Fianl exam: Video News from Eun-Sil Choi

The movie "Iron Man" got off to a great start. It marked 200 million dollars. It's about a common advanture, hi-tech super hero. Robert John Downey Jr. played a leading role in the movie.

Winehouse is a British singer. Winehouse, who's 24, has seen her Grammy Winning Career complicated by an increasingly chaotic personal life. Her drunk picture was posted in the newspaper. She was really embarrassed.

Madonna retured to stage with a new album, 'Hot Candy'. She won the 7th first prize. This happened for the first time as a female artist.

Mariah Carey released a nwe album. She also married an actor 'Nick Cannon'.

1. Before starting the class, I will show students videoes related to Today's topic, such as a trailer of 'Iron Man' and music vedioes of of the singers , to activate students' interest.

2. Brain storming about movies and singers.- Make a group of 4 or 5. Students discuss movies and singers each other.

What kind of movies do you like?
Have you ever seen any movies recently?
What movie would you like to see?
What kind of music do you like?
Who's your favorite singer?
etc.

3. Before watching today's news, I'll explain difficult words Ss don't know.
for example, T: Are there any words you can't understand?
Ss: Estimate
T: 'Estimate' can be used verb or noun. That means an approximate calculation of a quantity or value.

After watching the news 2 or 3 times, I'll hand out the news script with some blanks.
While listening to the news again, they have to fill in the blanks. and then I'll check the answers. Each group have to find out the definitions of each word they don't know and discuss what the news is trying to say. Finally they'll do the presentation.

After presentation, I'll explain difficult expressions and structures. And then, each group have to choose a movie or singer they like. They will have to make their own news script about the movie or singer they chose. It's okay the news is both real and imaginary. The representative of each group will do role-play as a newscaster with their script.

choi Eun sil wrote:1. Before starting the class, I will show students videoes related to Today's topic, such as a trailer of 'Iron Man' and music vedioes of of the singers , to activate students' interest.

2. Brain storming about movies and singers.- Make a group of 4 or 5. Students discuss movies and singers each other.

What kind of movies do you like?
Have you ever seen any movies recently?
What movie would you like to see?
What kind of music do you like?
Who's your favorite singer?
etc.


3. Before watching today's news, I'll explain difficult words Ss don't know.
for example, T: Are there any words you can't understand?
Ss: Estimate
T: 'Estimate' can be used verb or noun. That means an approximate calculation of a quantity or value.

Your pre-activity in terms of stimulating students' background knowledge and their intersts is really nice, because your topic must be deeply related with thier current intersts. After pre-questions, students would be more involved in the content of the article. You also integrate the vocabulary learning which will improve students' comprehension.

choi Eun sil wrote:After watching the news 2 or 3 times, I'll hand out the news script with some blanks.
While listening to the news again, they have to fill in the blanks. and then I'll check the answers. Each group have to find out the definitions of each word they don't know and discuss what the news is trying to say. Finally they'll do the presentation.

The one thing I really recommend you to improve is that there should be more relation between each sub topics because in this article there are a little bit many sub topic ranging from movies to a certain singer which might make students comfused and feel difficult. So I think you need to shorten the news a bit.

i think filling the blank can be difficult in this sort of news, so how about make a mutiple questions?

1. what I think of the video content

One of my favorite TV program is Hollywood E News. Because this was a lot like it, I enjoyed watching it. I'm very thankful to celebrities for giving us continuous gossips. I'm sure all the Ss will be motivated to listen to this, especially the "Iron Man" story.

2. what I like about your lesson plan

I liked your motivation activity very much. This definitely do the work! By showing the trailer and music videos, Ss will also build up their background knowledge.

3. what I don't understand or would like to see clarified in your lesson plan

At the comprehension activity, Ss have to find out the definitions of each word. Here, do you give vocabulary list for finding out the definitions? How are they going to find the definitions? Are they going to bring the dictionary?

4. At least one potential improvement or addition that could make the lesson plan even better

It will be also helpful to talk about the very trailer and music videos that Ss have watched right before at the brainstorming activity.

choi Eun sil wrote:1. Before starting the class, I will show students videoes related to Today's topic, such as a trailer of 'Iron Man' and music vedioes of of the singers , to activate students' interest.

2. Brain storming about movies and singers.- Make a group of 4 or 5. Students discuss movies and singers each other.

What kind of movies do you like?
Have you ever seen any movies recently?
What movie would you like to see?
What kind of music do you like?
Who's your favorite singer?
etc.

3. Before watching today's news, I'll explain difficult words Ss don't know.
for example, T: Are there any words you can't understand?
Ss: Estimate
T: 'Estimate' can be used verb or noun. That means an approximate calculation of a quantity or value.

I think this kind of news can be good material for students only if the actors, actress, or singers are popular and familiar to Koreans. And about the movies or entertainers, I think, there are some casual and useful expressions unlike political news. And we can get movie trailers everywhere. It can also be good material to use for students.

Hello~
Like "Liz", I also enjoy watching Hollywood E News. I believe many young students like foreign celebrities as well as Koreans. This video is something that students can be really into and find some fun in hearing English. Also, it introduces many various news so students can have some choice when they do activities.(like you mentioned in your lesson plan at productive activity stage, or did you mean they can choose any celebrity even not reported in the video? ^^)
I think your lesson plan is well made because students will have much to talk about celebrities(at pre-listening stage)and in English!! Moreover, I really like your idea about students writing real or imaginary script and present it in front of class.
Only if there's an activity I might want to add is at the productive activity stage, the students could choose an story or a celebrity mentioned in the video and talk about any different news they've heard about them to other students. They will be interested in hearing them and also they can have English conversation time over those topics. Again, enjoyed your article!!

Hello~ I just look for the word 'showbiz'. It represents "show business"[연예업] ^^ All of these topics are interesting to hear [I saw the movie 'Iron Man', it's awesome! If there are some people who are going to movies, I firmly recommend this to whom are fond of Actions. There are various topics on video-clips I think if your are going to listening all of the storiesk, it would burdensome for learners to figure them all out. So I think you can divide several stories respectively and listen two or three news in the classroom would be better. And I don't really have much to say about your pre-listeing activity. It is good idea making students talk about topics in groups. But there is one thing I am just curious about. You mentioned that you are going to explain words which pupils do not know. I agree the matter how you proceed the unknown vocabulary. But I think students can not recognize some words even they don't know the words. I mean students can not catch the words' pronunciation because they haven't learn the vocabulary. So I think we need to consider this part with care. You can present some difficult words in advance and figure them out altogether can be one method.

I like the activity for comprehesion in that you encourage students figure out altogether. Students can augment their autunomous atttitude through this activity. They might be interested in preparing presentation. During preparing presentation activity students should work out lots of things on planning the outline, the way of expressing ideas, and the way of structuring the presentation and so on. They can really collaborate each other in groups. I think language class should have lots of interaction among the students.

The movie is Iron Man is a big hit here in Korea, so I think students will show great interest in the news article. And usually students are very interested in stories of celebrities, so we can use them in class to attract students' attention. But the one thing that I'm afraid of is that I quite doubt if students are familiar with the celebrities mentioned in the article. Usually students show interest only to the famous people they've heard of, so preparing news articles about the celebrities they already know woul be more effective in getting students' attention.

I like your idea about having students make their own news report on their own. In my opinion, it would be more fun and effective if you get them to tape their own report. To complete the task successfully, they are supposed to write the script first, and then practice and rehearse delivering the news like a real news anchor again and again, which will be helpful in improving writing and speaking ability.

This article is based on several separated stories. Each of them is related to active stories and so interesting that students feel the same way as we do. However, I would point out the appropriateness of the article contents because those big stars are considered popular only to our generations except teenagers. Despite this point, I would like to mention that there are quite a few easy-to-know, important words, and grammars involved with essential grammars in your script.



It will a be good way to teach all form-focused items in a inductive way.

Also, your productive way as a speaking and writing is good, I think.