Teaching using film

I first posted this lesson plan a few months ago however, I decided to add a twist to it today with one of my students. As well as doing the discussion I've asked him to update the opening scene of 1973 film for a modern audience using Flickr and Photo Story 3.

Lesson plan


1 This is optional. If you can find the film Soylent Green on DVD/VHS.

2 Tell students that they're going to see part of a film that talks about the future and that they should say what they think is the meaning of the sequence. Play the first three minutes. (Basically, it's a photo-montage that shows how the pace of industrial life has quickened and the effects that is having on the planet).

3 Students discuss their answers in pairs and then report back to the teacher.

4 Give out the photocopy (see below).

5 Do the warm up questions from the photocopy. Students write down their answers then form groups to discuss them.

6 Elicit answers from the groups.

7 Go through the handout, deal with any problems with vocabulary.

8 Divide the class into five groups, one for each lobby and another group who will be judges.

9 Explain to students that each lobby has to talk for two minutes, presenting their opinions on why the mill should or should not be built. The judges think of questions to ask each group.

10 Then conduct a class debate; You could use the following format, if you wish.

Seven days, seven pictures - A project

The Aristotelian university of Thessaloniki

I once did private lessons with a student who apartment had a stunning view of the sea here in Thessaloniki. Every time I went there I was amazed by the vista that his living room room offered. Yet when I commented on this he struggled to understand why I was so excited. I think that the same is true for the way many of us see our lives. We think that they are just the same as everyone else's and therefore seem a little mundane when in fact quite the opposite is true.

Here is a teaching activity which should reawaken our student's interest in their environment and give them a sense of how different their lives really are. The inspiration for this came from www.adayinthelife.org (alas, under construction at the moment) whose basic premise is that a different person from around the world takes a picture that illustrates his or her everyday life each day for a week.

"Publisher Jon Setzen from Brooklyn, N.Y., laments, "I'm upset that we haven't had anyone from Africa." He does have riveting shots of a "security wall" in the West Bank, "communist lunacy" in Romania and a woman cleaning a Wal-Mart gun display in Alabama. "I tell people not to send me arty shots," he says. "I think it's much more interesting to see the mundane aspects of everyday life around the world." And it is."

The Best Photo Blogs - Forbes.com


Lesson Plan

1 Ask students to write down five everyday events that happened during the previous week. e.g. I went out to dinner with my parents, I saw a DVD with my friends etc, I had an exam etc.

2 In pairs, students ask each other questions about the events mentioned.

3 Now ask them to think about if and how people in other countries do these everyday things.

4 Now go through the project guidelines;

a Take a pictures everyday for a week that illustrates your life.

b The pictures can be taken with a digital camera or mobile phone.

c All pictures should be put on the internet with a title and a description that explains what is happening so that somebody who doesn't live in Greece will understand the context.

d You can use a Flickr set, blog, Bubbleshare, Slide.com, Slideshare etc to present your photos.

e Students vote for the best project.

f Optional: Create a blog/wiki and post all the projects in one place.

I'm going to be doing this myself over the next week. So why don't you check out this post next Tuesday ?

Organising a student exchange using the internet

This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. It just seems that there is never enough time. However, over the next week I'm going to make a concerted effort to chase up possible student exchange possibilities. I've already signed up one of my older classes with the Dekita.org site with the aim of getting the students to communicate via their blog with other EFL/ESL learner across the globe. Also I want to get my younger students to do some kind of exchange with some Canadian students, courtesy of Excellence and Imagination.

If you want to see some excellent web 2.0 teaching ideas put into practice check out Cool Cat Teacher's latest joint project.

"The Flat Classroom project is a genuine assessment project between Julie Lindsay's grade 11 ITGS class at International School Dhaka(ISD) in Bangladesh and Vicki Davis' 10th grade Computer Science class at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia."