By this time my students and I have reached the first
big, pivotal scene in the film. Kevin
wants to go to the River Festival to see the fireworks, but his mother doesn’t
like crowds and won’t let him go alone.
So he offers to pay Max to go with him, so his mother feels he has
a bodyguard.
It’s a long scene with more action than dialog, but it
is crucial to the rest of the film because it shows how Max and Kevin are able
to combine Max’s physical strength with Kevin’s intelligence to escape the
Doghouse Boys. We can watch it the first time with little need to
translate. The three structures that I
want them to acquire are “trust me” and “I’m proud of you” and “tells him to..”. We can get some interesting PQA with “Who do
you trust?” and “Who is proud of you?”
But “to tell someone to do something” is difficult for French
students. The scene gives lots of
opportunities to circle it. Where did
Kevin tell Max to go? What did Kevin
tell Max to do? Who told Max to go
straight? Why did Kevin tell Max to go
into the pond?
I then give the students a written summary of the
scene, which we read together and I can circle the three expressions
again. I want them to read the summary
several times, so I give them a crossword puzzle using the new vocabulary as
homework. They think I want them to
learn the vocabulary, but what happens is that they reread the text many times
looking for the vocabulary. They do
learn the vocabulary but they acquire the structures. After this scene they have little trouble
with “tell him to..”
Tomorrow I will explain how I prepare my students for
a test on the scene. …
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