Hakuna Matata

Showing video clips of popular programmes and famous films is another fantastic method of encouraging the students, and consolidating the amount of English they have learnt.

This week, I developed the film theme so as pupils could write their own reviews of famous scenes from different movies, or discuss the positive and negative aspects of their favourite cinematic blockbuster.

Starting the lesson, I explained that I wanted the children to read reviews of Disney’s inescapable “Frozen” (La Reine des Neiges), and tell me what the critics believed to be the strengths and weaknesses of the film.

Comprehension proved a challenge: the pupils were overly concerned with understanding every word perfectly, rather than the overall gist of the sentence. This proved a pivotal moment helping students change their reflex reaction of fear and panic to comfort when faced with unknown phrases. I simply read sentences and asked them if they were positive or negative, and what words they understood.

Together, the students discovered that they could respond to the majority of questions, even if there were several hurdles to overcome. The exercise challenged my ability to respond under pressure: pupils were becoming discouraged and I had to quickly find an alternative means of demonstrating that these texts were, in fact, accessible if they did not become bogged down in every single sentence.

I reasoned with them, “Do you know every word in the French language?” No, of course. But that does not prevent you from learning what a word means from context.

Difficult sell over, we watched clips of The Lion King and discussed the film making, the music, the animation, the comedy, and the tragedy and why the film was enjoyable all over the world. The pupils quickly forgot their angst from the reading comprehension and debated with each other over the finer points of the film, together writing a review that summated the story, praised the positive aspects of the movie and gave a rating. All whilst singing along to the “Circle of Life”, which is a universal classic.

Film lessons? Hakuna Matata – no worries.