When I saw this little film short, I knew it was the perfect little mini unit for predicting with students! Why predict with them? An advanced level speaker has good control of the three major time frames: Present, past, and future! If I don’t start making predictions in context early, how will they have enough exposure to the future tense to independently produce it?? Research says that worksheets and conjugations don’t do it… so we do it through engaging story!

Over the two days, students will spend a lot of time with the story before they ever see the video! They’ll start with a predictive activity called “The Handwriting on the Wall.” In this activity, they will look at screenshots from the video and decide which of two predictions (there is one sheet in the future tense and one using ir + a + infinitive) is correct. Discuss their predictions on day 1 and revisit this activity on day 2 after they’ve seen the video to see how they did!

They’ll follow this by looking at 5 screenshots from the story and answering teacher questions to build the backstory of the protagonist.

On day 2, they will start by reviewing the backstory that they wrote. I love sharing the stories that other sections of the same class created. Kids LOVE to hear their peers ideas and it is a super sneaky way to get repeated exposure!

They’ll follow this up by guessing what is in the boxes they have seen in the video. After giving them a few minutes drawing time, encourage students to share their ideas with the class.

At long last, they’ll watch the video (and hopefully be shocked) and then compare with the predictions they made on day 1.

Finish the class period by having them create a predictive epilogue using the included sentence frames!

It is a ton of great exposure to future tense and a great alternative to the traditional movie talk!

Hope you enjoy the activity! I’d love to hear how it goes. THE SWITCH