I love using movies to each English, but they can be too much - you know - too long, to boring, yadda, yadda, yadda. The Genki English guy, Richard Graham, has a suggestion. Use movie trailers. What a fantastic idea! He suggests using the Apple movie trailers. Good choice in that the ones on the Apple site are offered in HD.
http://www.genkienglish.net/usingmoviesinclass.htmHere is the link to the trailer site. There is a veritable smorgasbord to choose from. May not be such a bad idea if you want to mix things up and/or kill some time. Or, if you get a positive response from the students you could do it as a regular thing, turn it into "Movie Monday." Doesn't have to be a Monday, but you get the idea.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/You could do a bunch of different activities along with it, like:
-transcribe it and have them follow along as a simultaneous listening and reading activity
-create a close activity from the transcript focusing on specific grammatical items, such as contractions
-introduce new vocabulary and idioms
-assign a movie trailer to be viewed cold (their choice) as homework. They have to view it and write down a new vocabulary word and find the appropriate definition to share with the class. Homework - I know not the most popular choice, but not too difficult to achieve.)
-have students perform it as a readers theater script
-is there a song with lyrics involved? Assign small groups to sing the song to the class as others in the group act it out.
For example,
Invitcus http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/invictus/ can be used to teach about Nelson Mendela and apartheid. If you're a Rugby fan then "forget about it!" You could springboard a mini-unit on the game, history, rules, etc; Maybe you could get a Rugby club going with the students? Do you think they would go for that? I don't know, but my teenage son would be totally into that (he plays' American football - which is kinda like Rugby except with armor, right?)
What about
Where The Wild Things Are?
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/wherethewildthingsare/ Can you get your hands on the book? This would be a great one to teach the kids.
Here is a random list of resources that can be found on the net:
http://www.fantasyjr.com/where-the-wild-things-are-lesson-plans-and-movie-news/http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LAWildThingsStoryElementsK2.htmhttp://newteachersupport.suite101.com/article.cfm/teaching_with_where_the_wild_things_arehttp://www.nwf.org/BeOutThere/parentsguide.htmlThis lesson incorporates math and science
http://www.easyfunschool.com/article1293.htmlStudents create their own wild things
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/early/Jeryl-Wild.htmhttp://www.ibiblio.org/mturner/seawell/legos2/susan/wildthings.htmlCharacter development lesson
http://www.scetv.org/education/ntti/lessons/2005_lessons/character.cfmBeginning, middle, end
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/early/Jeryl-Wild.htm Sequencing monster
http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Language_Arts/Writing/WCP0033.htmlWhat about
A Christmas Carol?
http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/achristmascarol/http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=238http://www.learningtogive.org/lessons/unit10/lesson3.htmlhttp://ulsterballet.org/acc-lesson.TeacherGuide.pdfand let's not forget the ppt's!
http://languagearts.pppst.com/dickens-christmascarol.htmlThen there is
Amelia.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/amelia/ Is she dead? Is she alive and living with Elvis on a deserted island?
lesson plans
http://www.idahoptv.org/ntti/nttilessons/lessons2002/taylortatten.htm?CFID=566417&CFTOKEN=24829627http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Byrnes-famous/Earhart.htmlEven if you don't have the series, you can still glean nuggets that you can use in class.
http://www.patriapress.com/earhartre.htmlbiography
http://www.ellensplace.net/eae_intr.htmlForensic evidence - create a discussion - is she alive or dead? Let the students decide based on evidence provided by the following sources and then present their position to the class.
Alive
http://www.irene-amelia.com/index.htmlDead
http://www.nndb.com/people/943/000026865/There's lots of rich material to choose from. It can be used over and over again once you put the lesson together. So a little bit of work will pay off in the long run.