Plot-puzzle – German department

Task’s description
After having watched a specific movie in preparation for the seminar, the students are asked to put pieces of the plot summary in the right order.
This assignment refers to the classroom material that the Goethe Institut has published for the film ‘Barbara’. The task, however, can be applied to any movie that is watched and discussed in class.
Specific LOs (Learning Outcomes) and/or goals of the task.
– Interactive recap of the storyline
– Implicitly acquired knowledge on the structure of a plot summary
Sequencing the task
Before the task
– They have to watch the movie thoroughly to bring the puzzle pieces into the correct order.
During the task
– Offline: Each tandem receives the cut-up summary (needs to be printed out and cut up by the teacher in advance!), has to read through all the puzzle pieces and then discuss the most logical, coherent order.
– Online: The same as offline except for that the students work with a docs-file where the puzzle pieces are added as pictures that can be moved around flexibly in the file.
– Estimated duration: Last time, 10mins were too short and every group (!) asked for extra time to complete the task, so 15mins would be more appropriate (depends on the length of the summary, of course).
After the task
– After every group is finished, the teacher asks one group to indicate the first puzzle piece they chose. After checking with the rest of the class, it is evaluated as correct or incorrect.
– After that, another group is asked for their choice of the second part. The choice is deliberated with the rest of the class once more and assessed right or wrong.
– One group and puzzle piece at a time, the summary comes together. When having assigned the wrong puzzle piece for a specific position, students can still follow and contribute to the final discussion and re-order their summary as the discussion goes along.
– Students appreciate this task for its interactiveness. And even though it sounds fairly easy, experience shows that the students are challenged every semester.
Additional comments
Resources:
– For an online seminar: one online document per group with the summary parts in the wrong order
– For an offline seminar: one printed, cut-up summary per group with the summary parts in the wrong order
*Note: If you want to add the original document with the task, please paste the link here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HJSOB7n8U2H8JBcfXnTPcP1LzQUga1br?usp=sharing