Hello there,
I have to send you this because I just found a cartoon figure that I can remember so vividly from my childhood: �La Linea� or �The Line (figure)� by Osvaldo Cavandoli, who created that crumpy, passionate and lovely character in the 1970�s.
Today I watched these video clips again and I am amazed how suitable they would be for ESL class!!! The reason for that are...
a) the figure is very funny. A lot of things happen to it. Daily things really, all action verbs that we teach and review with our students over and over again.
b) the fact that the figure doesn�t talk. Well, it does actually but it�s more a mix of mumbling and Italian, nothing that can be really understood. The humour and the fun of these video clips don�t come from language but merely from the actions and the visual effects.
c) the length of around 3 mins -- It�s an amount of time that doesn�t overload primary kids. You can throw a clip in as an appetizer and then work on it.
In my eyes it is perfect for classes or units where you focus on oral English with your students. They can watch the clip and afterwards report what happened to La Linea. It�s ideal for the practice of...
a) action words e.g. fall, get angry, listen, kick, walk and so forth
b) adjectives e.g. afraid, shocked, angry, tired, ...
c) simple word & sentence patterns such as �There is/are...� or �Suddenly...� or �After/before he...�
d) tenses!!! Although the clips cry for the use of Present Continuous Tense you can, of course, adapt it to your current learning target.
Therefore, if you are teaching �Going to Future�, then you stop the clip before a new action has started and let the students guess what happens next e.g. "La Linea is going to drive the car."
If you are teaching Past Simple Tense you tell the students that what they saw happened to La Linea last week (right now he back in Italy). Thus the students tell you what did he do last week e.g. "La Linea fell into a hole."
You might wanna check some clips on YouTube to see if this sort of cartoon is your cup of tea and if you can find clips that are relevant for your teaching targets. I recommend them whole-heartedly.
Anyways, here�s the link where you can get started falling in love with this weird figure:
P.S. A great way to watch and use such silent movies is to divide your class into two (or more) groups.
First, you would ask one group to turn their backs to the TV set or computer while you play the video clip for 1 minute only. Since there are dialogues or monologues that can be heard these students don�t have any clue what has happened during this one minute they have missed. After one minute they can turn around again, and the other students have to tell them what happened, in a fashion that you as their teacher set (using a certain tense or paying attention to singular and plural forms etc.).
Second, another group turn their backs to the TV set... and things continue like this until you have watched the whole clip, which is really easy here because a clip is so short.
The good thing about this watching method is that it is less passive consumation but more active learning.
At the end of the class you may show the class the whole video clip in one go. This way the students can also see those parts that they have once missed and can only imagine through the description of their classmates so far.
