Author Topic: The best movie to show in class - high school (Read 102829 times)

twolven · « **Reply #80 on:** December 16, 2011, 11:10:03 AM »

Last year, my students (ages 9-12) LOVED Kung-Fu Panda.. it opens the door to talk about family, friends, characteristics of people. I liked to open with "If you were an animal, then what would you be?"

Introduce IF/THEN statements and get opinion coversations started. Later, I learned that if you ask that about their friends/ peers it works quite well.

Also, I was surprised to see that most of my students (high schoolers) this year loved to watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Everyone was quite and even said "sshhhh!!" to other students who talked during the movie.. although... almost no one talked ever.

We used it to talk about holidays, romance, and fears. I gave them a movie question sheet to make sure they paid attention, but it was good to show them after taking exams.. they poor kids were burned out.

Blood Glutton · « **Reply #81 on:** December 19, 2011, 01:37:07 AM »

Played Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (with KOR subtitles) for my all-boys' middle school's last club activity.
They loved it.

kjmerri2 · « **Reply #82 on:** February 13, 2012, 02:50:44 PM »

I stopped reading posts about 2 pages in. If any of these are repeats, I apologize.

I teach HS boys (Tech/ Maritime). Things I've tried in the past few years:

Moon = surprisingly, they really liked this. I think the fact that it's not well known made it more interesting.
Yesman = any of the boy's who hadn't already seen it loved it
Secret Lives of Bees = pretty good; they thought Dakota Fanning was hot.
27 Hours = Mixed reactions; most liked it.
Food Inc. = Mixed reactions; most liked it. A LOT of students came back later to tell me they think more about what they eat now.
Bride and Prejudice = lol, I forced them to watch this, because I got tired of them pulling up slasher movie left-overs from other teachers. More boys than I expected actually like it.
Australia = Mixed reactions
That's What I Am = Not sure; I think they were just happy to have something different to watch. Okay, though.
Source Code = Loved it.
Elf = Most liked it.

That's all I can remember for now. For the most part, I've tried to pick things that are outside of their typical tastes. If they didn't absolutely love it, they at least seemed to appreciate the change of pace. I plan on showing them "The Invention of Lying" this week...if I ever have an actual class with them...

CorbenDallas · « **Reply #83 on:** February 17, 2012, 11:56:22 AM »

A Knight's Tale was great... except it was a bit akward when you see Chaucer's butt.

annekat · « **Reply #84 on:** March 12, 2012, 03:26:00 PM »

I showed Fido (2006), it's a friendly zombie movie. There is very little blood/gore and it's pretty much all funny. The students LOVED this movie. (middle school)

They also liked Gremlins.

chrisashton18 · « **Reply #85 on:** April 19, 2012, 10:25:14 AM »

Stuart Little went down a storm for me! Great movie to introduce family members and friends - which I did with my middle school grade 1's. If you can find a copy with Korean subtitles it helps a lot!

katith · « **Reply #86 on:** April 23, 2012, 12:26:08 PM »

I showed "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" and it went down well- most hadn't seen it but it was super tame in terms of content but they all really found it funny.

anita.ragu · « **Reply #87 on:** April 23, 2012, 12:50:48 PM »

Some people might like this. I showed a bit of Lord of the Rings for the "My Precious Things" lesson in the Practical English Conversation textbook. The next class we did a movie review. I used Avatar as an example by writing the words on the attachment on the board, showing them this clip:

and letting them view this Korean review: http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=106&oid=263&aid=0000000420

Next, I asked them if they recognized any of the words. We then chose a movie and using those words and other vocab, wrote a movie review together as a class. The sheet works as a script as well and you can get them to write their own reviews and perform it in their groups.

Also, I know it's not the most appropriate thing but as a reward for behaving well, I show my kids the Walking Dead. They lose their shit over it and the teachers don't seem to mind.

therealdrag0 · « **Reply #88 on:** May 07, 2012, 11:00:01 AM »

I showed my HS students "How to Train Your Dragon" they loved it. Freshmen with Korean subs. Advanced English department with English Subs.

It was a total winner.

keeferteacher · « **Reply #89 on:** May 09, 2012, 03:03:15 PM »

I remember James and the Giant peach from my earlier years. I really liked it but thought it was tame for highschool but they all seemed to like it.

BillCosbySaid · « **Reply #90 on:** May 14, 2012, 02:29:56 PM »

My middle and high school students are not used to discussion-based classes as of yet. They are extremely excited answering simple questions which is great for question and answer games. However, if I provide an open-ended question, the students seem to forget all of their English vocabulary. I'd like to motivate students to feel comfortable in class discussion using a movie.

Does anyone have tips for preparing students to discuss simple themes prior to showing the movie?

kendrathomas88 · « **Reply #91 on:** May 17, 2012, 11:24:29 AM »

As an African American, I would like to expose my high school girls to African American culture. All they see in the media are bad things and I want to expose them to some postive things. Does anyone have any ideas on what kinds of African American movies I can show my class??....and not any stereotypical ones either.

Bluesoju · « **Reply #92 on:** May 20, 2012, 09:50:27 PM »

I just give them a choice of recent movies that game out. Not really looking to incorporate anything, just let them relax for one week after their tests.

st8oftheart15 · « **Reply #93 on:** May 22, 2012, 03:14:08 PM »

Quote from: kendrathomas88 on May 17, 2012, 11:24:29 AM

As an African American, I would like to expose my high school girls to African American culture. All they see in the media are bad things and I want to expose them to some postive things. Does anyone have any ideas on what kinds of African American movies I can show my class??....and not any stereotypical ones either.

I haven't seen it, but maybe "The Great Debaters" would be good.

yaj_khu · « **Reply #94 on:** May 22, 2012, 11:24:23 PM »

I showed my students '13 Going on 30' for their design your future lesson in the Practical English Conversation book. They seemed to like it.

Peadar Bearla · « **Reply #95 on:** May 23, 2012, 11:14:17 AM »

I know this isn't a movie but I showed my studetns the tv show Father Ted and they loved it. A lot of it sailedstraight over their heads but it has plenty slapstick moments whihc keep them paying attention and interested.

ruraljeolla · « **Reply #96 on:** June 06, 2012, 04:41:27 PM »

Quote from: D_Ndu on July 01, 2011, 09:49:52 AM

Just a technical question: If I download subtitles from Gom TV how do I get it to play on the computer? I've never downloaded subtitles before so I'm not sure how it works. How does it work if I download the movie seperately? How can I make sure the subtitles sync up?

I use Daum PotPlayer and set up in English. What follows might apply as well on Gom.

Just click and drag both the movie and subtitles files into the open screen and play.

Subtitle files in Korean are usually smi files:
http://www.cineaste.co.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_table=psd_caption&mv_no=&sca=&sfl=wr_subject

Enter the English title, not in the top search (that says "검색"), nor the one below that (which says "search"), but the one further below (also says 검색, which means "retrieve"). From the retrieved options, pick a 한글 file for Korean subtitles.

As for subtitles synchronization: If you have Gom player with Korean controls (many do on the school computers), usually there's one or two tech-savy students who now how to do that for you and will be motivated to help if the movie interests them. On Daum Potplayer, set up in English, right click on the movie screen to get the menu and look for playback options. You will have to ask the students if the subtitles need to be adjusted forward or backwards. Again, hopefully one or two of the students can help you with that.

ruraljeolla · « **Reply #97 on:** June 06, 2012, 05:02:50 PM »

Alice In Wonderland (2010). Visually appealing. I use only the parts in Wonderland. The "real world" portions have inappropriate scenes and it's kind of boring. I start it at the beginning of the rabbit chase, and go through the fall down the rabbit hole bit by bit as a class, and then talk about the shrinking and growing part when she lands. The girls of all ages love it and it holds the boys' attention. One or two visuals are probably best fast-forwarded through, so, view in-advance.

Source Code (2011). Best for 3rd-grade middle school and older. Engaging sci-fi with a bit of romance but nothing visually inappropriate, with possibly the exception of an extended kissing scene toward the end (but which I think is done "in good taste"). There is about 8 minutes of repetitive sequence with slight changes each time, so it lends itself to discussion of the sort: "Last time (such and such), this time (etc), the next time (and so on)." Can be spread out over several days. Although the classroom discussion is in English, I do include Korean subtitles so my students know what's going on.

ruraljeolla · « **Reply #98 on:** June 06, 2012, 05:24:49 PM »

Quote from: BillCosbySaid on May 14, 2012, 02:29:56 PM

My middle and high school students are not used to discussion-based classes as of yet. They are extremely excited answering simple questions which is great for question and answer games. However, if I provide an open-ended question, the students seem to forget all of their English vocabulary. I'd like to motivate students to feel comfortable in class discussion using a movie.

Does anyone have tips for preparing students to discuss simple themes prior to showing the movie?

I spent a good year accepting single-word responses. I'd put a picture up on the screen (or hold it up in my hands) and I'd ask for a noun, a verb or an adjective and I suggest you learn those terms in Korean (google translate). Eventually, I was confident in their vocabulary retention (as a group) that I insisted on two-word responses.

I knew if I held up a picture of a red truck my students could say "truck" if I asked what it was, or "red" if I asked what color it was. But getting them comfortable with saying "red truck" was a big step for them. Their options were: adjective+noun (e.g. big bell, small bell, jingle bell) or noun+verb or noun+gerund (e.g. boy fishing). Eventually they got comfortable with that, but it was like pulling teeth and felt like a small victory for me.

I still accept one-word responses, but just as a warm-up as they adjust into English-thinking-and-speaking mode at the beginning of class.

Applied to movies, for example: The Alice in Wonderland (2010) rabbit chase and fall-down-the-hole sequence. Pause the movie and ask them to tell you a word or two about what they just saw. Do this with any video, long or short. Some are very engaging such as the chameleon changing colors crawling over different-colored sunglasses; time-lapse videos of growing plants, ripening fruit or exploding water balloons (slowed down); cats trying to paw at mice on an iPad.

The aim in my case was both vocabulary acquisition and getting comfortable with describing what they see in a give-and-take type interaction.

I have not tried to do thematic discussion. I think I've approached something like it in efforts to get my students speaking in English about Korean myths and legends. For example: traditional Korean creation story (origins of the first man and woman); the Korean version of Cinderella.

Chicagohotdog · « **Reply #99 on:** June 09, 2012, 09:48:38 AM »

I just used this with some really high level middle schoolers so I think it would be good for most high schoolers. We were having an Olympic themed Saturday Camp and we watched Cool Runnings for part of it and the students really liked it. The accents were a bit tough on them though. They really liked the plot though and every time it got slow and they started to get restless something funny would happen and they would be brought right back in. And at the end, they were doing the slow clap along with the crowd in the movie. It was brilliant!