A Short Love Story

Language level: Elementary (A1) - Pre-intermediate (A2) Learner type: All ages Time: 90 minutes Activity: Watching a short film, and writing narratives Topic: Love, dreams and stories Language: Narrative tenses Materials: Short film

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A Short Love Story

Overview

This lesson is based on a beautiful animation called A Short Love Story by Carlos Lascano, and the theme of dreams. It also encourages students to write narratives using a fantastic storytelling site called Storybird. The lesson is probably best suited to young learners, but could also be used with older learners.

Step 1

Show your students the picture of two birds below and ask them what words or sensations come to mind when they see the image. They may mention words like freedom, dreams and adventure.

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A Short Love Story

Step 2

Tell your students they are going to watch a short film in which 2 birds appear at the start and the end of the film. Tell them that the film is called A Short Love Story, and then ask them what they think story the film will tell. Show the film and ask students if their predictions were correct.

Link: http://www.vimeo.com/877053

Step 3

Put your students into small groups and ask them to retell the story as a narrative using past tenses. Give them 10 minutes to write their narrative.

After 10 minutes they should work with a member of a different group and tell their story.

Step 4

Ask students what the message of the film is. Get students to discuss their opinions.

Read out this comment from the director Carlos Lascano in which he talks about the meaning of the film:

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A Short Love Story

"I think the success of "A Short Love Story " comes from the fact that people (like me) still need to believe in happy endings and good values. In childhood, dreams come true. "

Ask your students the following questions:

Do you believe in happy endings?

Do childhood dreams come true?

Follow up and homework

Tell your students you would like them to write a story using a great tool called Storybird. Go to Storybird and show students examples of books created using this tool.

Tell your students that for homework they are going to create a story using Storybird.

Tell younger learners that the story is for them, tell older learners that they should create the story for a young relative; a son or daughter, a grandchild, a nephew or niece, or a cousin.

Show them this tutorial on how to create a story using Storybird. It's a good idea to pause after each section and go through the instructions to make sure your students have understood.

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A Short Love Story

Link: http://www.vimeo.com/6178690

Give your students the links to Storybird and the tutorial (they just need to create an account) and ask them to create a simple story using narrative tenses for the following week.

Link: http://storybird.com/