May 17, 2009

Stardust: Adverbs x Adjectives

This is a funny scene with Robert de Niro in great shape. The movie wasn't such a great blockbuster because it had been advertised as a new Harry Potter, which made people reject it. It is a good movie, though. It has nothing to do with Harry Potter. I used this scene to talk about stereotypes, activating the students' schemata, in order for them to practice when to use adjectives or adverbs in a sentence. The task is simple, but effective. The correct answers are on the worksheet. A. Talk to a partner about the following questions:

1 - Do you consider the first impression the most important one? Justify your answer.

2 - Do you think people have a correct idea of your personality just by looking at you, your physical appearance and clothes? Explain it.

3 - What are some personality traits a doctor must have? Name at least 5 adjectives.

4 - What about a teacher?

5 - Did you have a different opinion about your teacher's personality in the beginning of the term? Why (not)? What made you change your mind?


B. Write down six adjectives you would use to describe the captain of a ship. What are some important features he must have?

1 - ......................................
2 - .......................................
3 - ......................................
4 - .....................................
5 - ........................................
6 - ......................................

C. Watch the video segment and check which of the adjectives you chose in the previous exercise actually describe Captain Shakespeare?


D. Now choose the correct form of the words (adjectives or adverbs) in the sentences below.

1) Captain Shakespeare has a fearsome/ fearsomely reputation.
2) While putting on some makeup, the Captain moved his head gentle / gently.

3) The fighters handled their swords elegant / elegantly.
4) While everyone was fighting violent / violently on the deck of the ship, Captain Shakespeare was dancing graceful / gracefully in his cabin.

5) Captain Shakespeare's dancing was awkward / awkwardly.
6) He looked unhappy / unhappily after his friends saw him with those ridiculous clothes.


How to prepare your own video activity:
- Choose an attractive scene with action.

- Write down sentences about the film with adjectives or adverbs for the students to select the correct one.
- Make sure you use action and stative verbs about the segment. Doing so, the students will have the choice for both adjectives and adverbs.



WORKSHEET

MOVIE SEGMENT DOWNLOAD - STARDUST

3 comments:

George said...

Claudio, could you please indicate the timecode for this segment? The In and Out points, I mean. For some reason, the page returns "This video is not available at the moment" when I try to play it back on your site. I have the Stardust DVD but cannot figure out which episode this is.

And thanks for the great job you are doing. I stumbled upon your site a few days ago and plan to start using the materials tomorrow.

Cheers,

George

George said...

Never mind, it is streaming now.

Claudio Azevedo said...

Hi George,
I'm glad it is working now. if you have any other technical problems, let me know, please. see you.