Videos & CI (Comprehensible Input)

I don't like when students are absent from class, but if we have a class discussion about a short film on a day when a student is absent, I have a sure-fire way to add more repetitions with the day's vocabulary the next day. When the student returns, I put the class in charge of explaining the video, using Spanish only, to the absent student. The absent student is the only one that is permitted to speak in English. I stress to the class that if the absent student doesn't understand, it's not the student's problem, but rather it is the problem of the entire class. The responsibility lies on their shoulders to make sure they are understood.

Yesterday, as an introduction to our unit on Love and Relationships, I showed the short film, "Blind Date".

First I had the students work in groups and they tried to match my answers to questions such as:
- What is something you can drink?
- What is something you put on?
- What is an action you do when preparing food?
We discussed their answers, did some light PQA, and moved onto the video. I stopped the video at 2:30 for students to retell the story thus far, using the vocabulary that they just learned in the previous action. I also asked them to predict what happened next. We then watched the remaining part of the video and practiced re-tells in a large group and then in small groups.

The retell was "on" the next day when two students returned to class. This group is getting quicker at the retells.

What would you do with this video? I'm looking for any creative ideas you may have.

I found this video on another teacher's blog, but I can't remember which one. I'll do my best to find it so I can give him/her the credit.