Agen has been absolutely amazing! In 15 minutes, an evening coaching session is starting downstairs in our hotel which I’d really love to get to, so hopefully I can quickly squeeze this in before heading off!

I would like to blog about the sessions I’ve attended here at the TPRS Conference in Agen, both to clarify my own personal understanding and also share what I gleaned. I hope I can do them all justice and explain them clearly.

At today’s workshop titled Using Films With CI, Judy Dubois had us all sitting in a circle in one of the rooms at the school situated behind the gorgeous Cathedral de Caprais. Pic

Behind Judy, through the window, was the back of the cathedral; so gorgeous.

Judy began by asking us who has ever used film with their classes and several people raised their hand. She next asked all those who have, to share their ideas. Here is the collection I noted that I believe would be successful with primary aged students:

1. Students need to earn points in language classes to watch a film in the target language – thus being rewarded with input – and set the subtitles to Indonesian! Written and aural input.
2. Movietalks – watch before stopping at significant places to PQA. You can then create an embedded reading from this conversation.
3. Judy shared how she also used the dialogue from a scene discussed in class by typing out the significant sentences, printing them off and then cutting each sentence in half. Students work in pairs to match up the halves and then put them into the correct order! The completed text becomes a synopsis of the scene which is by now fully comprehensible!
4. Diane Neubauer recommended Simons Cat clips with their repetitive actions.
5. Carrie had a great idea for preparing for a relief teacher. Before the absence, show students a trailer for a film and discuss with students their ideas about what the film could be about. With the TRT, students watched the movie and then upon return, the language teacher again shows the trailer and pretends they want to know more about the movie – thus having the students do a group retell of the story!!
6. Great idea to show familiar movies to students dubbed in the target language! e.g. Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings, Disney
7. Very important to remember that the films shown in class must be enjoyable for several reasons but most importantly; you, the teacher, will not want to plan a unit around a film you detest watching!
8. Take a screen shot of a movie scene (preferably one with action) before showing students the film and have them predict what the movie might be about.
9. Judy only uses films in her classes that use the language that she is teaching. Students don’t hear the language if they are reading English subtitles.
10. Diane recommends having (Target Language) subtitles on while watching a film because it allows you to stop a film and discuss/PQA/comprehension check/read the language at the bottom of the screen. A good way to explain common Indonesian phrases that are unfamiliar to non Indonesian people. The focus of the film is what is needed for comprehension and whatever is not important is simply translated.
11. Judith’s goal with using films in her classes is to motivate her students to continue watching the films independently in their own time for pleasure!
12. Judy recommends ‘The Mighty’ as a film to watch with students as there isn’t that much conversation. The Black Stallion is another film with minimal talking.
13. Great to use a film that was made from a book because of the discussion created when comparing the 2. e.g. Hunger Games.
14. Quirky commercials would be perfect for movie talks.
15. Stop the film when there is a close up of a character not speaking – maybe listening to someone else or thinking – and PQA what is he thinking?
16. How cool would it be to study a film in fourth term and then finish the year by showing the full film to the students?
17. Plan movie talks for tricky/tiring times of the year and minimise the workload where possible to do exactly the same film with all year levels!
18. Have a text for students taken from the film with a sentence missing from it. Give the sentence to students and they have to listen to the dialogue of the movie again and again to see where it fits in.
19. Hand out to students the dialogue between the characters from the film and students have to add in the names of the characters speaking.
20. Very important to come up with ways for the students to listen (willingly) to the dialogue in the films repeatedly in compelling ways.
21. Students have to create the script for a scene. Requires listen repeatedly to the scene to get it!
22. The background context of the story is ongoing and as students move through the film, it becomes very familiar and contributes to comprehension – setting, characters, storyline. 
23. Take a screen shot of a character. Ask a student actor to become that character and then the teacher interviews them with scripted questions that help students gain a deeper understanding of the character.
24. One day someone will make a better film of the wonderful book Holes!