Boomerang Short Film for Better Listening: Lesson Plan

BOOMERANG

This intermediate to advanced level short film titled Boomerang is a helpful supplement to teaching a unit on technology. It is also good for working with students on unreal conditionals, predictions, and the future tense/aspect. To watch the film, click here.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. PREVIEW: First, have students brainstorm what they believe the title means.
   1. You may then do a mind map or wordsplash with them to help get them thinking about what it is they may hear. (Small group or pairs)
   2. Alternatively, you could have students look at the photo and decide what’s going on and why it’s happening. For lower level students it would be sufficient to have them decide if she is happy or sad. You may have all students describe the colors in the photo and what they mean. This is important because colors mean different things to different people in different countries.  Similarly, you could show the picture below of a boomerang to aid in their discussion.
      (Pairs, Small Group, whole group)
2. Next, elicit or explain what a boomerang to the whole class
3. Afterwards, tell your students that you are going to read a short text to them and that they should visual the scene in their heads with as much detail as they can. Give them a few minutes of silence to do this.
   

   
   READ

   “There is a young woman named ‘Jennifer’ who is a nurse. She helps an elderly man into a car and sees a thin blonde woman standing near a white ice-cream truck being photographed with a long yellow and red popsicle by her very young son. The blonde woman eating a popsicle does not eat it, but holds it while her son takes many photos and videos of her with it. The first young nurse is annoyed and in disbelief at what the blonde woman and her son are doing. Jennifer uses her smartphone to record the woman and her son.”

   WATCH

4. Tell your students that they are going to watch a part of a short film with a character named ‘Jennifer.’
   1. Students are to watch the short clip and compare what they visualized to what happens in the short film. (watch the first ONE minute of the film)
5. Ask students if what they visualized was the same as what was shown in the film and then discuss what happened in the first one minute.
6. Ask students to speculate/predict/guess what Jennifer will do next.
7. Return to the film and watch it until 4:05.
8. Ask students to get into small groups or pairs and discuss who the person is in Jennifer’s bedroom.
   1. Check their speculations/guesses as a whole group.
9. Play the film until 7:04.

   

10. Ask the students why Jennifer is given a smartphone and what will happen at the end of the film.
    1. Review their answers as a whole class
11. Watch the film until the end and check as first small groups and then whole class the students answers if their speculations/predictions/guesses about why she was given the phone and what happens at the end of the film were correct.
12. Ask the students: (1) If they enjoyed the film? (2) If the film had a message? (3) How the film made them feel?
13. Lastly, put students into small groups and have them make a skit of an alternative ending to the film. Have them either read or act out what they’ve written.

BONUS

Have students write a detailed review of the film for homework.

I hope you and your students enjoyed this short film and lesson plan as much my students and I did.

What were your students’ favorite parts of the film and/or lesson?

Film by: Matthew Frost on Vimeo. Photo by Alexis Johnson.