Movie Talk Resources
A compilation courtesy of my PLN!
I recently had a teacher I’m coaching ask me for resources on Movie Talks. I wasn’t sure where the best videos and guides were, so I tweeted out to my PLN on twitter (see above).
What is Movie Talk?
A good friend pointed out to my that I lacked an explanation of what MovieTalk is in this post! Adding that in now (thanks Kristy!).
You can read the ‘official’ background on MovieTalk here, but as a quick synopsis, MovieTalk is a language teaching technique that focuses on the use of short films (often just with music or perhaps very little language-think of the animated shorts before Pixar films) as a visual vehicle for providing comprehensible input to language learners. By adding images to the language input they are providing, language teachers can greatly enhance the listening comprehsion of their students by narrating what is happening in a short film, highlighting particular objects and characters as they appear or actions as they occur (pausing often to elaborate and provide further input). Interestingly, research shows that this technique not only aids in listening comprehsnion but also builds students’ overall proficiency in the language and builds communicative competency across all skills!
In response to my request for MovieTalk information, I got a lot of great instructional resources to share with my friend and client, and I figured the least I could do what compile those resources here in one place in the hopes that other teachers may also find it valuable!
Databases
Movie Talk Database – the first response was a huge spreadsheet shared with me from Señora Spielberg. Most of the short films look to be in Spanish or English, or are silent or only have sound effects/music, but there are few in French and one with some Portuguese look to be Spanish. Each short has a link for where to view it online (Netflix, Youtube, etc) as well as possible verbs/adverbs to focus on, and some even have additional resources linked (usually a google doc or link to a downloadable TpT lesson – often free-with a lesson writeup! This is a huge time saver for teachers!)
Movie Talk 101 Database – Similar to the resources above, and also shared with me by Señora Spielberg, this database has a note at the top: “Write Christy.Miller@perrylocal.org to Contribute!” So thank you to Christy Miller! This database is color-coded and organized by language (more silent films here), genre, theme, duration, possible structures, shortened links for where to view online, and who contributed the resource. Very cool that it’s a group effort with many contributors! There’s nothing like resources created by educators, for educators!
Martina Bex Resources
Next, Robin Boling shared all of the collaborative resource databases that Martina Bex has curated on her phenomenal website, The Comprehensible Classroom, with me! There are databses for leveled reading, comprehensible input (CI), Regional PLCs (Personal Learning Communities) for langauge teachers, class libraries, target structures, authentic resources, and movie talks! What a treasure trove of valuable resources. Thank you Martina for developing and maintaining these databses and Robin for pointing me towards them!
Once I discovered Martina’s databases on her webpage, it led to finding more of her resources elsewhere! Here are few others you may want to check out:
- Martina Bex MovieTalk Blog Post– Background to / overview of MovieTalk, what this teaching techinque involves, how to lead a movie talk in the classroom, a video demo of one, and links to additional resources.
- Martina Bex MovieTalk Archives – collection of blog posts of different movie talks, including links to each video, scripts, and more!
- Martina Bex MovieTalk Pinterest Board – Similar resource to those above for the more visually inclined!
- Martina Bex The Comprehensible Classroom Pinterest – All Boards – Once I saw that board I couldn’t stop there! Martina must have had a former life as a museum curator because her ability to collect and maintain a mountian of worthwhile resources and make them readily available for the learning and benefit of others knows no bounds! Check out the whole collection, which is a treasure trove for Spanish teachers!
Thank you so much to my PLN (Sra. Spielberg & Robin Boling in particular for pointing me in the right direction, and Christy Miller and Martina Bex for curation of endless MovieTalk – and other – resources!) Happy exploring and teaching!
If you found this post useful or the resources it lists helpful please “clap” below so that other readers will be more like to find it! Thank you!