Sep 1, 2008

The Phantom of the Opera: "Used to"

I love the film, the musical, the play, the soundtrack, everything about the Phantom. I cried all the time watching it. Teens don't like it that much, but adults do. Because the scene takes place in Paris centuries ago, I used it to practice the use of "used to".


Watch the video segment and observe how different Paris used to be in 1870. Pay close attention to the following people and objects.





















Means of Transportation / Passers-by / Streets / Theater

Actors / Dancers / Musicians / Clothes / Horses


Read the examples and write down your own sentences, using the given cues.

Ex:
People/ elegant carriages. People used to ride on elegant carriages.

Gentlemen/ fancy clothes. Gentlemen used to wear fancy clothes.


Theaters/ crowded. Theaters used to be crowded

1 – A lot of employees/ theater _______________________________________

2 – Musicians/ on the stage _________________________________________

3 – Dancers/ whiskey during the rehearsals_____________________________

4 – Horses/ in the theater __________________________________________

5 – Actors/ operatically ___________________________________________

6 – Singers / rich costumes _________________________________________

How to prepare your own video segment:

Grammar Goal: Used to


• Select a movie segment that takes place in the past

• Costumes, childhood memories, last century towns, historical moments are perfect to assess this grammar goal

• Ask students to observe specific features in the passage

• Prepare an exercise with cues that will help students write sentences with the structures/verbs you want to assess

• Students write sentences, using “used to”





WORKSHEET

MOVIE SEGMENT DOWNLOAD - THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

6 comments:

Unknown said...

This is great stuff, Claudio!! Where do you find the TIME??? :)
Thanks for sharing this.

Claudio Azevedo said...

Hi Lucia, well, this is a collection of activities I have been preparing, I don't prepare them all at the same time. I love movies, though, so it is easy to see the film with grammatical eyes! Thanks for the message.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Claudio!!! Your blog is excellent !!! I'll put all these ideas into practice!!! Caro P from BA (Arg)

Claudio Azevedo said...

Thank you, Caro. It's great to hear that! See you.

Anonymous said...

Dear Claudio,
Thank you very much for the activities. They're really useful for my classes.
Ingrid (Argentina)

Claudio Azevedo said...

Thanks, Ingrid. I'm happy they have been helpful.