Friday, January 04, 2008

School exams and Movie Night

The kids are in the middle of exams and as usual I am trying to keep myself under control so I don't yell and scream at them. I've given up turning off the TV... they just turn it back on again.

Top that off with the fact that Hubby went off to Suk Juma this morning and came home with one of those old-fashioned Tetra 'Brick' games. He paid half a dinar for it and the kids are wasting time playing with it and the sound is driving me mad. He said it was for Ibrahim, who doesn't have exams, but of course the other kids are having a great time with it too. What was he thinking? I am waiting patiently for the batteries to wear down.


On another note: Last Wednesday I staged 'Movie Night' at my school. My students and a few guests watched the movie The Kite Runner (while we stuffed ourselves with popcorn). I stopped the film between scenes so we could answer comprehension questions and make predictions about what would happen next. We'd prepared earlier in the week with a character list and some vocabulary to get an idea about what the film was about. The film is based on a book by Khaled Hosseini that is available at some of the bookshops in town and some of the students are now interested in reading the book.

Participation in Movie Night wasn't mandatory for the students. Participation wasn't 100% because some don't like films, or weren't interested in this particular film and some couldn't come because it wasn't during regular class time. But even so we had a full house because we combined more than one class and now the students want to see more films at school in the future.

So now I am on the quest for putting together the next and future Movie Nights. Does anyone have any suggestions of what they think would be the perfect film to show to Libyan English students? Click on comments and let me know.

16 comments:

  1. Well, I think "A few good men" would be a good choice,

    Have a nice day with the movie and every thing :-).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great idea and great choice, I read the book but didn't watch the movie yet, I am afraid that they will ruin the novel. Here is my suggestions of good movies:

    * The Shawshank Redemption
    * The Pianist
    * Million Dollar Baby
    * Children of Men
    * Crash
    * Gandhi
    * Sunshine (Sci-Fi)
    * Forrest Gump
    * Hotel Rwanda

    you can check the ones that you didn't see on IMDb web site. www.imdb.com you find some are not suitable not sure. have a nice time.
    Ghazi

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  3. I just read the book and I was disappointed. I had been told it was 'Islamic fiction' but to me it was far from it. The incident in the alley way was not necessary to explain and if they show that in the film, that is ridiculous and disgusting. I also didn't feel like the author made practicing Muslims look good, just extreme. I have his other book and will have to see how it measures up.

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  4. Fantastic idea for your English class, The Shawshank Redemption which suggested by Ghazi is a great movie, I watched this movie so many times and I loved it, also I could suggest for some of comedy and fun " Mrs. Doubtfire" hilarious movie and it has a very good story.

    Happy New Year to you all.

    ReplyDelete
  5. i loved the book...how did you get a hold of the movie??? Please let me know as I am dying to see it. I'll think of some good movies, and I'll post them soon inshaallah.

    ReplyDelete
  6. heyy khadija teri im new too ur blog n i've jus been reading a few of ur posts they are really good! u made me laught soo much in some of them but most important me being a British libyan born n raised in england, i've only jus recently been to visit libya these past couple of years; so u gave me a real insight into how its like to live ur everyday life in libya thanks alot!!

    ermm as for the films i think 'Time to kill' is a really amazing film has such a strong story line.

    'John Q' staring Denzel Washington is a must see for sure!!!!

    (",)Aisha!

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  7. salam
    wish ur kids all the best
    regarding a kids moveis . i think the best thing to do to go to
    movies guides-yahoo kids, there is alot of new kids movies and u can read whats all abt it might help u ,gd luck ur doing gr8 job

    ReplyDelete
  8. I would suggest Freedom Writers or The Great Debaters. Both deal with language and the debaters deals with blacks in the south given educational opportunities. Akeelah and the Bee is a good one but I found a good portion of the words those kids were spelling I had never even heard of. And they are susposed to be middle school kids, yikes!! It inspired my daughter to try out for a spelling bee at her school.

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  9. I suggest The Debaters or Freedom Writers or at least Akeelah and the Bee more on subject. All will inspire.

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  10. "PROBLEM CHILD" WAS A HILARIOUS AND GOOD ONE!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Khadija
    Was the movie "The Kite Runner" any good? I would like to see it when it comes out over here. Take care, Sharleen (Fatimaslibya)

    ReplyDelete
  12. What ages are the kids that you are showing movies too? If they are in elementary school then "The Bee Movie" or "Akeelah and the Spelling Bee" for older ones like High School level you should try "The Freedom Writers" Take care, Sharleen

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sharleen, Most of the students are in their 20s. But I have a student who is 15 and the oldest student in his 60s (a lovely retired microbiologist). So mostly you could say they are adults, high school and university students and also professional people.

    Kids movies wouldn't be of interest to them. Some like action films but they said they would prefer things with more cerebral content or dialog with a variety of accents.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Here is what l have found so far. Hope you have some luck finding some of these. "The Namesake"--Indian accent, "Forrest Gump"--southern accent, "The Big Easy"--Lousiana accent or cajun accent, "Crocodile Dundee"--Australian accent, "Rush Hour 3"--Asian accent. Best of Luck, Sharleen

    ReplyDelete
  15. Alien vs. Predator has great dialogue.....

    ;-)

    On the serious side: The Shawshank Redemption is an excellent choice, so is Stand by Me; both Stephen King-adaptions.

    Avoid any movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger!
    Oh heck; there goes the serious side again...

    ReplyDelete
  16. Have they seen some of the old classic films like Star Wars...? scenes from STar wars were filmed in Matama, Tunisia and other areas near there...it might be kind of interesting for students to identify places close by....and see how they adapted that into the movie...

    as always your blog is most interesting...

    gk

    ReplyDelete

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