Let's Make A Movie

     Learning a new language is a hard goal to undertake. Most of us start learning when we're in middle school or high school when it is the easiest, supposedly, to learn. Of course, there are a limited number of ways to teach a foreign language to students. Most of the lessons involve speaking sentences, learning vocabulary, practicing spelling, and reading the language. Practical use if often limited to oral exams with the teacher or speaking to other students from a set lists. The problem is not lack of practice, rather it is the lack of real world practice with actual speakers of your language.

     A great lesson idea to help combat this problem is a lesson one of the Spanish teachers at my high school used with her advanced students. In the Spanish II class, the teacher had the students create a short film or video all in Spanish. The students had to create a video only speaking Spanish, have a story that made sense, and create an actual DVD cover promoting the film they created. Most of the filming was done outside of class, after school, or off campus. The students were responsibly for getting the project finished and using the language in an appropriate way that also made sense. They must first write out a script have the teacher make sure everything is correct before the students are allowed to start filming.

     This type of project takes a big time commitment not only from the students, but also from the teacher. There will be a few mistakes, but the overall work of the project is a way to really let the students show off their knowledge and skill with the language in an unconventional way. This also tests their classmates because they should be able to understand almost all the words and are able to follow the plot line of the movies. I saw a few of the films when I was in Spanish I, so they did not make much sense at the time. What they did for us though, was to get us excited about learning the language and moving onto Spanish II. A good lesson, whether using technology or not, should get the students excited about learning and hold their interest.