English World 2 Review Units 4-6

 (Supplementary Material for Specific Textbooks--English World 2)

Batman PowerPoint Game: drive, slides, pub

Doraemon PowerPoint Game: drive, slides, pub

Jurassic Park PowerPoint Game: drive, 

Pokemon PowerPoint Game: drive, slides, pub

YuGiOh PowerPoint Game: drive, slides, pub

Quizlet for Units 4-6: drive, docs, pub

La Révolution française (1989)--The French Revolution

(Movie Review)

Why I Watched This Movie
So, unfortunately, the story of how I came to watch this movie is going to start with a confession: I spend way too much time on Youtube.

Regular readers already know this, of course.  If it wasn't already self-evident from the amount of Youtube Videos I link to on this blog, I've also overtly confessed to worries about Internet and TV addiction in some of my past posts.

It remains my ambition to someday get my viewing habits under control, and live a normal life.

In the meantime, however, I'm going to review this movie I saw on Youtube.



Despite the fact that I personally watched this movie off of the small screen, I'm still counting it as part of my Movie Review Project because it is a real movie.  It got a theatrical release and everything back in 1989.

But I just stumbled upon it while surfing Youtube.

Background   

I never heard of this movie before it popped up on my Youtube page, but I've dug around a bit on the Internet, and apparently this movie was released in 1989 to celebrate the bicentennial of the French Revolution.
Somewhat surprisingly, they decided to go for an international cast.  So, for example, Sam Neill plays Lafayette  , Peter Ustinov plays Mirabeau, Jane Seymour plays Marie Antionette, etc.
Apparently the film originally got an international release in English.  (I'm not sure how that worked--did they dub the lines, or did they record two version of every scene?)  But the only version that anyone on the Internet is able to track down nowadays is the French version with English subtitles.

The film is very long.  Apparently it was long even in its theatrical release, but for the TV version they added back in all the cut material, and it's now over 5 hours long.  It's now broken into two parts:  les Années lumière (Years of Hope) and les Années terribles (Years of Rage).

My Viewing Experience

So, as a history nerd, and someone who's always been interested in the French Revolution, naturally I was salivating when I realized what I had stumbled across.

A few years ago, I had included The French Revolution on my list of real historical events that I wanted to see get the HBO treatment television mini-series treatment.

This was the next best thing.  At 5 hours long, it was essentially half an HBO season.  Close enough.

But it was 5 hours long!  I couldn't watch a movie that long on my tiny computer screen.  So, reluctantly, I clicked away.

But this movie haunted me for a couple of days.  I was really curious as to how they would portray all the different characters and events that I had read about in books.

Eventually, curiosity got the better of me.  "I'll just watch 10 minutes a day," I said.  "It won't be so bad for my eyes that way."
But then, once I got started, I had a hard time pulling myself away.
In the end, I ended up watching the whole thing in about 5 days.

The Review
If you like history, you will love this movie.  It is extremely faithful to the real historical events.

If you don't like history, you will absolutely hate this movie.  Because the movie is rushing to fill in all the events of the French Revolution, it doesn't have time to develop the character or motivation of any of its characters.  Consider yourself warned--there is nothing in this movie that would interest anyone who isn't a history geek.

As for me, I'm a history geek, so I absolutely loved this movie.  All 5 hours of it.  I was completely fascinated from beginning to end.

The film is, however, rushing way too fast to get through everything.  But I suppose you can't fault it for that.  There's a lot to get through.

5 hours seems like a long time, but when you consider all the different phases the French Revolution went through between 1789 and 1794, there is a lot of material to get through here.  And the film doesn't have time to linger.  We briefly get one shown one scene in one part of Paris, and then we're rushing off to somewhere else in Paris to document the next part of the revolution.

In a way, this is perfect for the modern short attention span.  The way the film keeps moving relentlessly forward is one of the reasons I found it so fascinating.  I had a hard time pulling myself away from the screen because I kept wanting to see what would happen next.

But the disadvantage is that although the film does a very good job of showing what happened, it doesn't do such a good job of showing how or why.
For example, every history student knows that Robespierre will eventually rise to power.  So from the moment you first see him, you know he will come to dominate things eventually.  And he does.  But the movie never really shows how he came to dominate the convention.  The movie just shows him as an uncharismatic, fussy, fastidious little man who somehow gets more and more prominent as time progresses.
Similarly, the audience is told that Mirabeau is an important figure in the early stages of the Revolution (as he was) but not really shown it.  (We don't get many scenes of Mirabeau dominating the assembly, so the audience just has to accept that he's important becomes the film tells us he's important.).
Similarly with several other characters.

But what can you do?  Considering this was originally a theatrical release, you can't very well ask for this movie to be any longer than it already is. You just have to accept that there's not enough time for everything, and accept the movie's limitations.

(I still hold out hope that someday someone will make a 5 season cable TV show about the French Revolution.  And then we can finally get into all the glorious details ).

Rating
Keeping in mind that this movie is only for the history geeks, as a history geek I give it 10 out of 10 Stars.

The History
I actually knew most of the history beforehand.  (I've been interested in the French Revolution for a long time--see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here , here, here , here, here and here).  So there were very few surprises for me in this movie.
But I deprived a lot of pleasure from anticipating how certain events were going to be depicted, and then comparing my idea of these events to what the filmmakers showed.

And it would be an exaggeration to say I learned nothing new from the film--I did pick up a few new tidbits, and learned about a few new names.  (One of the advantages of watching a film on the Internet is that Wikipedia is right at your fingertips.  So I would often pause the film to look up a name, or double check and event, and that also helped me learn more.)

I also think I caught one or two minor inaccuracies.

There's no point in me writing down all my thoughts on the history.  I've got got other things I need to do today, and you can access Wikipedia just as easily as I can.

But I will write down a few things that struck me.

On the Plus Side
* I became interested in Camille Desmoulins a few years ago when I was reading a lot about the French Revolution.  He was one of those names that would pop up in every history of the French Revolution, and he seemed to represent the more romantic and idealistic side of the revolution.
But it was very hard to find any biographies about Camille Desmoulins.  At least in English.  (I searched Amazon.com, and found nothing.)
This movie puts Desmoulins front and center as one of its main characters.  So I was happy about that.

* I was also pleased that this movie found a way to work in the "No one loves armed missionaries" quote from Robespierre.

* Most movies about the French Revolution, and indeed many books about the French Revolution, completely leave out Jacques Hebert.  This is unfortunate, because if you want to understand Robespierre's actions you need to understand that he felt he was in danger both from the Left and from the Right.  If you leave out the story Jacques Hebert, you leave out all the pressure Robespierre was getting from the Left.
The movie didn't have time to develop Hebert, of course, but I'm glad they remembered to put him in at all.

Nitpicks
* I'm disappointed that the movie omitted such characters as Talleyrand, Thomas Paine, and Abbe Sieyès.  But I understand there was no room for them.

* Minor nitpick--Danton went to his death calmly, as depicted in the movie.  Desmoulins, however, was not as calm as he was depicted as being in the movie.

Other Notes
I've been interested in the French Revolution since high school.
But it's scary to think how much I've aged since my school days. I'm now at a point in life where I am older than pretty much all of the French Revolutionaries.
Danton and Desmoulins were 34 when they died.  Robespierre was 36.  Saint Just was only 26.
What have I done with my life?

Video Review
Video Review HERE and embedded below:



Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky (2017) "Nuclear War and Environmental Catastrophe" [FULL Talk + Q&A]

English World 2 Unit 6: Review Unit 6

(Supplementary Material for Specific Textbooks--English World 2)

Batman PowerPoint Game: drive, slides, pub

Pokemon PowerPoint Game: drive, slides, pub

Quizlet: drive, docs, pub

English World 2 Unit 6: Listening p.72

(Supplementary Material for Specific Textbooks--English World 2)

PowerPoint: drive, slides, pub
Transcript: drive, docs, pub

From Red Letter Media: Blade Runner - re:View



Those guys at Red Letter Media are really sharp.  I always find their commentary to be very intelligent.
My own view of the movie is over here.  I'm not nearly as well-informed or perceptive as these guys.  But in general I agreed with their assessment.  (Special effects are amazing, the story is meh).

Telling Your Stories

(TESOL Worksheets--Speaking, Writing)

Google Drive Folder HERE

A Party: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
An Argument with a Friend: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
An Embarrassing Moment: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
An Exciting Event: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
Bad Service: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
Describe a Book: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
Describe a Film: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
Describe an Adventure: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
Family Vacation: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
Getting in Trouble: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
Giving Yourself Advice: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
I didn’t think I could do it, but I did it! Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
I lied. Slideshow (slides, pub), Worksheet (docs, pub)
I was so Surprised: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
I was so Worried: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
Language Related Difficulties: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
Lost Something: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
My Proudest Moment: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
Someone I Admired: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
Something I Made: Slideshow (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
Talked Me Into It (slides, pub) Worksheet (docs, pub)
Writing Mistakes: docs, pub
Homework Re-Writing 1: docs, pub
Homework Re-Writing 2: drive, docs, pub

Explanations and Justification
Admittedly there's nothing really novel in this activity.  (Short prompts to discuss personal stories are pretty common in ESL).  But for what it's worth, the reason I created these, and the rationale for using them, is described below.

I have a couple colleagues who are big into teaching language through stories--both the practice of listening to stories, and the practice of telling stories.  I've been thinking about how I could incorporate that in my own classes.

Initially I was thinking it would be fun to have students make up and tell their own fictional stories.  But after thinking about it for a while, I realized that making up a fictional story takes a lot of preparation time.  (I could do it as a take home writing assignment, but not as a speaking activity).

I then took inspiration from this TEFLology episode, which describes how important story telling is in our every day life.  (As is said in the episode, most of our daily conversation just consists of telling miniature stories.)
So I decided to pivot the idea to just telling mini personal stories.

The other inspiration was from the TEFL show.  I don't remember which particular episode right now, but one of the episodes I was listening to talked about how too often teachers just follow the syllabus in the textbook instead of responding to the mistakes that the students are making.
This activity allows me to respond to the mistakes the students are actually making.

Lastly, this activity takes inspiration from Scott Thornbury's book Uncovering Grammar.  (I'm behind in my book reviews, but I'll review that book soon.  Hopefully).  Scott Thornbury writes about the 4-3-2 technique:

Another task that facilitates grammaring is task repetition.  Simply getting the learners to repeat the task, with different partners, or in the next lesson, is a way of producing more grammatically complex language.  Having done the activity once--as a kind of rehearsal--learners now have more spare attention to devote to the form of their output.  Repetition serves to lower the pressure, increasing the likelihood of grammaring, For example, take the task we looked at earlier: Tell your partner how you spent your weekend.
One way of building repetition into this task is to have them tell as many people in the class as possible, with a view to finding out whose weekend was the most similar / most different to theirs.  Another is through the 4-3-2 technique.  This involves learners performing the same task but within successively decreasing time limits.  For example, student A talks about a topic or tells a story in four minutes, while his or her partner listens and keeps an eye on the clock.  Student B then does the same.  Then Student A retells his or her piece, but this time in three minutes, and so on.  The repetition of the task encourages greater linguistic complexity, while decreasing time limit is aimed at promoting greater fluency (p.25&26)

I adapted this a little bit.  First of all, I use the 4-3-2 for the total time--i.e. instead of one partner talking for 4 minutes, and then the next partner talking for 4 minutes, both partners have to tell their stories within 4 minutes.  Then 3 minutes, then 2 minutes.
I did this for a couple reasons--one is that it cuts the time of the activity in half, and I wanted to save class time for other activities.  Secondly my pre-intermediate students find it difficult to maintain speaking for 4 minutes.

Anyway, the procedure goes like this.
I present the topic on the Slideshow.

Students are given some preparation time, which I encourage them to use to look up vocabulary words they need for their story.  (Unfortunately, only about half the students actually use their dictionary during this time.  But for the ones who do actually check vocabulary before speaking, I think that this activity works great for increasing their vocabulary knowledge.)

Then, they are paired with a partner, and have 4 minutes for each partner to tell their stories.
I monitor this closely.  I do hot correction where it is relatively unobtrusive (i.e. the mistake is simple and can be easily fixed).  And I do delayed correction for more complex mistakes.
Then they switch partners, and talk for 3 minutes.  I do hot correction followed by delayed correction.
Then 2 minutes.

Then, the students are given the same task to do as writing homework.

Writing homework is a great way to find out what areas of grammar the students are having trouble with, and respond to it.  But unfortunately, correcting writing homework can take a lot of time, and the goal as a teacher is to minimize the amount of time spent correcting.

So I follow the procedure I outlined in a previous post.

The first time, I simply underline the students mistakes, and they are responsible for finding the mistake and fixing it.  (This not only saves time for me, but I think it's better for them to find and fix their own mistakes)  I use this worksheet here (docs, pub).

Congratulations on being able to write your own story in English.
The next step is to fix all the grammar and vocabulary mistakes.
Unfortunately, if the teacher helps you with this too much, you won’t learn how to write English on your own.  Fixing your own mistakes will help you better remember the grammar for next time.
So, the teacher has underlined the mistakes for you, but not corrected them.  Your job is to try to fix these grammar mistakes on your own.
Don’t ask the teacher for help yet.
Don’t worry.  If you’re still having trouble with the grammar, the teacher will give you more detailed feedback on your next draft.  But first, try to fix everything by yourself.

I supplement this with some whole class discussion about the mistakes.  I take one sentence from each essay, and put it on a handout.  The students work in groups to find and correct the mistakes in each sentence, and then we go over it as a class. (docs, pub)

The teacher has taken one sentence from each of your homework papers.  Each sentence has some mistakes in it.  With your partner, find all the mistakes, and change them to correct English.

After the students have re-written their essay, I go over it a second time.  Any remaining errors I error code, but I still don't correct.  (drive, docs, pub)

Almost there.
You still have a few mistakes left in your story.
The teacher has used an error correction code to help you.  Use the error correction code on the back of this sheet to fix your mistakes, and re-write your essay one more time.
Don’t worry.  This is the last time you will have to re-write your essay.  After this, if you still have any mistakes, the teacher will talk to you in person.

Then, the student re-writes their essay again.

If there are any mistakes that still persist, at this point I correct them myself.  (Either in writing, or more usually by briefly talking to the students.)

More Notes
* I don't know if it's obvious from above, but after doing about 5 or so of these, I started to struggle to find good prompts.
I wanted to make this a regular classroom activity, but it's possible maybe that there are only a limited number of good prompts for this, and that this activity has a limit.
Or maybe I just wasn't thinking hard enough.
I started to notice how closely this activity resembled IELTS Speaking Part 2 (tell a short story about an experience you've had) so I began to self-plagiarize my IELTS Speaking Part 2 card collections.

* In the process of going over the writing mistakes in class, I've been getting a lot of grammar questions.  In fact, a lot of my "grammar questions I couldn't answer" from the past few months have come directly from this activity.  See here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

So, back in March, I wondered why there weren't more Youtube videos about those 2 Ewok movies from the 1980s.

Turns out I spoke to soon.  This video just hit youtube a couple days ago:

The 2 Star Wars Films They Don't Want You To See

From Oliver Harper: TRANSFORMERS (2007) Retrospective / Review



My own review here.

As someone who writes a lot on this blog about Star Wars, Star Trek, comic books, Disney Cartoons and  many more things that are objectively a complete waste of time, I suppose I'm in no position to criticize any else's guilty pleasures.  But these Transformers movies just give me a huge headache.

The people who I admire most

(Grammar Questions I Couldn't Answer)

This is an extension of my "the+superlative" post, and perhaps may have already been answered by Stephan's comment.  But I'll post it here anyway.

When doing feedback on student writing, I highlighted the sentence: "The persons who I admire most in my life, there are my parents."

I had the obvious grammar errors in mind.  But, as always, the students picked up on a bunch of things that I wasn't even intending.

The students thought that "most" should be "the most" because the superlative form is usually accompanied by the article "the".

To me, my native speaker intuition was telling me that "the people who I admire the most"  and "the people who I admire most" both sounded correct.

'YAKKO'S WORLD' Sung by 168 Movies!



(via io9)

I've had good experiencing using the original Nations of the World song in my ESL classes.