B1 – Cinema of the Future

This is the third lesson of the Preply course – Culture Vulture. In this lesson about the future of cinema, we’ll dive into a short video about the history of cinema and how technology keeps changing the way we watch movies. It’s a great chance for everyone to chat about their favourite films and their cinema habits while picking up some neat info about movies.

The first two lessons, The Power of Music and Are you a Bookworm?, were all about speaking and didn’t touch on grammar at all, so I figured it was time to mix things up. Since we’re getting into the history of cinema and speculating about its future, I realized it’s the perfect opportunity to do a quick refresher on Future Simple for making predictions.

This lesson comes with two files – one is a PDF presentation, and the other is a quick lesson plan that includes all the answers. You can grab both of them at the end of the post!

Warmer

The lesson starts with some pair discussions. Students check out four movie posters and try to match them with the right film genres – action, comedy, documentary, and horror. After that, they chat about whether they’ve seen any of those movies and what they thought about them. If they haven’t watched any, you can ask which one looks interesting to them based on the poster and genre. Gather up answers from different groups and encourage each student to think about film genres they can’t stand, ones they love, and those they’re not really into. It’s a great chance to bring up more genres if needed.

Exploring the History and Future of Cinema

You’re going to check out a video about the history and future of cinema. Students go back to their original partners and go over the quiz questions, guessing what the answers might be. This is a great chance to break down any tricky words that might make it harder to get the video. Once everyone’s ready with their guesses, play the video What is the Future of Cinema by Behind the News. After the video, quickly review the answers to ensure everyone got the hang of it. Discuss whether any of the answers caught them off guard.

If you’ve got some extra time, try watching the video twice and chat about how the speaker feels about cinemas sticking around in the future. If the video is a bit hard to follow, you can always check it out with subtitles or grab the transcript that’s available under the YouTube video.

Using Future Simple for Predictions

After the video, I thought it’d be a good idea to do a quick grammar check. Since my class was with intermediate students, I asked them what they knew about using and structuring Future Simple. I began by showing a sentence about what the future of cinemas might look like, I think that in the future, people won’t go to the cinema anymore. Then, I asked a few questions to see how well they understood it and had the students fill in five sentences using Future Simple to practise the structure. There are definitely more ways to use Future Simple, but since we were a bit short on time, we just focused on making predictions without any evidence.

Group Discussion – What Will Cinemas Be Like in the Future?

Since the group lessons on Preply are all about speaking, I figured it was time to get back into it. Let’s look at four questions about what cinemas might be like in the future and answer them together as a group. Keep an eye on everyone’s responses and give them feedback, making sure they’re using the right Future Simple forms. It’s a fun way for everyone to get creative with their answers.

A Speaking Activity – Planning a Cinema Trip

To wrap up the class, I thought it’d be cool to give the students some time to chat about their favourite movies. Ask them to imagine they’re planning a trip to the cinema this weekend. They should discuss together and figure out which of the three movies, like a romantic comedy, a documentary, or an action movie, might be the best pick for everyone. Give them a little time to come up with solid reasons for their choice, and then finish up by seeing which movie ended up being the top choice for each pairs.

If you finish a bit earlier than expected, I put together one more slide with five general film questions. It’ll give you something extra to work on until class ends. Of course, feel free to switch it up or add in any other activity, like playing 20 questions to guess a movie or an actor. This lesson on the future of cinema is a fun and engaging way to explore how movies and technology are evolving!

What’s your all-time favorite film? 🎬 And how do you envision the future of cinemas?