English. We had vocabulary for each part, and we used parts of 3 classes to see it. The kids loved it. They kept track of the characters as the movie progressed, and wrote an outline of the conflicts and resolutions and added their own opinion of the movie at the end. They also divided the movie up into 8 scenes and acted it out, all in their level of French. They did a wonderful job. (I almost always let students act out scenes in their own French. They really jump into it!)

I do similar activities in higher level classes, but expect a more extensive output from them. I have never shown a movie entirely in French without subtitles! My students are in their 4th year at their highest level, and they would feel completely defeated by 2 hours of French! Remember too that movies often have slang, unfamiliar accents, improper grammar, etc., etc. I choose pieces to see without subtitles, or show sections with French subtitles, discuss what they think they heard, and then show the same scene with English subtitles so they see exactly what they got. They usually are proud to see what they understood, and then accept more pieces in French because they're "getting it".

I'm not trying to say "do what I do". What I'm saying is there are many ways to do a good job and you as the teacher are the best one to decide what works. Do your students look forward to movies? Do they use things they've learned from a movie in later work? Do they refer back to them in critical thinking activities? Then you're doing fine. Exhale and carry on....

Sent from my iPad

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[Pat Thibault]

What a fine way to reassure and give thoughts at the same time. Well put!

--
Patricia Thibault, M.A, French
Greely High School, room 146
207.829.4805 x229
pthi...@msad51.org
advisor to the senior class, La Société Honoraire de Français, et le cercle français

Language is an anonymous, collective, and unconscious art; the result of the creativity of thousands of generations. -Edward Sapir, anthropologist, linguist (1884-1939)

[Elaine Burg]

That is an excellent response. Teaching strategies are not one size fits all. I think keeping your objectives in mind will help guide you to how you should present movies and their content within the context of your classroom.

Elaine

[Narine Hovhannissyan]

Thank you very much. That was very helpful and reassuring. As I said I use many activities with the movies I show in class depending on my objectives. But as I mentioned in my previous email, the problem is that that ESL teacher is traying to make me feel wrong, while I have wonderfull results with my students. I am working in an American school, which is functioning in Armenia, and French is one of our foreign languages that we offer at school. And I must say that probably out of 80students 45 are taking French, which makes me believe that French department is doing much better than 3 other languages offered. And I should say that Armenia is not a francophone country. And I feel very confortable not stopping the movie for every 15 min. as I am sure of my students abilities and interests. I may sound very arrogant an furious at the same time, and I am always open to suggestions and advises, but my students' results are more reassuring. 
Thanks again for your responses.

On Saturday, May 19, 2012, Elaine Burg wrote:

That is an excellent response. Teaching strategies are not one size fits all. I think keeping your objectives in mind will help guide you to how you should present movies and their content within the context of your classroom.

Elaine

On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 11:33 AM, Pat Thibault <pthi...@msad51.org> wrote:

What a fine way to reassure and give thoughts at the same time. Well put!

On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 11:19 AM, Lucy Wise-Gladwell <lucyt...@hotmail.com> wrote:

There is no absolute right or wrong. You do what you feel benefits your students and what feels comfortable to you. I use movies fairly often, and I do many different things with them depending on the level and interest of the class. With a level 1or 2 I see no problem with using subtitles, then give vocabulary to re-tell the story in French. I just showed "Petit Nicolas " in level 2, with subtitles in English. We had vocabulary for each part, and we used parts of 3 classes to see it. The kids loved it. They kept track of the characters as the movie progressed, and wrote an outline of the conflicts and resolutions and added their own opinion of the movie at the end. They also divided the movie up into 8 scenes and acted it out, all in their level of French. They did a wonderful job. (I almost always let students act out scenes in their own French. They really jump into it!)

I do similar activities in higher level classes, but expect a more extensive output from them. I have never shown a movie entirely in French without subtitles! My students are in their 4th year at their highest level, and they would feel completely defeated by 2 hours of French! Remember too that movies often have slang, unfamiliar accents, improper grammar, etc., etc. I choose pieces to see without subtitles, or show sections with French subtitles, discuss what they think they heard, and then show the same scene with English subtitles so they see exactly what they got. They usually are proud to see what they understood, and then accept more pieces in French because they're "getting it".

I'm not trying to say "do what I do". What I'm saying is there are many ways to do a good job and you as the teacher are the best one to decide what works. Do your students look forward to movies? Do they use things they've learned from a movie in later work? Do they refer back to them in critical thinking activities? Then you're doing fine. Exhale and carry on....

Sent from my iPad

On May 19, 2012, at 8:15 AM, "Narine Hovhannissyan" <narine.hov...@arm.qsi.org> wrote:

Please help me to understand if I am doing it right or wrong. The problem is that when I am watching movie with my AP or Fr IV students I am not stoping the movie for every 15-20min. And wathing a movie can take two classes at least. But after every day we discuss the passage before finishing the classe and I assign them to write a two or three paragraph about the passage, or analize the characters. I mean we are having different activities regarding the movie. One of our ESL teachers said that it is absolutely wrong, and that I have to stop watching every 15 min., and of course with no subtitles, though I do not basically put the subtitles, and if I put them it is only in French. So, please explain if I really do it all wrong. You all have so much experience than I do, so I am counting on your help.

Thanks a lot!

--

Narine Hovhannissyan

Head of Language Department

AP/French Teacher

QSI International School of Yerevan

tel: 374. 10. 349130

www.qsi.org

 

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