Teaching Ideas for film "Witness"?
Kelly Weibel
In our IEP, we use this film for our level 3 students
(low-intermediate). It works pretty well at this level because there is
so much that happens in the film that doesn't require a lot of language
to understand.
We have broken the film into 8 segments, and for each segment we have
vocabulary and exercises that we have written. During the class (this is
for our listening and speaking class) we usually go over the vocabulary
first and then watch the entire segment (usually about 7-12 minutes).
The exercises consist of some comprehension questions and discussion
questions, so we watch the segment a second time, replaying those parts
that students need to do the exercises. We have them working in groups.
Most of the discussion questions focus on cultural differences between
the Amish and the "English" in the movie, and then go on to having the
students compare their own cross-cultural experiences in the USA, etc.
This works pretty well in an ESL setting; for EFL you might have to take
a little bit different approach. Each segment of the movie also has
listening exercises (mostly cloze type) for the students to do for
homework in our listening center.
Sometimes, to introduce the movie, I have the students read a short
passage on the Amish called "The Plain People" in *Even More True
Stories*, whose author and publisher now escape me. (Sorry, I'm on
quarter break now, and all that stuff is in my office!)
I think this is a great movie for ESL students and they enjoy the
romance and excitement of it too!
Hope this helps.
Kelly Roberts Weibel
IEP, Edmonds CC, Lynnwood, WA USA
kwe...@edcc.ctc.edu
Mervin Graham
differences. It is a good movie to use for setting up according to a
method I learned called Play It Again Sam" from John and Elsa Bruk in
Calgary, Alberta. We took the movie "Dead Poet's Society" and downloaded
the captions from the video tape on to a computer. We then wordprocessed
processed certain episodes into lesson plans with close exercises,
dialogue practice, vocabulary development (idiomatic usage), discussion of
cultural issues or dilemmas and a variety of other exercises. The
episodes were carefully chosen for their dramatic effect and to introduce
the plots within the movie (usually 30 second to 2 minute segments ).
Then we showed the short segments in succession using the following
procedure: 1)fast forward to segment with screen off 2) show the segment
with a few guiding comments telling what the students should be watching
or listening for, 3)after showing the segment ask the students about what
they saw - what they think happened before this scene - what they think
will happen next (prediction) 4)do an exercise that is based on this scene
5)show the next segment 6)after the students have seen all the segments
and completed the exercises they have a good idea about the movie and are
intensely interested in seeing the whole movie.
Of course one problem is that one of the students may have seen the movie
before. This works best when they don't know the movie and really have to
guess. You may include the person who has seen the movie before by having
them discuss the answers to the exercises or confirming or correcting
other students' predictions.
This takes a lot of work and of course if you don't have the right
equipment then you have to watch the movie and make your own notes and
transcribe the actual script. Once this has been demonstrated to students
I have had them prepare their own scripts and exercises on their own
favorite movies. It gives them a lot of listening practice especially
when they cannot see captions.
Anyways I hope this helps.
Merv
On Friday, 18 Aug 1995, Denny Packard wrote:
> An advanced evening class wants us to work with the film _Witness_
> (with Harrison Ford), which takes place in the Amish country in
> Pennsylvania.
> Has anyone used this film in class? What teaching ideas could you
> share with me?
> If there's interest, I'll make a summary and send it back to the list.
> Thanks,
> Denny
>
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> Denny Packard
> denny....@int-evry.fr dpac...@ecp.fr
> Evry, France Chatenay-Malabry,
> France
> France tel. 33 + 1 43.45.07.82 (Paris)
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>