Acting (up) in class

Assault on Precinct 13 is one of my favourite films and not particularly well-known, though you can find it at Seven Video Club. Just make sure you get the 1976 original and not the recent remake. so I thought I'd create a lesson based on this extract.

A - You don't mind if I sit down minute or two, do you, Wilson ?

B - Got a smoke on you ?

A - You asked me before.

B - I never got a definite answer.

A – I don't smoke.

B – That's a definite answer.Another one gone. When you're in my position days are like women. Each one is so goddam precious...and they aways end up leaving you.

What do you want ?

A – Do I have to want something?

B – You're a cop. You're either curious about me or you want to give me some s##t.

A – I don't understand you, Wilson.

B – Curious.

A – You're not a pyschopath, you're not stupid....

B – I am an a##hole.Can't take everything away from me.

A – Why did you kill those men ?

B – Everybody asks me the same question.I always tell 'em the same thing.
First timeI ever saw a preacher he said to me,

“Son, There's something strange about you.You've got something to do with death.”

Being real young I believed him. Turned out he was right.

A – That's no answer.

B – I thought it was pretty good.

A - Where did you get a name like Napoleon ?

B – I'll tell you some time.

A - When ?

B - The moment of dying.

A – I'm going to do my best to be there when your time comes.

Lesson Plan

1 Tell the students that you are going to play them some music from the movie (I recommend the intro theme). As they listen they should think about;

What kind of film it is.
Where and when it is set.
Who the main characters could be.
Some ideas about the plot.

2 Students exchange ideas.
3 Give out the extract and ask students to guess who A and B might be and the relationship between them.
4 Ask students to speculate about what might have happened before the scene started (good practice for their modal verbs) andwhat might happen next (language of prediction, future tenses etc.).
5 If you have a lively, confident class you could ask students to rehearse and act out the extract.
6 Play the DVD with the extract and ask the students to discuss their answers to 1,3 and 4 once more in groups.
7 This good form the basis of a creative writing exercise or even a short class video using a cheap digital camera and Windows Moviemaker.

I know that these movie exercises are very much based on "guys" themes, but they are a way of reaching out to disaffected teenage boys who often don't respond well to the bland, colourless subjects we cover in our course books.