Something New I'm Using Which Is SOOOOO Exciting!

Hey guys! So I am so excited to talk about something new I learned at KWLA, and I'm so excited that I had to share! I went to a session called "Movie Talk" At first, I was really hesitant to check this session out because I don't like showing movies, but this is not about showing movies at all. This was about using "short clips of movies" as a tool for teaching Spanish.

Our kids are living in a technological world where they use video games, movies, shows, the internet, and apps to learn. Sadly, if we don't use these devices in our classroom...everything else seems "foreign" to our kids and outdated.

One thing for me is I don't teach advanced level Spanish until mid-year and I often catch myself saying "There is only SO much you can do with Spanish 1 and 2." Well, I'm so glad I went to this session because it showed me that, yes, Spanish 1 and 2 can go outside the box.

So first things first:
1. I did not invent Movie Talk.
2. Not everybody DOES Movie Talk the exact way.
3. You can use ANY clip you want - Pixar & Disney are great. You can use commercials, music videos, etc.
4. The clip does NOT have to be in the language you're teaching. Often times they are in English. The example I am using is in English.

So, I was so excited to do this...I started getting all my stuff together immediately. I found a clip from a movie called Monster House, it's actually the movie trailer on youtube and it's about 2:34. First of all, I had not SEEN the movie but after watching the clip 50 times developing my Movie Talk, I rented it that weekend on Amazon Prime! :) Yes, it was awesome!

Side note: Your kids do not HAVE to see the movie to be able to do the Movie Talk but they will probably want to go home & watch it afterwards!

Okay, so how do you begin:
1. Pick any clip & watch it (2 to 5 minutes)
2. I jotted down stuff I thought that was important and I could "Connect to Spanish"
3. Pick out the vocabulary you want to teach. Side note: You can't teach EVERYTHING. Movie Talk experts actually recommend only teaching 3 to 5 highly-used structures. (I know that is hard for us---they must learn EVERYTHING!!!) With the first one I did, I admit I did WAY too much but it went awesome AND my kids are STILL using the vocabulary!
4. Develop your Movie Talk Guide.

Okay, so I'm not saying you HAVE TO BUY mine BUT I did already do one and if you are interested, I have it for a hot price, already completed, ready to go next school day for $3.99 on TPT.

Here is my TPT Movie Talk Link for Monster House:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Movie-Talk-Casa-del-Monstruo-Monster-House-2133547

Okay, so here's what I did...Vocabulary Group #1 this is BASIC BASIC vocabulary. You have the freedom to do this ANY way you want: Partners, as a class, individuals, make them write on flashcards if they don't know it, random call out, whatever you want to do to get "them" to get that basic vocabulary. Okay, they got it.

Next, on my guide is the question words...they MUST know their questions words because you're going to be saying them A LOT: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, & HOW (but in Spanish).

The next part is predictions: I love this...I wrote a few questions (all in Spanish - language THEY know) and they have to pick A, B, or C of what THEY think the answer is. I show them about 10 seconds of the clip, the front cover which I googled, and they answer. See, already using Spanish.

I then included a few vocabulary exercises & some grammar lessons. How you teach the vocabulary, grammar, etc. is totally up to you. You can just easily go over it or go into a greater depth...your choice.

I personally show the clip right now! :) I am ALWAYS going to show it again but right here is where they need to see it.

After, they answer questions that specifically have to do WITH the movie and all this is in Spanish. They also have some quotes that they will put in Spanish. They really loved these! At the end, we had 2 minutes and I let some of my goofballs act them out now that they knew the Spanish!

At the very end, there are some practice activities that deal with the learned grammar.

Also, something I did is that we went through each little section and I told them the Spanish "el chico tiene miedo porque la casa es muy vieja y rara." I called out to them "What does that mean?"

I'm an awesome listening activity!

Here is the link to the youtube clip I used:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmWLvymcR4c

Please let me know if you have any questions. I am by no means a Movie Talk expert, but I am learning and really really like how my students responded. Feel free to create your own or try mine out. 

God Bless Everyone,
Brittany B.