blind luck

7/27/2019 Blind Luck

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Blind luck

Language level:! ! Intermediate (B1) +Learner type:! ! Teens; AdultsTime:!! ! ! 35 minutesActivity:! ! ! Listening to an audio track and constructing a narrativeTopic:! ! ! Luck; HonestyLanguage:! ! ! Narrative language; Sounds like ...Materials:! ! ! Video clip

BLIND LUCK by Jamie Keddie 1


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Preparation, materials and equipment

1.! For this activity, you will need a short film titled Blind Luck:! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU8w-FzmQmY2.! For this activity, students will listen to the audio track without seeing the video. For! this reason, you might want to convert the video to MP3 (audio) file. To do this,! make use of a site such as:

http://www.snipmp3.com/

http://www.xenra.com

http://www.listentoyoutube.com/

Lesson plan

1.! Tell students that they are going to hear a story. More specifically, they are going to! hear the audio track from a short film. Tell them to listen very carefully and! make a note of as many things as possible that they hear, or think they hear. To! avoid the Virgin Media jingles, play the clip from 0:15 and stop it at 1:50.2.! Put students into pairs or small groups and ask them to compare their notes.3.! Play the audio a second time and let students consolidate or reconsider their ideas.4.! Conduct feedback: Elicit as many different sounds as possible in the order that they! are heard in the audio track. Spend time asking questions about the relevance of!

each sound in the context of the story. See Possibilities for Feedback on the next! page.


Decide how you are going to play the audio file / video clip in class.Possibilities include:

Mobile device! ! ! (For one-to-one situations) Laptop, desktop, tablet computer! (For small groups) Computer, projector + screen! (For larger classes)

Make sure you have a good audio system (good loud speakers, forexample). The more students can hear, the better this activity will work.
http://www.xenra.com/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU8w-FzmQmYhttp://www.listentoyoutube.com/http://www.listentoyoutube.com/http://www.xenra.com/http://www.xenra.com/http://www.snipmp3.com/http://www.snipmp3.com/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU8w-FzmQmYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU8w-FzmQmY


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Possibilities for Feedback

Sound Teacher questions Possible answers

A bell rings What does it signal?Where does the storytake place?

Perhaps it takes place in a shop. In theUK, local shops sometimes havedoors equipped with bells that soundlike this. This lets the shop keeperknow that a customer is present.

Footsteps How could you describethem (light, heavy, fast,slow, uneven, etc.) Whatsort of person do theybelong to?

They are quite slow. Perhaps those ofan old man or woman?

Matthew? / David Is there anything unusualabout this exchange?What is going on here?

The first name (Matthew) has aprominent rise in intonation. It soundslike a question. The second name(David) also rises, but less. In adifferent context, it could be aquestion. But here it sounds like agreeting - not a particular friendly one.

Something isplaced firmly on ahard surface andpushed across it.

What could the object be?What is the hard surface?

A coin? A shop counter?

Another object ispushed across.

What could it be? A card? A piece of paper?

Scratching / rubbing What is happening here?

Ker-ching! What could this be? The bell of an old-fashioned cash

register?Better luck nexttime / Oh well

What do these refer to?Better luck with what nexttime? What function dothe words Oh well have?

Someone who accepts an undesirablesituation might say, Oh well.

A quick rippingsound

What could this be?

Footsteps

The bell rings again What does it signal? Leaving the shop?



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5.! Let students hear the audio track a third time. This will allow them to consolidate or! reconsider ideas even further.6.! In pairs or small groups (the same ones as before) ask students to construct a!

narrative to accompany the audio track. In other words, they should attempt to! guess or work out exactly what happens in the short film - what is the story?! In order to do this, students need a vital piece of information: The ker-chingsound! in the clip doesnt happen in response to a physical action. It represents something! that happens in one of the characters heads.7.! Let pairs or groups of students merge. Allow them to share their ideas. Encourage! each group to come to a consensus story. They should do this by collaborating and! selecting the good ideas and rejecting the weaker ones.

8.! Allow a spokesperson from each group to present their groups story.9.! Show the video and let students compare their stories with the actual short film.

Comment

Note the similarity between the verbs soundand lookin the following structures:

Draw students attention to these structures and encourage them to make use of them

whenever possible.


(I think) it looks/sounds like ..(I think) it looks/sounds nothing like ...(I think) it looks/sounds more like ...

Note that there are a number of other sounds in the audio track, such asheavy breathing, whoosh sounds, a sliding bass note, etc. These canalso be discussed and analysed. But for the purpose of reconstructing thenarrative of the short film (i.e. the next stage) the most important andrelevant sounds are the ones included in the table above.

You may, or may not, decide to give students a second clue prior to thisstep: The title of the short film is Blind Luck.

blind luck

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