Teaching Tip: EFL Lesson Scenario and Plan - 4

Name:

Elizabet Pandelara

Economy:

Chile

School:

Villa Alemania English Teachers Network

Subject:

English as a Foreign Language

Tip:

ENGLISH WEEK 2009: SHORT FILMS FESTIVAL

Villa Alemana’s Teachers Network, TEIL (Teachers of English Improving Learning), has recently developed a project called “Short Films Festival”. There were nine schools from Quilpue and Villa Alemana participating. This event was held at Teatro Pompeya in Villa Alemana. This activity allowed students and teachers to create an opportunity for collaborative work, interaction and respect. The project was a competition of short films in English.

The presentations could not last more than fifteen minutes and the goal was to create an original skit in which one o more characters should make an important decision; there was a problem to solve. This activity was planned to give our students a meaningful learning experience in which they had the chance to demonstrate the use of the English Language and their creative abilities. The video project was part of the teachers’ planning for the second semester with students from third and fourth grades high school. Teachers from each school were in charge of selecting the best video to represent their school.

This project had different parts focused to develop the receptive and productive skills in our students. The first one consisted on writing the script for the short film. Students should include exits and entries, as well as what each student had to say and do (Writing). Then, there was an opportunity to practice pronunciation and fluency (Speaking). Finally, on the day of the competition all the students were developing their listening ability since they were part of the audience and they watched and listened to the work made by the others (Listening). We also wanted to develop reading comprehension. So, each student received a leaflet with the order of the presentation and a brief description of what a short film is (Reading).

It is worth mentioning that the presentation of the short films was done completely in English by two high school students who were in charge of introducing the participating schools’ videos, making comments and conducting the award ceremony. Since teachers from the Network wanted to have a fair competition, we decided to have groups of five students working on a short film. However, on the day of the event we invited a larger group of students to be part of the audience.

For the day of the competition we had the support of five judges: an actress, a graphic designer (winner of the International Short Films Festival of Viña del Mar 2008), two native speakers (volunteers of the English Opens Doors Program) and a teacher of English who works in the Departamento Provincial de Educación. To facilitate the judges’ work, they were given a rubric to evaluate all the contestants.

When all the schools had presented their short film, we had a break of twenty minutes. This time was used to give all the assistants a snack and also to give the judges enough time to decide who the winners were.

During the award ceremony, all the schools received a recognition plaque for their outstanding participation. Besides, there were prizes for the first, second and third place. We also wanted to give a prize for the best performance and the best user of English.

After two weeks of having done this event, the teachers from the Network had a meeting to make an evaluation of the project. Based on the comments done by our students, we all agreed that this was an enriching activity because they could realize that they were able to use the language fluently and efficiently. Besides, their self-confidence was also increased since they could create a quality video making use of their creativity and Information and communication technologies (ICT). Moreover, they were all motivated and wanted to participate again in a second version of this Short Film Festival.

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbuh73pj1AQ