Films and TV

Objective & content

This sheet on films and TV starts from a conversation between two friends planning a film night: Noor is watching a documentary about the ocean, Callum prefers action films with special effects, and they talk about trailers, reviews, subtitles and what their families watch on TV. No real film or programme is named. Pupils learn to talk about what they watch and to give an opinion. They answer six multiple-choice questions, write six words such as ticket, popcorn and remote control under pictures, match eight words such as trailer, cast and subtitles with their meanings and complete seven sentences with words from a box. The sheet ends with a ten-word crossword whose clues come from the conversation.

Pedagogical guide

The conversation carries the words of the topic, so pupils meet each one in context before working on it. Book genres are on the Fiction sheet and screens and downloads on the Technology sheet, so none of them is a target word here. The tasks go from recognising words to using them: pictures, meanings, sentences, then the crossword. The picture task and the sentences each have two extra words in the box, so pupils cannot finish by elimination. There is no word-form task on this sheet. The crossword clues point back to the conversation (the two-star review, Noor's favourite director), so pupils reread it for details. Every task tests words, never grammar.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Ask "What did you watch last weekend: a film, a series or a programme?" and write the answers on the board.
2. (10 min) Two pupils read the conversation aloud; the class answers the six questions.
3. (10 min) Pupils write the words under the pictures, then match the eight words with their meanings.
4. (10 min) Pupils complete the seven sentences with the words in the box.
5. (10 min) Pupils do the crossword, rereading the conversation when they need to.
6. (5 min) Check with the answer key on page 4.

Adaptations

[S] Each pupil names a film or a programme they love and what kind it is before reading.

[A] Pupils write a four-sentence review of a film and give it a number of stars. To take it further, the class votes for a film for a film night, in English with subtitles.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy of the three pupil pages per pupil, in colour or in black and white. Page 4 is the answer key: keep it. Pupils should know the past simple and the present perfect with ever and already.