Be like Alfred Hitchcock

I have discovered with great amazement that my teenage students were not familiar with one of the most significant film directors at all! Well, this experience was highly inspiring and in one evening the whole lesson plan was created.

The lesson is divided into two meetings which is crucial for its success.

DAY 1

Prior knowledge

TIME: 10 mins

Ask Ss some questions about American cinematography, Alfred Hitchcock and his films. Activate their prior knowledge, ask about favourite movies, directors etc. Check if they can elicit genres in cinematography and give examples of films and/or describe their features.
 

TASK 1 

 TIME: 5/10 mins

Show Ss the mosaic illustrating the most important films by Hitchcock asking them whether their have seen/heard about any of them. In my case, the answer was almost always negative so I spent some time talking about the plot and explaining the symbolism of the posters. With a creative group you can ask them to guess what the films are about.

TASK 2 

 TIME: 10 mins

Ask Ss what a trailer is, if they could indicate its features. Afterwards, play the video with Alfred Hitchcock inviting the viewers to watch his latest film "Psycho".

After the show ask Ss to compare and contrast this trailer with what they know from cinemas. Another thing to talk about is the person of Alfred Hitchcock and the way he presents the film, the plot and the location.

TASK 3

TIME: 10/15 mins
Tell the Ss that they are going to see famous scenes from two masterpieces - "Psycho" and "the Birds".
If you haven't asked them to make up stories in Task 1, do it now after watching the pieces.

TASK 4 

TIME: 10 mins

Give the Ss shuffled texts describing plots of the films. They can be spoilers or incomplete stories to leave some space for suspense ;) I used Wikipedia to prepare mine but the text should be adjusted to the Ss level.
Ask Ss to put the pieces in the correct order. Check it together explaining any new vocabulary. It is essential for the homework!

TASK 5

TIME: 5 mins

If your Ss got interested in Hitchcock's work you can show them a trailer (a good comparison again!) of the biographical film about this director. It's a filmed story of how "Psycho" was produced and starred with Anthony Hopkins, Helen Murren and Scarlett Johanson or Jessica Biel so Ss should be attracted by these names.

HOMEWORK - Be like Alfred Hitchcock!
Ask Ss to prepare an oral presentation of one of Hitchcock's films (can be the ones presented during the lesson) and give a speech where audibility, pronunciation, articulation and vocal expression will be judged.

DAY 2

TASK 1 

 TIME: 5/10 mins per person

Presentations of students' trailers.

TASK 2

Assessment - ask Ss to evaluate their performances. In this case it was an individual assessment sheet with 1-5 scale.

Sinking, melting and the Dead Sea

 In our lessons we try to combine scientific experiments with some interesting information concerning the world. This time we have decided to familiar kids with an idea of sinking and floating, and tell them a bit about the Dead Sea.

Prior knowledge  – Cognition/Communication

TIME: 10 mins

Ask Ss to walk around the classroom and bring a few objects they might throw into water. Beforehand, prepare a large, transparent bowl filled with water.
Ask Ss to classify the objects into two categories - what will float and what will sink in their opinion.
The good idea will be to prepare two big writings or containers where they could place the objects. Ask them to name each of the objects.
 

TASK 1 – Cognition/Communication/Content

 TIME: 10 mins

Ask Ss to drop the objects one after another into the bowl to observe whether they float or sink. Ss should now check if their guesses were correct. If not, they should place the objects on the right side.

TASK 2 - Cognition/Communication/Content

 TIME: 2 mins

Tell your students why things float or sink. Below we put a scientific explanation of the phenomenon. Definitely the adjustment to your Ss' level of English will be required.

Things float or sink because of density. Density is a measure of how much mass per volume; we use grams (g) per cubic centimetre (cc). Fresh water has a density of t, that is, 1 gram per cc. If an object has a density less than 1, it floats. If it has a density greater than 1, if sinks. For example, iron has a density of 7.8, so it would sink.

TASK 3 - Cognition/Communication/Content

TIME: 10 mins

Add some salt to the water. Repeat the experiment. Are there any changes? Notice that the more salt you add, the more objects float. Explain that salt increases density of water.
IMPORTANT! Remember to do this part of the lesson beforehand to test whether you have an object that will actually stop sinking after adding salt to the water. That might be a grape etc. If you don't have such one, think about doing a different experiment, e.g. with an egg.

TASK 4 - Cognition/Communication/Content

TIME: 10 mins

Present visual material (photos) and a map. And talk about the Dead Sea. Information adjusted to kids' level of English you can find below. If it is still too difficult remember that in CLIL the use of L1 in such situations is allowed.

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/information-kids-dead-sea-12366.html 
http://www.pitara.com/discover/5wh/online.asp?story=172
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5315986_information-kids-dead-sea.html

TASK 5 - Communication/Culture

TIME: 5 mins

Ss are divided into groups of 5-8 people. One person in each groups lies on the floor, the rest lifts him/her up to the hip level. Teacher accompanies to secure safety. the idea is to let them feel as if they were lying on the surface of the Dead Sea. You can swing a person to make a storm ;)

In our case this was a group of 9 children so we played all together. This task was the best ingredient of the lesson. Everyone had fun that you can see in the photos.

TASK 6 - Communication/Content

TIME: 10 mins

Ts can prepare an oral or written test based on the content presented during the lesson then ask Ss to do it at the lesson as a form of evaluation. The test to be checked together.


OR

Ts distribute the printouts from Science 2 by Macmillan and ask Ss to do the exercises. Group evaluation.

We have decided to do the other one and it hit the jackpot. This book was very helpful to gather all the information from the lesson.

Otzi and melting ice

In our school we are just starting a new age of CLIL lessons. What you can see below is a pilot of a series of 100% CLIL course, aimed at children aged 10-12 who are interested in English but also science and geography. Together with two other teachers we are introducing a completely revolutionary programme. Apart from CLIL methodology we use LEGO blocks in our experiments. The first meeting was about Otzi, the Iceman, and melting the ice by means of various substances. 

Prior knowledge – HOTS and LOTS – Cognition/Communication 

TIME: 10 mins  

We asked our Ss some questions checking their knowledge and understanding.

What is water? 

What happens when you boil water? 
What happens when you freeze water? 

Why do people freeze things? What do you have in your freezer? 

How do you defrost goods? 

Where is it cold – in the Arctic or in Africa? What about high mountains? 

What is an iceberg?  

Have you heard about Otzi, the Iceman? http://www.iceman.it/en/oetzi-the-iceman 

TASK 1  – Content/Communication 

TIME: 10-15 mins 

Time to present Otzi, the Iceman. Information about him was taken from www.iceman.it. Before the lesson we prepared a handout for more advanced students. This time we worked with a younger group so we prefered to talk to them. Afterwards, Maciej, our bilingual tutor, asked the children several questions about what they had just heard.

TASK 2 – Content/Communication/Cognition

TIME: 35-40 mins 

In pairs/groups: We asked students to guess which substances would help them melt ice. We wanted them to take out the LEGO men intact as the Iceman had had his hip broken during this procedure in 1991.  They had to fill in the worksheet with their guesses. After the experiment they checked the outcomes and we compared the results. Ts explained why salt melts the ice and to make it more understandable we played a game where a part of the students were salt molecules and the rest were water ones. It was great fun!

TASK 3 – Cognition/Communication - HOMEWORK 

We also thought about homework. This time as it was a pilot lesson we changed the idea slightly and did it together in a form of oral presentations.

To practise past forms of verbs: Imagine the Legoman you have found is an iceman. Draw a picture of him/her and write/say a few words about him – his skills, life, abilities. OR describe what happened just before he died. 

To practise present verb forms: Imagine the Legoman you have found is an iceman. Draw a picture of him/her and write/say a few words about him – what does his everyday life look like? 

USEFUL LINKS: 

http://www.iceman.it/kids/index_en.php 

http://lemonlimeadventures.com/lego-science-ice-excavation-experiment/ 

http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/chemistry_freezing-thawing-water-salt/ 

http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/chemistry_meltdown/

From Head to Toe

Eric Carle as an author has created lots of wonderful books. I adore their style, design and drawings. It's always a pleasure to work with his masterpieces. This time I needed something positive to revise vocabulary concerning parts of the body, species of wild animals and the use of "can". A quick search on YT and look what popped up:

 Task 1:

LOTS and HOTS questions revising previous knowledge, e.g:
 1. Show me your... (names of various parts of the body)
2. Which part(s) of your body do you use to...(write, eat, jump, etc.)?
3. Which wild animals can swim?
4. Which animals can't walk?


Task 2:
We watch the film shown above. I encourage children to start singing and copying the moves.

Task 3:
We watch the chant again analysing and repeating the actions mentioned.

Task 4:
I divide the class into three groups hand out three different sets of riddles about animals. In this case I made use of a ready worksheet found at http://busyteacher.org (that I really recommend!).
The students read the riddles one by one to other teams and the first one to guess the name of the animal scores the point. The winners are of course those with the highest score.

Task 5:
It's time for vocabulary. In case of lower grade students I make sure they note down the names of the animals. For upper grade students I prepare a compilation of all the new words and phrases that appeared in the riddles.

Task 6:
Time for a game. Children play "Simon Says" but include phrases from the chant (raise you shoulders, kick your legs, bend your neck, etc.)

Comedies

I have decided to try CLIL with my oldest students who are 14-16 years old. As a topic I chose something I am familiar with - comedies. such words like "slapstick", "sitcom" or "canned laughter" are quite unknown to them and to be honest, I got lots of satisfaction from teaching them something I learnt being much younger during my studies.

Task 1

HOTS and LOTS questions were about films they watch, their favourite comedies, the reasons why they find a film funny. I also asked if they have ever come across these notions I mentioned before. They tried to quess their meanings and I have to admit they were pretty close giving the right answers! 

Task 2

Students were given a short original descriptions of the types od comedies: a slapstick, a stand-up and a sitcom. Their task was to match the descriptions with the names.

(a slapstick)

Comedy characterized by broad humour, absurd situations, and vigorous, often violent action. It took its name from a paddlelike device, probably introduced by 16th-century commedia dell'arte troupes, that produced a resounding whack when one comic actor used it to strike another. This comedy became popular in 19th-century music halls and vaudeville theatres and was carried into the 20th century by silent-movie comedians such as Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops and later by Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, and the Three Stooges.

 (a sitcom)

Radio or television comedy series that involves a continuing cast of characters in a succession of episodes. Often the characters are markedly different types thrown together by circumstance and occupying a shared environment such as an apartment building or workplace. Typically half an hour in length and either taped in front of a studio audience or employing canned applause, they are marked by verbal sparring and rapidly resolved conflicts.

(a stand-up)

This kind of a comedy can be defined as a comedy that is performed by an individual who stands in front of a live audience and tells jokes while speaking indirectly to them. The comedian performs with the aid of a microphone, which is either hand-held or mounted. There performances are later released on DVDs, internet or TV.

 

Task 3

We checked their answers together wondering what the characteristics of all types are. After each piece we watched a short film to see if all the elements were in:

SLAPSTICK

We watched old movies and Mr Bean to compare if the genre is still the same.

SITCOM

Here the task was different as students were shown the film without a canned laughter. Their job was to tell me what was wrong, akward in the film.

STAND-UP Comedy

In this case I put a pressure on the fact that a stand-up sometimes can be offensive, politically incorrect but that is one of its features.

Task 4
CLIL wants students to be creative and using the content in their culture (do you remember 4Cs?). Students got the homework:
- prepare a stand-up
- perform a slapstick

More details in the file: CLICK