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Predicting future and simple future

Predicting what happens after a cliffhanger in film is an effective way of engaging learners, and here we use this to practise future tenses.

One of the most rewarding ways of getting learners to produce language – their own, or another target language – is to create a mystery, enigma or cliff hanger in a story, and then ask them to predict the ending. Predicting what is going to happen is one of the easiest and most engaging ways to encourage your pupils to speak or write creatively.

So far during this course we’ve shown you parts of a range of short films. Most short films will have a twist – a moment when the narrative suddenly shifts and the unexpected happens, and it is this moment that makes predictive writing or speaking possible.

Activity

For this step, watch the clip of La Queue de la souris again – up to where the mouse ensnares the snake – and predict how you think the story will end. Create a short paragraph that sums up what you think happens next and add it to the comments section.

Predictive text can either be written in future or present tense, dependant on your classroom focus. Try to complete your paragraph before reading other participants’ contributions! Then read one or two of the others to get a feel for the rich mix of ideas that other people can come up with, whether it’s writing, storyboards, scriptwriting, or film.

Teaching Ideas

We have included a few of teaching ideas and resources for prediction in the downloads section; consider what opportunities you might develop to support students’ writing or speaking using prediction exercises?

There are a few predictive writing templates in the download section that you and your pupils can use in class to follow up the activity above. Feel free to edit them into your chosen language. These have been designed to provide alternatives for groups of different ages and abilities.

How could you use them in your classroom? You can also engage in additional activities for predictive writing such as creating storyboards, scripting, or even filming your own ending. Add any predictive writing resources that you have worked with or adapted to padlet.