Movie Talk Revelation!

Today I decided to do a movie talk.  I try to do about one a month, because the students really enjoy them, and I don't want to bore them by doing it too many times.  I like the novelty of doing it infrequently...

So today, I didn't have time to pre-view the movie clip (I had already seen it, but I didn't have time to make a list of vocabulary).  I decided to show the whole clip to the students without talking/pausing and have them brainstorm vocabulary by making two lists:  one list of words they know that they saw in the clip and one list of words that are necessary, but that they don't know yet.

It worked REALLY well.  We watched the film Alma, so the students came up with words like snow, girl, writes, plays, door, window, etc that they already know in French.  For words they need to know, they said doll, twin, locked, store, etc.  I gave them the words in French and then starred two or three as "essential" for the story.  I added those words into the story as I narrated and used circumlocution to talk around words like locked and twin.

At then end, I asked the class if they liked this new way of doing Movie Talk, and they said yes.  I stopped a couple of my lower-level kids and asked if they understood more this way, and they emphatically agreed that it was easier.

I don't know why I never thought of this before...it's a great way to predict vocabulary and to get their minds thinking in French before I start spouting it.