What to do

Note to eWB users: Please use the print version for the initial pairwork activity.

Optional introduction: Use mime to explain to the students that you have lost your voice and can’t speak. Encourage them to describe what you are miming. Use mime to explain that last night you were singing in a choir. When you woke up this morning, you had lost your voice. Have any of your students seen your voice anywhere? Pretend that you find your voice and can speak again.

1. Make copies of the first activity page and cut it in half. Divide the class into pairs (Student A and Student B). Tell the students that you are going to give each of them a short text. Each student in the pair will have a different version of the text which they mustn’t show their partner. There are some words missing from the texts and some words in bold. (Check meaning of bold.)

The students have to take it in turn to explain the words in bold to their partner so that their partner can write the missing words in their text. The catch is that they cannot speak. They have to explain the missing words using only mime. Demonstrate the activity by asking the Student Bs to mime their first missing word (film). Then ask the Student As to mime their first missing word (silent). Students do the activity in pairs.

2. When they finish, ask the students to describe their picture to their partner. Then invite some students to share their descriptions with the class. Help with any new or problem vocabulary.

3. Make copies of the second activity page and cut it in half. Cut out all the text boxes and keep them for later. Divide the class into small groups and give each group a set of pictures. (You can cut them out if you prefer.) Students in the group take it in turn to describe one of the photographs. The other students in the group have to identify the picture the student is describing. Students repeat the activity until they have described all the pictures. Encourage students to ask you if they don’t know how to describe something.

4. Tell the students that you are going to give them parts of the story from the film. The first thing you want them to do is match each text with one of the pictures. Give a set of texts to each group and let them do the activity. Check answers. Then ask the students to put the story into the correct order. Check answers.

5. Find out if any of your students have seen The Artist. If they have, what did they think of it? If they haven’t, do they want to see it or not? Why or why not?

6. Explain that some film experts predict that there will be more silent films in the future. Still working in groups, ask the students to agree on a recent or famous film that they have seen and to prepare a silent scene from the film. They are going to perform their silent scene to the rest of the class who have to guess which film it is.

7. Students prepare their silent scenes and then perform them for the rest of the class. Encourage the other students to describe what is happening in each scene. Can they identify the films?

Answers

Match the pictures and texts
a VIII
b VII
c II
d IX
e V
f I
g III
h VI
i IV

Order the story
1 V
2 VII
3 IV
4 III
5 I
6 IX
7 VIII
8 VI
9 II