MOMENTOS (OXANA GRESILOVA)

 I wonder how…

Level of students: 1st of Bachillerato

Timing: 1 session + homework (a writing task: a narrative)

Time frame: sometime in December meant to be the final session of a series of sessions dedicated to tenses review (though this lesson is NOT a grammar-focused)

Objectives: develop my students speaking skills by making them use the construction “I wonder”, make guesses and predictions based on the images (stills from the video) and boost their creativity by asking them to imagine and express in writing the possible ending of the story

Activity stages:

1) Teacher shows students a still from the short film “Momentos” where they can see a man sleeping on the street (evidently, a homeless person). Students are prompted to give their guesses by using “I wonder…” structure

Language focus (I wonder + a variety of tenses / common lexis):

The teacher may say: I wonder who this man is… I wonder what his life had been like before he became a homeless person…. I wonder if his family knows about his current situation… I wonder if they are trying to do anything about it… etc.

2) Teacher shows a still where students can see a well-dressed nice-looking middle-aged woman. The Teacher tries to elicit from the students who the woman may be and what relation she may have to the homeless man and how they think she feels at moment the picture was taken.

Language focus (modal verbs of deduction /adjectives describing feelings):

Students may want to say sentences like these: She may/ must / cannot be his ex-wife/siter / mother…. She looks worried /nervous / calm and serene….

Alternatively, students may be asked to try to create a story in which the man and woman are characters.

3) Students then watch the short film and try to answer the question:

What do you think happens to the protagonists later in life (after the moment described in the video)?

Language focus:

Students make predictions. They may choose to use structures like: to be going to, I think they/he/ she will, modal verbs (may, might, could…

Homework: Teacher gives students the link to the film and ask them to write a narrative based on the images they see in the film