Not a lesson, really. But an activity that lasts 50 minutes and provides good conversational practice.

This is for high school. My students are intermediate.

I put students in pairs. They move their desks so that they're facing one another. One student's back is to the TV at the front of the classroom.

Person 1 writes. Person 2 speaks. Explain that person 1 will have his back to the screen as you show a short Pixar movie. Tell person 1 to sleep, if they want. Person 2 watches the movie. After the movie, person 2 explains the story to person 1, who writes a clear summary of the movie.

Students generally need 10-12 minutes to explain/write half a page. While they work, I go around and answer questions/provide translations. I don't fix their summaries. I just point out sentences/ideas I can't understand. I tell them the point is to learn that they can express themselves if they need to. Even if it's not perfect, it'll work.

I have an English-only rule. If students speak Korean, they come to the front of the classroom. I draw a circle on the chalkboard and they stand with their head inside the circle.

They learn vocab from the movies--if they ask me and I tell them. Or, they learn how to describe the thing/situation without knowing its name.

This is good for students who need to practice speaking spontaneously. My students can write good scripts, but if you try to engage them in conversation randomly, they struggle.

I use "Partly Cloudy" first and "La Luna" second. If there's five minutes left at the end of class, I show them "Lifted."

50 minutes:
10-Explain the activity
5-Movie 1
10-12-Explain/Write
5-Movie 2
10-12-Explain/Write
5-7-Movie 3, Move desks back

I generally point who which team communicated the best.

Anyway, it was successful in all my classes.

Cool, hope it goes well :)

Did this lesson yesterday with my night class. To make sure students were not being lazy, i assigned each pair a number. After finishing their scripts, i randomly choose 5-7 of the pairs to present their scripts in front of the the class. Worked well.

Oh, that's a good idea.

I was surprised to find that almost all of the second-graders students were interested in trying to explain something that was difficult for them. Especially a thing that's odd... clouds making babies and giving them to birds, etc..

Some of the first-graders were less interested, and then it was difficult to keep them working. I generally just say, "This isn't enough. Why are you wasting my time?" Haha. Your method seems more effective.