Zipi y Zape y la Isla del Capitán - studying a spanish film.

At the end of each academic year, KS3 students at my school study a film.

I've written about this before here (German), here (French) and here (Spanish).

This year was a little different. Due to lockdown, the situation was weird to say the least.

Usually, all of our Y8 students would study the film. This year, however, only those who have opted to continue with Spanish next year have studied the film.

The film I chose this year was the sequel to last year's film, Zipi y Zape y el club de la canica, Zipi y Zape y la Isla del Capitán.

The reasons for the choice were quite simple:

1) The film is widely available to watch on the internet, on Netflix and other streaming sites. 

2) It's quite easy to follow.

3) None of the children had seen the film.
4) It's quite good.

Normally when studying a film, we would spend two or three lessons watching and discussing the film.
This wasn't possible this time, so I made a true/false quiz which would help the students follow the plot.

This year's project was a GCSE transition project so I wanted the other activities to be similar to the type of tasks the students might encounter in their GCSE course.

I found some really good resources online:

The Discovery Film Festival (I mostly used this resource)

TES user iuliamorgan

and I included lots of activities so students could use their knowledge of describing people and personalities which they were studying just before lockdown.

The feedback from students has been very positive and they are really looking forward to studying GCSE Spanish next term.

That's not George Clooney! a game for language students.

Today I was watching Meet The Germans on dw.de.

It is a cultural programme in English presented and written by Rachel Stewart.

This is dw.de's description of the programme:

From beer to nudity and ridiculous grammar - Meet the Germans uncovers the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the German culture. Through videos with presenter Rachel Stewart and other online content we bring you insider tips and a light-hearted but informative look at life in Germany.  

While watching one of the videos on youtube today (about German TV and how a lot of it is American drivel dubbed into German) I invented a language game* to practise describing and comparing people.

* I find if I call something a game my students are much more willing to participate.

I started with this photo:

This is Martin Umbach a very well-known (in Germany) German actor.

But he is also George Clooney...

...and Russell Crowe...

...and Gabriel Byrne...

... and Geoffrey Rush...

So here's the game:

Students are given a photo of the foreign language voice actor and write/speak a description.

Er heißt Martin Umbach. Er kommt aus Deutschland. Er is vierundsechzig Jahre alt...usw.

Then let them search for who he is, or make them guess, or play a match up game with photos.

They then have to compare and contrast the English speaking star with their FLVA counterpart.

Martin ist älter als George aber sie haben graue Haare. 

This can be as detailed or as basic as you wish depending on the ability/experience of your students. 

You could even play this as a True/False guessing game with pictures of the stars, where students have to decide if their partner is telling the truth.

Have fun!

PS: Here's a list of German actors and the American actors they dub.

PPS: You could introduce some real culture and controversy here, too as many African American actors are voiced by white actors in German films and TV shows. e.g. Uwe Friedrichsen, a white German actor, was the voice of Danny Glover in many films.