Just My Luck: A Fun Film For Secondary School Students

Carme Porcel Cano, Spain

Carme Porcel is a secondary school teacher at IES Abat Oliba, in Ripoll (Spain). She has been teaching English for 20 years now and is specialized in working with films. Great supporter of active, motivating and creative English classes. E-mail: porcel1968@yahoo.es

Menu

Introduction
Objectives
When to use it
Conclusion
References
Worksheet

Introduction

Using films in the English class is a very useful resource available to all teachers today thanks to DVDs and their audio and subtitle menus. If you want MOTIVATION to visit your classroom all you need is a fun comedy, animated or adventure film and a bunch of meaningful exercises to work on new vocabulary, everyday expressions and to check students comprehension on what they have watched. NOTE: This worksheet was created for Spanish-speaking students, but changing the translations it can be used with any other language speakers.\

Objectives

• Have your students immersed in the English language for a couple of hours to improve their pronunciation and intonation.
• Enlarge your students’ vocabulary knowledge so that they feel more confident and fluent when speaking.

When to use it

You can use it any time you like doing something different and motivating or to take advantage of a lesson on first conditionals and superstitions.
First class : do the vocabulary exercises (1 to 3) in class. A good way to do it is working in groups of 4 students and correct all together after all groups have finished.
Then work on the superstition exercises (4 and 5) individually. Use the topic to do some speaking at the end of the class.
Second and third classes: watch the film using a projector and a big screen, if possible. Watch the whole film without any interruptions. Students don’t like pausing when they are watching a film, avoid making comments in between. Just warn them before watching that they have to pay attention since they will have to do some exercises about the plot and characters after the viewing.
For the checking of their comprehension you can do the plot and character exercises in class or you can either give them as homework.
You can get a gist of their vocabulary acquisition by doing the writing task at the end of the worksheet and to have a writing mark for each student by collecting and correcting the dialogues they write.
Another good idea is to record the dialogues and listen to them in class.

Conclusion

I hope you like the idea and start using films in your English class. You’ll see it is a very rewarding experience as well as really profitable.

References

Susan Stempleski and Barry Tomalin, (2001) Film, Oxford University Press

Worksheet

JUST MY LUCK (2006)

DO THESE EXERCISES BEFORE WATCHING THE FILM.

VOCABULARY.

1. NOUNS : Match the words to their meanings:

2. VERBS : Match the translations and verbs:

3. EXPRESSIONS : Match these expressions to their translations:

3. ADJECTIVES: Complete with the adjectives in the box.

1. __________ means strange
2. __________ means hard
3. __________ means well-dressed
4. __________ means attractive
5. __________ means great, fantastic.
6. __________ means “patós”
7. __________ means not worth, bad quality
8. __________ means “moll, humit”
9. __________ means “just”
10. __________ means “maleït”

SUPERSTITIONS 4. IS IT GOOD OR BAD LUCK?

1. Touching wood -
2. Opening an umbrella in the house -
3. Finding a four-leaf clover -
4. Walking under a ladder -
5. A black cat -
6. Friday the 13th -
7. A horseshoe -
8. Breaking a mirror -
9. A rabbit’s foot -
10. Spilling salt -
11. Throwing some salt over your left shoulder –

5. Match the beginnings and endings of the sentences:

1. If you find a clover plant with four leaves, ...
2. If you want your house to attract luck, ...
3. You will have seven years bad luck ...
4. You will be unlucky ...
5. In Britain, if you meet a black cat, ...
6. You will avoid bad luck ...
7. If you put money in the pockets of new clothes, ...
8. You will be unlucky ...
9. If you spill some salt on the table, ...
10. You will be lucky ...

1. ... if you break a mirror.
2. ... you will be lucky.
3. ... throw some salt over your shoulder.
4. ... if you walk under a ladder.
5. ... if you touch wood.
6. ... you will be lucky.
7. ... you will be lucky.
8. ... put a horseshoe right up over the door.
9. ... if you open an umbrella indoors.
10. ... if you catch falling leaves in autumn.

DO THESE EXERCISES AFTER HAVING WATCHED THE FILM:

CHARACTERS

6. WHO ARE THEY? Write the descriptions and write their names:

1. She’s Ashley’s boss.
2. He’s the son of the owner of the Boston Celtics. He meets Ashley in an elevator and takes her out in his jet plane.
3. She’s blonde , she writes songs and plays the guitar. She’s Ashley’s friend.
4. She’s got dark hair, she thinks Ashley is very lucky, and she’s a very good friend of hers. She’s very interested in horoscopes.
5. He’s Ashley’s neighbour.
6. They are a music group.
7. He’s very clumsy. He’s like a magnet to bad luck , he is the manager of the group McFly.
8. She’s Jake’s little cousin. She’s really unlucky too.
9. He’s the owner of Downtown Masquerade Records. Jake saves his life.
10. She’s the luckiest person in the world. She doesn’t have to wait for a taxi and she is very successful in her job.

7. WHO SAID IT?

1. “Jake... Jake is the guy I kissed at the masquerade bash.”
2. “So was it a normal kiss or was it a supernatural tingling in your toes butterflies in your tummy kiss.”
3. “I'm gonna need some chocolate now”
4. “You saved my life, Spider-Man.”
5. “Well, I mean, I kissed a cute guy, but...that's hardly unusual. Wait a second. You said I could lose it to someone else,right?So does that mean he took my luck from me?”
6. “Uh, at least take my umbrella.”
7. “You don't understand. If I kiss Jake, it's hello fabulous carefree life.”
8. “Let's just say I know what it's like to be S.O.L. : "Shit out of luck".”
9. “Yes, my luck is back!”
10. “Damon, please, the elevator was stuck.”
11. “One week. How's that? one week. You give me one week, and if I can't make it happen for you guys by then, then I get it. We're done. You can go back home. No hard feelings. One week.”
12. “Promise you'll be there. Six o'clock.”
13. “Look, Jake, you're good, I mean, you did find us. But it's just... we just think it's time to go home.”
14. “Looks like you have a big party to plan... And you’ll need a new office.”
15. “Every night is date-night for me.”
16. “Oh! Baby made a poo-poo!”

PLOT

8. Complete the summary with these words:

OWNER / OFFICE / HANDSOME / KISSING / PARTY / LUCK / ELEVATOR / NEIGHBOUR / DANCER / STOLE / UNLUCKY / BOWLING ALLEY / BAND / LUCKY / FRIENDS /

Ashley Albright has been _________ all of her life. It stops raining when she steps on the street, she can get an elevator all to herself or meet a ____________ guy, things always seem to go her way to the amazement of her __________ Maggie and Dana . They all work for Peggy Braden at her firm, where luck visits Ashley once again. Damon Phillips, __________ of a record company,arrives for a meeting with Peggy, but when she and everyone else ends up stuck in the ____________, Ashley improvises and offers Mr. Phillips to organise a Masquerade _____________. He loves it, Peggy is impressed, and soon Ashley has her own ___________. Moreover she asks her handsome _____________ Antonio to be Peggy's blind date. Jake Hardin , a _______________ employee who spends time with his fourth grader cousin Katy is the manager for the British ___________ McFly, he's been trying to get a CD into Damon's hands. But, being so _____________ , he doesn't have a chance. He and Ashley meet at the party and end up ______________ on the dance floor. Suddenly, all of her ________ is transferred to him, he ends up saving Damon Phillips’ life, and Ashley loses her _________ when the party takes an unexpected turn for the worse. Once Ashley realizes what happened, she tries to find the masked ___________ who kissed her and ______________ all of her luck. From that point on, and as their paths cross once again, the two try to deal with their ever-changing luck.

9. Answer these questions:

1. Who has an extremely fortunate life at the beginning of the film?
2. Who is at the same time followed by bad luck wherever he goes?
3. Who gets the idea of the masquerade party?
4. Who tells Ashley there will be a change in her life?
5. When does Ashley’s luck change?
6. What is Jake doing at the party?
7. How can Ashley regain her good luck?
8. What is Jake organizing when luck turs again?
9. Who gets all their good luck at the end of the film?

WRITING

Your best friend is totally out of luck. In pairs write a dialogue with him / her using as many of the words and expressions above as possible.

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Methodology and Language for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.