Using video: Out of class activities

These are activities which involve the learners using English outside the English class after a lesson based on a Premier Skills English video.

Here are examples of some out of class activities that involve the use of video:

1. Students can start their own video journal or diary by following news about their favourite Premier League club or player. They can record a short video journal entry using a webcam or mobile phone camera each time they watch a match or see some news about their club or player.

2. They can use the internet to collect video clips about their favourite clubs or players and create their own fan site. This can be done using a free tool such as Blogger or Wordpress. Students simply need to find an ‘embed’ code for the video clip and copy it into their site, then write a paragraph about the clip describing what is happening in it.

Procedure 

Procedure for setting the activities

1. You might need to help your students with the technology side of how to use a webcam and how to create a blog, or you may find that some of your students already know how to do these things and they can help each other.

2. You can also suggest some good sources of information and useful sites that feature videos and news reports in English such as the BBC website.

Procedure for using the activities

1. Try to monitor these activities just to make sure the students are doing something to progress them but try not to interfere unless they ask for your help and especially try not to correct or ‘mark’ any of the work they are doing unless they specifically ask you to do so.

2. Some students may want you to check scripts of text before they record them or post them, but don’t insist on this.

3. Try to plan some form of ‘show and tell’ in class during which students can show each other what they have been doing and look at each other’s projects.

4. Giving ‘grades’ for these projects or extra credits at the end of term might help to motivate students and see them as beneficial for their learning, but the primary goal should be that the students enjoy using English creatively to produce something connected to the sport that they enjoy so much.