Lesson outline
- Language level: Beginner - Low-intermediate
- Learner type: Teens; Adults (The video can be considered quite disturbing for some)
- Time: 60~90 minutes
- Main activity: Giving opinions; discussion; excuses
- Topic: Greed; Office life
- Language: cause and results; giving advice; future tense
- Materials: Video clip and worksheet available here (.docx direct download), here (.docx mediafire) and here (pdf).
The video is by Spy Films and can be found on YouTube here.
Description:
http://www.spyfilms.com After inadvertently offending a strange entity that accosts him on his way to work, a 1970s businessman quickly finds himself in the midst if a bizarre predicament. What follows is a rapid descent into madness, a journey both eerie and darkly humorous. The exact nature of the businessman's tormentor is purposefully ambiguous, lending itself to a variety of interpretations. Is "Terminus" a surreal critique of human alienation in the modern urban environment? or is the protagonist's struggle an internal one, his mysterious stalker a manifestation of his repressed subconscious mind? Either way, "Terminus"'s innovative visual effects and distinctively vintage atmosphere make it a highly engrossing experience.Lesson Plan
- Print out the worksheet available here. You will need one for each student and a further copy to be handed out to each group of students. e.g. if students make six groups, you will need an additional six. These group worksheets are for students to complete after they have discussed their individual answers and decided on a "group consensus" regarding their answer to various questions. they then hand this sheet in to the teacher at the end of the lesson.
- Explain the lesson contents:
- Watch a video
- Brainstorm important words
- Answer questions about the video individually.
- Discuss answers as a group.
- Complete the group worksheet and compare with other groups.
- Hand group work in.
- Before showing the students the video.
- While the movie is still fresh in their minds, ask students to create a mind map of any words that come to mind. I find it important to stress that any word, be it a verb, adjective, or noun should be included.
- Once they have created a mind map individually, get students to compare theirs to other group mates. Then finally, create a large mind map of words on the board. I do this by handing out three different coloured pens to random students. They write one word on the board and then pass the pen to another student.
- Hand out the worksheets and ask students to answer the questions as best they can on their own first. It is important to let them know that there are no correct answers, only their opinions. If they find some of the questions difficult to answer in English, tell them that they can write their ideas down in their native language at this point.
- After they have answered the questions on their own, tell students to compare answers with their group members.
- Hand out one more worksheet to each group and ask them to write down the best answers/opinions as a group. At this point, students should focus on linguistic accuracy, correcting any grammar mistakes.
- After a while, ask groups to share their ideas with the rest of the class comparing answers as a class. It is quite a good idea to share your own ideas at this point so the students can see that you have also completed the task. Students like to hear the teachers opinion too.
- Finally, students hand in their group worksheets.
Discussion
This lesson is one designed to get the students thinking. Thinking hard! However, it is important to bear in mind that not all students like to think in this way. For some, the movie may quite simlply not make any sense and thus not deemed worthy of discussion. Now for me, this is a real shame, but we have to cater for these students also. As such, it is often these students that come into their own when it is time to analyse what the group has written, and time to correct any grammatical errors. The point is that we should design lessons to appeal to many different learners and their learning style. While some students may enjoy watching a video and trying to explain what they have seen, other students may enjoy correcting grammatical errors and analysing their language.
As an additional note, this activity may be expanded/changed by altering the provided worksheet. I felt it important to provide the first few words for the answer section of the worksheet for my students, but in your own context, this may seem like too great a cognitive support. You may want the students to complete the exercise first before looking at any because-clauses or how to give advice. For this reason, I have provided the worksheet as a Microsoft Office .doc file, so that it is easily editable.
As always, comments are welcome.
Have fun, and I'll be back soon with another lesson!
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