Film Activity – Kebab Connection
About This Activity
Language
German
Level
Intermediate 2
(4th semester college level)
Time Needed
One week with 3 50-minute classes
Goal
For students to watch a full length in the target language, be able to successfully complete the activities, and understand culturally important issues and situations.
Materials Needed
- Projector & screen
- Access to film
- Speakers
- Handout 1
Class One
Teil Eins – Section One
Time needed: 10 minutes
Discussion of cultural aspects in the film, including the relationship between the Germans and the Turks; the teacher would ask what students knew in the first place and then fill in with additional information.
Teil Zwei – Section Two
Time needed: 5 minutes
Introduction of film – what students should expect, what they should look out for, introduction of main characters, etc.
Teil Drei – Section Three
Time needed: 35 minutes
Watch the first 35 minutes of the film.
Hausaufgabe – Homework
Research the German-Turkish relationship (history, development, how it is today, etc.), write down one interesting fact that you found, and include a link to where you found it. (No Wikipedia)
Class Two
Teil Eins – Section One
Time needed: 5 minutes
Ask a student to volunteer to recap for the class what they saw in the previous class, to make sure everyone remembers the plot.
Teil Zwei – Section Two
Time needed: 45 minutes
Watch the next 45 minutes of the film.
Class Three
Teil Eins – Section One
Time needed: 5 minutes
Ask a student to volunteer to recap for the class what they saw in the previous class, to make sure everyone remembers the plot.
Teil Zwei – Section Two
Time needed: 15 minutes
Watch the last 15 minutes of the film.
Teil Drei – Section Three
Time needed: 15 minutes
Analyze a scene – the instructor will use a specific scene (17:48-20:25) for the students to analyze for the cultural overtones. After playing the scene once, students will discuss with a partner and write down key phrases or moments they remember. The instructor will then play the scene again, and the class will discuss their talking points together.
Teil Vier – Section Four
Time needed: 15 minutes
Analyze a screencap – the instructor will break students into four groups and give each group one screencap (see Handout 1). The students will analyze the picture for the characters emotions and personality based on what is happening and what they remember from the scene, and how their character affected or contributed to the issues in the film.
Hausaufgabe – Homework
Choose one character (Ibo, Titzi, Mehmet, or Ahmet – not the one you analyzed in class) and create a character description – make sure to include their:
- Personality
- Likes/dislikes
- Moods during film
- Hobbies
- Nationality (and why their nationality is important to the film)
- What happens to them in the film
My Thoughts
I chose these activities because I believe that they successfully tap into the students’ language skills when trying to describe characters in reference to a scene. The first pre-activity utilizes their schema, but also adds to that with new information. The second pre-activity merely introduces the film, but gets students prepared with key things to look out for. For the post-activities, I knew I wanted the students analyzing key parts of the film, first with a scene and then with specific character shots, which then prepares them for the homework. The first post-activity has them looking specifically at a very important scene from the film and discussing the culture between Germans and Turks in Germany. The second post-activity has them looking specifically at a character in an important scene for that character, and looking specifically at the emotions, facial expressions, and the setting to then discuss the character in that scene. They will then choose a different character and create a character description based on their journey throughout the film. This film is very dependent on culture and character development, and because of this I wanted to place a large focus on analyzing the culture and the characters.