How To Write Film And Video Activities

By Kieran Donaghy and Anna Whitcher

We are living in a video age – and so are our students. In 2014, 300 hours of video content was uploaded to YouTube every minute. Video has become so widely accepted as the optimum medium for getting information, that YouTube is the second largest search engine. This module looks at how we can use this ‘medium of choice’ to teach English.

With such an embarrassment of riches, the question ‘Where do I find video?’ has been replaced with ‘How do I choose appropriate video?’ Kieran Donaghy and Anna Whitcher lead you through this minefield, providing essential guidance on how to choose exploitable video for the purposes of writing video activities for the ELT classroom. They share their knowledge of the best sources of high-quality video and discuss criteria for selection, such as syllabus fit, language level, length, relevance and task potential. Once you’ve chosen a great video, they’ll show you how to write a variety of activities to exploit it.

Kieran runs the award-winning website Film English, and is also the founder of The Image Conference. Anna is an ELT writer, editor and video producer.

This module forms part of the ELT Teacher 2 Writer training course. The training modules are designed to help you write better ELT materials, either for publication, or simply to improve the quality of your self-produced classroom materials.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ELT
• Release date: Mar 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311504333

Book preview

HOW TO WRITE FILM

AND VIDEO ACTIVITIES

Kieran Donaghy and Anna Whitcher

TRAINING COURSE FOR ELT WRITERS

Other titles by ELT Teacher 2 Writer

A Lexicon For ELT Professionals

How ELT Publishing Works

How To Adapt Authentic Materials

How To Plan A Book

How To Write And Deliver Talks

How To Write Audio and Video Scripts ⸕

How To Write Business English Materials †

How To Write CLIL Materials

How To Write Corporate Training Materials †

How To Write Critical Thinking Activities ⸕

How To Write EAP Materials †

How To Write ESOL Materials †

How To Write ESP Materials †

How To Write Exam Preparation Materials

How To Write Film And Video Activities

How To Write Online Materials

How To Write Graded Readers

How To Write Grammar Presentations And Practice

How To Write Primary Materials

How To Write Pronunciation Activities

How To Write Reading And Listening Activities ⸕

How To Write Secondary Materials

How To Write Speaking Activities ⸕

How To Write Teacher’s Books

How To Write Vocabulary Presentations And Practice ⸕

How To Write Worksheets

How To Write Writing Activities ⸕

Our paperback compendiums

⸕ How To Write Excellent ELT Materials: The Skills Series

This book contains the six titles marked ⸕ above.

† How To Write Excellent ELT Materials: The ESP Series

This book contains the five titles marked † above.

For further information, see eltteacher2writer.co.uk

How To Write Film and Video Activities

By Kieran Donaghy and Anna Whitcher

This edition © 2022 ELT Teacher 2 Writer

www.eltteacher2writer.co.uk

We would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce their material:

National Geographic Learning; Brookemead ELT; Cambridge University Press

Although every effort has been made to contact copyright holders before publication, this has not always been possible. If notified, ELT Teacher 2 Writer will endeavour to rectify any errors or omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Contents

About The Authors

Introduction

Guidance On Sourcing Non-ELT-Specific Videos

Ways Of Exploiting Video

Commentaries On Tasks

Glossary

About The Authors

Kieran Donaghy

I am an independent writer, trainer and conference speaker with over 30 years of experience in English language teaching. My publications include Film In Action (Delta Publishing), The Image In ELT (ELT Council) and Language Hub (Macmillan). My independent publishing company Film English has won a British Council ELTons Award, an English Speaking Union Award and the MEDEA Award. When I’m not writing, I train teachers in Barcelona and online at my specialist teacher development institute, The School for Training. I am the founder of The Image Conference, which is the only ELT conference dedicated exclusively to the use of image in language education, and Anna and I are the co-founders of the community of practice, the Visual Arts Circle.

Anna Whitcher

I am an independent writer, editor and video producer with over 20 years of experience. I have a strong interest in film and its role in the classroom and created my own company, ELT ImageMakers, in 2017 to help educational publishers and their editorial teams meet the ELT market’s demands for high-quality video. I have a Master’s in English Composition and have taught ESL/EFL and Spanish to teenagers and adults in the US and in Europe. I have created and produced video for multiple international ELT courses, some of which have been nominated for an ELTon Award in Innovation. Kieran and I were the co-founders of the Visual Arts Circle and created two short films that support film creation as an effective language teaching tool.

Task 1

Before you start this book, we suggest you do this brief task to get you thinking about video, the role it has played so far in your teaching and how you approach it.

1. Think about types of activities used with video in coursebooks and on ELT blogs and websites. Brainstorm a list of activities.

2. Take a coursebook you know quite well. Look at the video section and think about the following questions:

- What is it being used for?

- What task