Author Topic: best tv shows for class? (Read 21414 times)

tesoljon · « **on:** October 03, 2012, 10:05:04 PM »

There is a thread for best movie recommendations (http://www.waygook.org/index.php/topic,13924.0.html), so how about one for best television shows? I know it's a topic that comes up every so often, but I can't find a consolidated thread for it.

I really can't show movies in class--I only see my kids once a week for 50 minutes, so just showing a movie would take 2-3 weeks of class time. And that's not including review or explanation or discussion. I am personally interested in things for high school, but they're pretty low level, so all recommendations are welcome!

shannajw · « **Reply #1 on:** October 04, 2012, 12:33:58 AM »

Mr. Bean goes over well with a lot of my kids, and since it's mostly physical humor, they understand really well. You can tailor the activities that go with it to their level, too.

iseya · « **Reply #2 on:** October 04, 2012, 01:35:45 PM »

They like Prison Break at my boys HS

nikkiskye · « **Reply #3 on:** October 04, 2012, 02:59:32 PM »

i keep refreshing this thread hoping there are more comments cause i am wondering the same thing. i've been watching movies with my high school students (boys and girls), but we can't always finish them and i feel bad. series would be so much better, but it's so tricky finding an appropriate series and the subtitles to go with it.

prison break would be a good one for my boys...do you use subtitles and do you have a link for korean subtitles for the first season?

Bryan Teacher · « **Reply #4 on:** October 04, 2012, 03:36:55 PM »

I also prefer showing episodes of TV shows because we can finish them in one class.

I'm at a boys' middle school. Today I found out we're having a relaxing 'do half a class, then watch a video' week. I decided to show an episode of Parks and Recreation, 4x04 "Pawnee Rangers" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2041051/. There are a lot of eps of Parks and Rec I wouldn't show at MS, but I think this one is appropriate. The first batch of students liked it.

I made a worksheet right before class. It's not much and I didn't make students do it, but I told them if they write 2-3 good sentences in each box and show me I'll give them a plus card (our reward system). A sitcom episode is only ~22 minutes so if you were only showing one sitcom episode, you would need to plan something for afterwards. (Standard drama episode fills a 45 minute class almost perfectly.)

I always use GOM player because it's very easy to find subtitles. Open the file, at the bottom of the screen click '자막도우미', then click '자막 찾기' and it will load a web page with subtitle files.

We have speaking tests in a couple of weeks, I want to show something Halloween-y while the tests are running. I was considering Buffy 2x06 "Halloween" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_(Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer), but it was made before the students were born. It would probably be a case of me shoving something I love down their throats. BUT, but, it is such a good depiction of teen Halloween. I guess I should find something else though.

aarolye · « **Reply #5 on:** October 04, 2012, 04:31:10 PM »

I teach middle school right now and I am planning to show kids either a movie or an episode, then make them do writing or some other activity.

Some shows that I am planning to use are: Psych, Once Upon a Time, Warehouse 13, Doctor Who, Unnatural History and Everybody hates Chris.

cg1419 · « **Reply #6 on:** October 04, 2012, 04:35:59 PM »

go to mgoon.com and search for shows (eg. Glee, Modern Family, America's Got Talent, The Secret Life of an American Teenager) that have Korean subtitles.

millemic · « **Reply #7 on:** October 04, 2012, 04:45:47 PM »

http://www.mgoon.com/search/search.htm?cat=%EC%A0%84%EC%B2%B4&keyword=modern%20family&sort=play&page=1

mgoon.com has a fair number of shows I think. I did an episode from Modern Family, (link is above) season 1 episode 1, and did it as intro to family unit. I just created eight questions that they had to answer from the show. It was a bit easy but I was working on getting more students to participate so I made it something they could all do. I teach at a mixed high school but my classes are separated by gender. The girls in my classes really liked this episode and the boys found it OK too. They asked me this week if we could watch more so I will have to see about how to incorporate that into the class schedule

iseya · « **Reply #8 on:** October 04, 2012, 04:59:55 PM »

Quote from: nikkiskye on October 04, 2012, 02:59:32 PM

i keep refreshing this thread hoping there are more comments cause i am wondering the same thing. i've been watching movies with my high school students (boys and girls), but we can't always finish them and i feel bad. series would be so much better, but it's so tricky finding an appropriate series and the subtitles to go with it.

prison break would be a good one for my boys...do you use subtitles and do you have a link for korean subtitles for the first season?

I do use subtitles. Their English level is super low...so they wouldnt get it otherwise.
I had a student download the show on the school computer for me...anddd if I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure we just went through the GOM player and used the method that was explained by someone else in this thread.

The first ep. does have one 'sexy' scene, fyi, i slyly ffwded through that part so they never knew about it though.
The hooting and hollering wouldnt of stopped otherwise.

nikkiskye · « **Reply #9 on:** October 04, 2012, 05:10:54 PM »

ok thanks. :)

also, that mgoon website is genius. will defs put it to use! was just what i was looking for. and no downloading needed. ^^

miss_cho · « **Reply #10 on:** October 04, 2012, 05:36:32 PM »

At former technical high school I would try to incorporate a video into the final lesson of a series of lessons or as a reward for several good classes. I would show them with Korean subtitles (otherwise my students would not have understood anything). The students would have to answer comprehension questions or there would be questions about the video in a game we would play after the video.

I showed -

Community's Zombie episode - this is a great episode for a lesson on zombies or a lesson on Halloween. It went over really well with some of my classes (mostly male students)

Simpsons - I would show full episodes for a reward but occasionally worked the shorter Treehouse of Horror episodes into lessons. I liked using the Simpsons because the Treehouse of Horror clips are shorter (about 7 minutes) and some students at my low level high school could understand what was going on based on the little English they knew and what they saw on the screen. I could show the video twice - once without subtitles and then after reviewing the questions again with subtitles.

Here are a few ToH videos that went over well with my students -

It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse (Treehouse of Horror XIX) is especially good for Halloween

Don't Have a Cow, Mankind (Treehouse of Horror XX) is a good zombie episode

Tweenlight (Treehouse of Horror XXI) was popular with my students - they also enjoyed the preceding videos in that ToH series (especially the one based on Jumanji).

I've really wanted to show my students the paintball episode from Community but I've had a rough time finding subtitles - I teach at an all boys school so I think they'd really enjoy the video (and however I can work an English component into it).

nikkiskye · « **Reply #11 on:** October 04, 2012, 06:02:27 PM »

i looove community! my boys would love the paintball episode too!

here's the episode with korean subtitles: http://www.mgoon.com/view.htm?id=3185932

mgoon.com is my new favourite website! thanks so much, cg1419 and millemic!

miss_cho · « **Reply #12 on:** October 04, 2012, 06:16:14 PM »

Quote from: nikkiskye on October 04, 2012, 06:02:27 PM

i looove community! my boys would love the paintball episode too!

here's the episode with korean subtitles: http://www.mgoon.com/view.htm?id=3185932

mgoon.com is my new favourite website! thanks so much, cg1419 and millemic!

Thank you! Does this site have all the Community episodes? I was actually thinking of the 2nd paintball episode since it'd work really well in correlation with a lesson about movies. The writers purposely incorporated a lot of different movie genres and cliches into it so the students can identify the different genres. I like this episode and I think they'd enjoy it but I'm a little hesitant showing boys a (albeit implied) sex scene. They hoot and holler when Jack and Rose kissed during a short clip I played from Titantic to illustrate a romance movie. Teenage boy hormones. ::)

Has anyone figured out how to download these videos off the internet? I use youtube downloader for a lot of stuff but it doesn't work on sites like those linked above. I've had a few technical issues with the computer/internet and prefer not to have to rely on a decent internet connection.

nikkiskye · « **Reply #13 on:** October 04, 2012, 06:26:49 PM »

Quote from: miss_cho on October 04, 2012, 06:16:14 PM

Quote from: nikkiskye on October 04, 2012, 06:02:27 PM
i looove community! my boys would love the paintball episode too!

here's the episode with korean subtitles: http://www.mgoon.com/view.htm?id=3185932

mgoon.com is my new favourite website! thanks so much, cg1419 and millemic!

Thank you! Does this site have all the Community episodes? I was actually thinking of the 2nd paintball episode since it'd work really well in correlation with a lesson about movies. The writers purposely incorporated a lot of different movie genres and cliches into it so the students can identify the different genres. I like this episode and I think they'd enjoy it but I'm a little hesitant showing boys a (albeit implied) sex scene. They hoot and holler when Jack and Rose kissed during a short clip I played from Titantic to illustrate a romance movie. Teenage boy hormones. ::)

Has anyone figured out how to download these videos off the internet? I use youtube downloader for a lot of stuff but it doesn't work on sites like those linked above. I've had a few technical issues with the computer/internet and prefer not to have to rely on a decent internet connection.

i am pretty technologically challenged, so no idea how you would download the episodes. but just google which episode the second paintball one is and then search on the website. it's very user friendly.

smun50 · « **Reply #14 on:** October 05, 2012, 10:16:06 AM »

Quote from: miss_cho on October 04, 2012, 06:16:14 PM

Quote from: nikkiskye on October 04, 2012, 06:02:27 PM
i looove community! my boys would love the paintball episode too!

here's the episode with korean subtitles: http://www.mgoon.com/view.htm?id=3185932

mgoon.com is my new favourite website! thanks so much, cg1419 and millemic!

Thank you! Does this site have all the Community episodes? I was actually thinking of the 2nd paintball episode since it'd work really well in correlation with a lesson about movies. The writers purposely incorporated a lot of different movie genres and cliches into it so the students can identify the different genres. I like this episode and I think they'd enjoy it but I'm a little hesitant showing boys a (albeit implied) sex scene. They hoot and holler when Jack and Rose kissed during a short clip I played from Titantic to illustrate a romance movie. Teenage boy hormones. ::)

Has anyone figured out how to download these videos off the internet? I use youtube downloader for a lot of stuff but it doesn't work on sites like those linked above. I've had a few technical issues with the computer/internet and prefer not to have to rely on a decent internet connection.

I use freemake video downloader and I was able to download something from mgoon.com. Hope it works for you!

EDIT: I tried to download again and it didn't work. The site must've started blocking it. If anyone else knows a way to download from mgoon and other sites other than youtube, please share!

alyssa.callahan · « **Reply #15 on:** October 05, 2012, 10:38:26 AM »

For any grade level, I would absolutely suggest Avatar: The Last Airbender series (NOT the movie). I am a huge fan of the show and started watching it when I was in high school, but it's geared towards boys around the age of ten. That shows you how diverse of an audience it can draw in. It's also a good one for co-ed classes, 'cause there are both strong male and female characters. There's a healthy dose of action, humor, romance (not the mushy kind) and serious topics that make for a great way to kill some class time without feeling like you were wasting time.

I actually incorporated the first season of the show into my Summer Camp and the kids absolutely adored it! Occasionally if I'm sick or way too ahead in my lesson plans, I'll pull out the episodes for my afternoon students. Every day they come in, hopeful that we'll be watching an episode.

I usually like to show them the videos in English with Korean subtitles so they can understand the basic storyline, but they can hear the English.

smun50 · « **Reply #16 on:** October 05, 2012, 02:48:00 PM »

Quote from: alyssa.callahan on October 05, 2012, 10:38:26 AM

For any grade level, I would absolutely suggest Avatar: The Last Airbender series (NOT the movie). I am a huge fan of the show and started watching it when I was in high school, but it's geared towards boys around the age of ten. That shows you how diverse of an audience it can draw in. It's also a good one for co-ed classes, 'cause there are both strong male and female characters. There's a healthy dose of action, humor, romance (not the mushy kind) and serious topics that make for a great way to kill some class time without feeling like you were wasting time.

I actually incorporated the first season of the show into my Summer Camp and the kids absolutely adored it! Occasionally if I'm sick or way too ahead in my lesson plans, I'll pull out the episodes for my afternoon students. Every day they come in, hopeful that we'll be watching an episode.

I usually like to show them the videos in English with Korean subtitles so they can understand the basic storyline, but they can hear the English.

Where can I find the full episodes? Thanks!

alyssa.callahan · « **Reply #17 on:** October 05, 2012, 04:08:03 PM »

Quote from: smun50 on October 05, 2012, 02:48:00 PM

Quote from: alyssa.callahan on October 05, 2012, 10:38:26 AM
For any grade level, I would absolutely suggest Avatar: The Last Airbender series (NOT the movie). I am a huge fan of the show and started watching it when I was in high school, but it's geared towards boys around the age of ten. That shows you how diverse of an audience it can draw in. It's also a good one for co-ed classes, 'cause there are both strong male and female characters. There's a healthy dose of action, humor, romance (not the mushy kind) and serious topics that make for a great way to kill some class time without feeling like you were wasting time.

I actually incorporated the first season of the show into my Summer Camp and the kids absolutely adored it! Occasionally if I'm sick or way too ahead in my lesson plans, I'll pull out the episodes for my afternoon students. Every day they come in, hopeful that we'll be watching an episode.

I usually like to show them the videos in English with Korean subtitles so they can understand the basic storyline, but they can hear the English.

Where can I find the full episodes? Thanks!

Sadly, it's pretty rare to find them online nowadays. I think you can find them on justdubs.com, but they don't have the Korean subtitles. I swear, I looked for MONTHS to find a Korean subbed version! In the end, I had to buy it on Gmarket. It's a little spendy (I think it was around 50,000 won) but it's paid for itself in how many times it has saved my unprepared butt! ^^ And that way you don't have to worry about the internet being down or a bad quality video. Hope that helps! Good luck!

Morticae · « **Reply #18 on:** November 01, 2012, 06:02:23 PM »

I don't know why this hasn't been mentioned yet. I work at an all boys middle school, and there is one show that will always glue 90%+ of them to the screen. Some classes it's 100%, but I want to be conservative with my estimation.

Man vs Wild

I like to pause it and ask them questions about what's happening. Also, none of the material is really questionable. Some gross stuff (which they like), but no sex, etc. Although there is one episode (Nanimbia) where one of the local women had an exposed breast for half a second, while drinking from a root. Not sure how Discovery let that slip through!

soyoungi · « **Reply #19 on:** December 05, 2012, 12:33:07 PM »

I think the BEST T.V. show to show in class for Middle/High School students is Modern Family. I never watched the full series, just some episodes I thought were useful for cultural purposes. I never showed my regular classes the first episode, but I used it for my after school class. I believe there is a thread for it (too lazy to paste the link, sorry), you can do a lesson on family. Family trees, step family, in-laws, etc. Was a pretty successful class I would say. There is a bit of sexy talk between Jay and Gloria, but other than that, the episode is clean.

Other episodes that were good were Halloween and Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if they did multiple episodes for each year, but I'm sure you can find the time to see which one you like the most. The Halloween episode was pretty funny so the kids were entertained.

The Thanksgiving episode wasn't as funny so the kids weren't as interested compared to the Halloween episode. Regardless you can make a lesson on both of them. All clean, nothing inappropriate...can't keep the boys from commenting on Gloria's boobs and sometimes Haley.

Downside of this show is that it isn't as entertaining as Community and maybe some other shows like Friends, which I would looove to show...but they talk about sex too much which is not cool to show at a school. They could watch those shows at home.

My kids have watched 2-3 episodes of this show by now, and have a feel for the characters...so I plan on showing them another episode of Christmas (once I find which episode I want to show since they have 2 episodes on it) within the next 2 weeks while handing out a worksheet. (I don't like having my students just watch a video and not really do any work. I give them a small worksheet with 4-5 questions on it...easy questions that are easy to find within the show...stop the video when it's answered...give them a treat...move on) While doing this, it should last a whole class period.

Maybe I wrote too much...well I hope this helps.

*UPDATE* For the Christmas episodes, the one from Season 1 is overall more entertaining, but both are good. I would recommend showing Season 1 Christmas first, then maybe for next year you can do Season 3.

Author Topic: best tv shows for class? (Read 21414 times)

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