Target group: Adult education, Business English (group and one-to-one)

Level: multilevel, ca. B2

Language goals: 1. Speaking 2. report writing 3. spy/ thriller vocabulary (a one-to-one student is reading Le Carré) 4. predictions; 5. could/ coudn’t/ was able to (describing general ability vs. single achievements)

Material/ preparation: Go online to www.pigeonimpossible.com. Watch film online. If not possible, download video “Pigeon: Impossible” (use www.savevid.com). Download Press Kit pdf to show film stills on screen. No handouts. Save those trees!

Procedure:

Pre 1: Present title of video “Pigeon: Impossible.” Predict genre. Revisit Mission: Impossible series 1966-1973; 1988-1990; film series with Tom Cruise. Use soundtrack or poster if necessary to help recall.

Pre 2: Hypothesize content of film. Brainstorm spy and Cold War vocabulary (e.g. for reference: to gather intelligence, secret agent, espionage, operation, operative, screen someone, be in disguise, conceal your identity, code/decode, crack codes, cypher/decypher, wiretap, detect surveillance, brief/debrief; Cold War, Berlin Wall, Iron Curtain, Star Wars, rocket, target, cruise missile, explosives)

During: Watch film, and stop at likely places to ask “What will happen next?”

Watch film to about 1:50. Look at still of pigeon inside the briefcase. Collect and write up predictions (note grammar: I think, will probably, is likely to). (If teaching a group, let separate groups develop and present their scenarios.)

Watch to about 2:32 (pigeon has discovered that the suitcase can fly and is armed; man finds bagel again). Again, predict.

Watch to 4:04 (bagel has hit red button, Washington Monument turns into launching pad, rocket is underway to Russia). Again, predict.

Post 1: Reconstruct and summarize what happened: Contrast outcomes with predictions “I/we thought he would… and/but he…”

Post 2: Write “Incident on F Street” on the board. Make three columns. Headers: pigeon could,  man couldn’t, man was able to

Tell students they are the man and will have to write a report to their line manager about the unforseen incident with the pigeon. (If you’re teaching a group, do this in pairs.) Tell them to concentrate on describing what the pigeon

• could do with the additional powers at its disposal,
• what they (as the man) couldn’t do to interfere and
• what they (as the man) were ultimately able to do to stop pigeon and end the incident

Note grammar: contrast “could” for general ability with “was able to” for ability in a specific situation; couldn’t is more natural for negatives.

Have them use the film stills as guides. If they ask for it, watch the whole film again as they finalize their notes. Then they write reports. They pair up with another group to read each other their reports.

At least that’s what I’m planning to do. This is an action enquiry. I’ll let you know how it went later on this week in the comments. If you’re using this film in a different way, or have other ideas about how you would, I’d be delighted to read about it.

• PS: Alan Stanford also read one of Oscar Wilde’s lovely fairytales, The Happy Prince, and I’ve just discovered it online.
• PPS: Stephen Fry has just published a selection of Oscar Wilde’s Stories For All Ages – should be a good Christmas gift.
  

Images and laughter help you learn, says Jo Westcombe, who sent this video and knows a thing or two about story telling. A fun assignment in a writing class could be to write this up in different genres: separate groups write a fairytale, a romance, a newsflash and report, a report in a scientific journal…

So over to you: What’s Cupcake’s story? Start watching, then stop the film. What’s going to happen next? At the end: Did you expect the story to end differently? What decisions does Cupcake make, and why? What’s your favorite scene in this story, and why?

Did you know that you can call someone you love “cupcake”? Here are more terms of endearment for your summer flirt.

http://www.sonyclassics.com/moon/

Created by Vancouver Film School student Zack Mathew through the VFS Digital Character Animation program. For a short interview with Zack, visit The man behind the switch Recommended by ebd35 on Twitter

Brainstorming properties of the cube, the man and the film:

• Objective: sweet tasty hard soft square cube shiny matte hollow solid magnetic static sticky suspended floating strong unmoving immobile vibrating delicate heavy light shut closed locked impenetrable inextricable identical
• Subjective: interesting curious surprising attractive forbidden intriguing thrilling electrifying dangerous scary terrifying spooky
• The man: curious bored day-dreaming surprised inquisitive attracted thrilled electrified intrigued playful cautious incautious hesitant adventurous fun-loving risk-taking terrified scared
  
• The film: funny, amusing, well done!