alenka.blake [at] gmail.com
1st High School in Celje (Slovenia)
Introduction
Watching a film in class is always enjoyable for students, and usingfilms from the English speaking world in English lessons is easy interms of choice. It is more difficult, however, to fit such a longactivity into the syllabus, especially since most films are longer thanan individual English lesson. Often the teacher is required to cut afilm into sections and only use certain parts in the classroom.
An English-language film, even if only a few scenes are used, providesstudents with natural and authentic English. In my experience, and inthe view of most students, this makes exercises around such materialworthwhile and meaningful. Films or scenes in English are a source ofactivities such as vocabulary-building tasks, classroom discussion,writing, and listening comprehension.
To do all this in one or two lessons I chose Morgan Spurlock's 2004documentary Super Size Me.The film is aboutthe eating habits of Americans and helps thematise stereotypes aboutAmerica, discussing food, eating habits and a healthy life style ingeneral.
The length of the documentary did not allow for dealing with the entirefilm, so I opted for two portions.
- The first five minutes (immediately preceding the openingcredits), which are a sort of fact file about eating habits of manyAmericans.
- The fifty-first to fifty-seventh minutes (the section dedicatedto state schools and the food offered to American high schoolstudents).
Though the examples in the film may seem extreme to students, the topicis directly applicable to high school students around the globe (if thequestions in Tasks 2 and 4 are adjusted accordingly, and the relevantcountry substituted for "Slovenia"). The topic also offers material forcomparing and discussing how, or whether, their school takes care ofthe students’ meals.
Leading up to the lesson in which the documentary film was shown,several lessons were dedicated to this topic, so the students would beequipped with the necessary vocabulary.
Since in the video the wordsare supported by visual image, the students had to do two things at thesame time. First they had to focus on the words missing in the gappedtext, then they had to apply the knowledge from the documentary inorder to answer questions and participate in the class discussion. Thefirst part was not difficult for them, as the words missing in the gapswere known to them and it was easy to hear them despite the narrator’squick speech. This offered an impulse that led naturally to classroomdiscussion.
Topic: Talking About Food
Level: Intermediate
Number of Lessons: One or two.
Before watching the first part the teacher only tells the students thatthe documentary is about eating habits in the USA. The title of thedocumentary is introduced after the first five minutes of watching andit is then that the title and its relevance are discussed.
Listening and Discussion Activities
1) The teacher introduces the students with Task 1. They should begiven a few seconds to read through the instructions and the task. Thenthe teacher shows the first five minutes of the documentary.
Task 1
Read the text and fill in the gaps.
- America is the _________________ nation in the world.
- More than _______ % of adults in theUS are obese.
- _______________________ is the fattest state in the US.
- The two main causes for deaths in America are ___________ and______________.
- McDonald’s is spread over the world and feeds more than__________ million people worldwide a day.
- McDonald’s accounts for _______ % of the fast foodmarket in the US.
- In the US you can find McDonald’s everywhere: ______________,___________________, ______________________.
Key: 1) fattest, 2) 60, 3) Mississippi, 4) smoking, obesity, 5) 46, 6)43, 7) Walmart outlets, airport, hospitals.
Students report their answers, the teacher writes on the board wordsthat might present difficulties for the students. While thestudents report, the answers can be commented on.
2) Students are introduced to Task 2 and they form groups of four.
Task 2
In groups discuss the following questions. Support your opinion andmake notes.
- Are Slovenians heavier than they used to be? Why or whynot?
- What influence does McDonald’s have in Slovenia? Is it verypopular? Does it influence our diet?
- In America some people are suing fast food restaurants. Wheredoes personal responsibility start and corporate responsibility stop?
- The title of the film is SuperSize Me. What does it refer to?
- What will the specific topic of the film be?
After a short while, when the teacher notices that the groups are donewith their work, the students report and a lively discussion willlikely evolve.
3) The teacher introduces the students with Task 3. They should begiven a brief amount of time to read through the instructions and thetask. Then the teacher shows the second section of the documentary(minutes 51 to 57).
Task 3
Answer the questions. Use short answers only.
State School
1. What do American students eat in school?
________________________________________________________________________
2. Which food company caters most schools and prisons in the USA?
________________________________________________________________________
3. How is food prepared in schools?
________________________________________________________________________
4. Why don’t they prepare meals from scratch in schools?
________________________________________________________________________
5. How many meals a month are actually cooked at the schoolmentioned?
________________________________________________________________________
Key: 1) cookies, fries, ketchup2) Sodexho, 3) it is reheated, 4) it is inconvenient, 5) 6 out of 36.
School for Students with Truancy andBehavioural Problems
6. Who cooks for the school?
________________________________________________________________________
7. What is important for the company that cooks in this schoolwhen they prepare meals?
________________________________________________________________________
8. What did the school get rid of?
________________________________________________________________________
9. Why doesn’t every school provide their students with foodlike this school does?
________________________________________________________________________
Key: 6) Natural Ovens, 7)fresh preparation, not chemically processed food, 8) candy machines,soda machines, 9) the junk food companies do not want to be kicked outof the school system.
Students report, the teacher writes on the board words that mightpresent difficulties to the students.
4) Students are introduced to task 4they work in groups of four asbefore.
Task 4
In groups discuss the following questions. Support your opinion andmake notes.
- Discuss your eating habits.
- How many times a day do youeat?
- When do youeat?
- What do youeat?
- Who prepares your meals?
Students report after discussing the questions in groups.
Post-listening Activities
At home students write responses to the following:
- How is the issue of providing food for high school students takencare of in your country?
- In the next lesson, the students freely report on what they havewritten.
Conclusion
Watching Super Size Me provedto be interesting, engaging and motivating. Not only were the studentsforced to use words that they learned about cooking and food prior towatching the documentary, they were also forced to think about theirown eating habits and life styles. Most importantly, for theseintermediate students the exercises provided them with confidence asthey discussed a current and crucial topic based on an authenticsource. In other words, they could see that they are in a position toconfront real, rather than “classroom,” English.
Reference
- Super Size Me. Dir.Morgan Spurlock. 2004. DVD. Cinemania Group, 2006.
http://iteslj.org/ http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Blake-SuperSize.html
