This is part of a series suggesting different ways to use Moviestorm in schools or other educational environments. They also make useful exercises for film-makers wanting to develop and practice different film-making techniques. Many more lesson plans and ideas, with free downloadable resources, can be found on the Moviestorm Web site.
Assignment: Getting Around
Create a short film in a foreign language, depicting a typical everyday situation that a tourist might encounter, such as booking a hotel room, ordering a meal, buying goods in a shop, asking for directions, going to a doctor, renting a car, reporting a crime and so on.
Suggested techniques
This video is a template that students can use to practice learning about restaurants. They add their own dialogue to order from a menu and ask the waiter questions.
Use photographic backdrops to make it look as if it’s set in another country.
Use subtitles so that other students can follow along in both languages.
For teachers: benefits to students
This helps students develop language skills they would need if travelling.
It can work even better if the project demonstrates knowledge of how things may be different in that country to what they are used to at home.
Suitability
Ages 14+
Suitable for groups
Languages
Downloadable resources
Click the link to download a Moviestorm movie template.
This is part of a series suggesting different ways to use Moviestorm in schools or other educational environments. They also make useful exercises for film-makers wanting to develop and practice different film-making techniques. Many more lesson plans and ideas, with free downloadable resources, can be found on the Moviestorm Web site.
Assignment: What Really Happened
Create a short film re-enacting a historical event.
This movie uses mods from Moddingstorm in addition to standard Moviestorm content packs.
Suggested techniques
Do it in modern dress and setting if period dress and sets aren’t available.
You can do it as a very factual documentary-style reconstruction with narration, or as a movie-style story.
Try it using period speech and language, or update it to a more modern style.
Add appropriate background music to create atmosphere, and ensure you have a striking title sequence.
For teachers: benefits to students
Reconstructing historical events gives the student new insights into the different people involved as well as what happened. This will help students get engaged with historical events.
This requires plenty of research to make it accurate.
Dramatic reconstruction makes for a good group project.
This is part of a series suggesting different ways to use Moviestorm in schools or other educational environments. They also make useful exercises for film-makers wanting to develop and practice different film-making techniques. Many more lesson plans and ideas, with free downloadable resources, can be found on the Moviestorm Web site.
Assignment: Foreign Debate
Create a TV-style discussion in a foreign language, highlighting different views about a particular topic.
Suggested techniques
Pick a topic that’s relevant to the country whose language is being spoken. This could be sports, politics, social affairs, or entertainment.
Have a panel of people representing different viewpoints.
Intersperse the presentation with still images and video if appropriate. You could do this as a studio presentation or lecture, and display the images on a screen behind the presenter, or else you can make the images go full-screen.
Add extra content on-screen by using text to complement what you’re saying.
For teachers: benefits to students
The student is required to demonstrate fluency with the words required to describe topical events.
The student has to find out a little about the country they’re learning about. Their choice of topic can then lead on to classroom discussion.
Adding multimedia content enables the student to approach the subject in a richer way than just using written text and still images.
Suitability
Ages 14+
Suitable for groups
Languages
Downloadable resources
Click the link to download a Moviestorm movie template.
This is part of a series suggesting different ways to use Moviestorm in schools or other educational environments. They also make useful exercises for film-makers wanting to develop and practice different film-making techniques. Many more lesson plans and ideas, with free downloadable resources, can be found on the Moviestorm Web site.
Assignment: Just Chatting
Create a chat show in a foreign language.
Suggested techniques
Pick everyday topics in the style of daytime TV - fashion, household advice, food.
Use a celebrity from the foreign country and interview them (politician, sports star, entertainer).
Have several people chat about current events, such as a recent film or book.
Don’t take it too seriously - this should be fun to watch!
For teachers: benefits to students
This helps students develop fluency with colloquial words and phrases.
This is a good opportunity to practise humour and small talk.
