LESSON BITES #1: A FILM DISCUSSION ACTIVITY

Here is a nice discussion activity I used with an upper-intermediate group – it requires no preparation at all beyond thinking of some interesting films to work on.

1 Tell students they will have a debate about which of a number of films is the better – I had two groups so I chose two films
2 Assign a film to each group – because our topic was animals I selected Gunda and My Octopus teacher – ideally choose less well-known films that students might not know
3 Give students 5 minutes of research time to find information about their film
4 After research, give students 3 minutes of speaking to combine what they learned
5 Give students 5 minutes of research time to find information about the other film
6 Show the trailers for the two films
7 Get students to prepare three points to say why they think their film was the better one
9 Get students to present their points
10 Tell students to have a discussion about their choices
11 Finish with a piece of writing in which students explain their genuine preferred choice
12 Ask your AI tool to generate a text comparing the two films and display it on the screen – tell students to try to incorporate vocabulary from this text into their writing

Follow-up

For homework, ask students to try and watch the film or if they can’t find it to imagine they have watched it. Tell students to write a review of the film.