ICVV list discussion on Viewing and Discussing films

2004-09-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

Below is the beginning of a discussion on viewing and discussing films. Please add your additins and questions.

Jan 6, 2004

Hi Everyone,

This is Michelle Aguilar with the Amherst Adult Learning Center. We are paired with Brunilda Pena of the ESOL class at Northampton Community College at Fountain Court in the Poconos. (David) asked about what movies folks were picking to view. We have agreed to watch Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times"

This makes a lot of sense for us because we both have ESOL students who we were worried might be lost trying to watch a whole movie in colloquial English. "Modern Times" has some sound, intermittent words written on the screen so students can follow dialogue easily, and it has several interesting themes that can be discussed, many of which are still evocative today, in my opinion.

[Among these themes - economic downturns, the mechanization of work life, the impact of social services' on families (welfare, DSS, Youth Services, etc.), verbal vs. nonverbal communication, the Great Depression.]

This site (http://www.filmsite.org/mode.html ) has a great blow-by-blow synopsis of the film's plot and themes.

I welcome any questions.

Sincerely,

Michelle Aguilar
Instructor
Amherst Adult Learning Center
Amherst, Massachusetts
USA

January 8, 2004

Dear All

In the 2nd semester of 2003 I worked with a group of students at AMES in Melbourne Australia. the students to great interest in making the website and creating interesting info for others.
The were very interested in the centre and students in Wichita.
Perhaps the emailing could have been beter but from this end we had a change in the wa we delivered the program and had a bigger than normal changeover in students which was not helpful.
At the moment we are having our long summer break. the weather is very changeable, Today it is quite cold around 20deg C, however last week the temp was hivering around 38+deg C
I look forward to another opportunity to work with a group in the new academic year.
In reference to the use of film as a point of communicaion between students I think this is a great idea. There are some great movies which describe/inform on The Aust Life, culture and environment.

The following link may be of interest.

http://www.metromagazine.com.au/metro/frm.htm?highlight=2

The site allows you to download study guides which aid in the dicussion of movies. I have used this successfully with ESL students.

Maureen Berry
AMES Melbourne
Australia

January 18, 2004

Hello Maureen and others,

The study guide link is great. I have seen one of the films, "Spellbound," and think this would be a fascinating film for the ICVV classes to discuss -- it's an engaging film, and although it is about an U.S. cultural phenomenon, many of the child competitors are from other countries. It would be interesting to see if there are equivalents to the U.S. Spelling Bee in other countries (Australia, for example?) and to see how adult students feel about this tradition. Is it "too competitive?" Is it "challenging children to do their very best?" Is it for the children -- or for their parents -- or both? What does it say about U.S. culture(s)? About other cultures? Are their cultural groups which would abhor this? Celebrate it? Is there something in this film which can help us all understand how to achieve (or what the obstacles are to ) world peace and understanding? There's lots in this film -- and in the study guide.

What (other) film(s) would your students like to discuss?

David J. Rosen
Boston, Massachusetts
USA

June 5, 2004

International Classroom Virtual Visit Colleagues,

It's been awhile. I wonder if anyone (else) has done a class-to-class discussion about a movie which both classes have viewed. I think this is a rich learning opportunity for international classroom visit discussions.

I want to call your attention to a Web site, Awesome Stories, which has a section of easy-to-read background readings for many popular films

http://www.awesomestories.com/movies/index2.htm

For example, current movie titles include:

The Pianist, The Passion of Christ, and Cold Mountain, among others. The Archives include: A Beautiful Mind, Erin Brockovich, Robin "Hurricane" Carter, The Quiet American, and Antwone Fisher, among others.

The readings all include a preface to the story and short "chapters" which tell the movie plot. They are all written in plain English. So they may be useful as accompanying texts to the movie, and may help in focusing the discussion.

Please let us hear from you if your classes have discussed a movie this year. Tell us what movie, what happened, and reflect on this as strategy for writing, critical thinking, international communication, or for other learning.

If you haven't done a class-to-class movie discussion but want to this coming year, let us know what you are thinking of doing, what questions you have. Post your comments to this list.

All the best,

David J.Rosen

June 6, 2004

Hello David! Thanks for the useful link, which I will use for my work with flicks in class!
I find the movie selection quite inspiring. A heartful cheers to all the list members from Bielefeld/Germany!

Hans-Dieter Seidensticker,
Bielefeld, Germany

June 6, 2004

That is a really neat site.

It's only a few weeks to the summer holidays now and I don't know for sure
yet what classes I'm going to have in September, but it might be possible
for us to include a film or two in our studies next year and it would be
great to do an international class-to-class discussion of it.

My learners are often really interested in Titanic, and I notice one of the
films in the 'Awesome Stories' site. We live in Southampton, UK and a number
of crew and passengers were from here. There is a lot of history around us
associated with the ship and we could relate the film to the real history,
compare the characters in the film with real people etc. If anyone else
would be interested in a Titanic ICVV in a few months time, please get in
touch, especially if you also live in a city that has links to Titanic so we
could swap photos and info about memories of the ship in our cities, that
would be fantastic! :-)

Jo Dixon-Trifonov
Southampton City College
UK

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2004-09-18T01:26:00.000-07:00

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2004-09-16T15:20:00.000-07:00

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ICVV list discussion on Viewing and Discussing films

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