Page 246 - Beyond Methods

234 Integrating language skills
if you wish to know about Survivor, go to CBS.com. Print out infor- mation about the show you wish to focus on, and make enough photo- copies for use in class.
10.2.3 Form small groups. If they viewed a video, have your students discuss what they saw. Guide them to discuss first the episode itself— what it is about and what the participants actually do, etc.—and then ask them what is real and unreal about this particular episode. If you used a newspaper cutting or a printout from the Internet (instead of showing a video), ask your learners to read it and discuss it in small groups.
10.2.4 Have the groups report back to the class about what they dis- cussed followed by question-and-answer.
10.2.5 Have them go to the library, read back-volumes of newspapers or surf the Internet to collect information about the reality show they watched (or read about) in class. Or, if they wish, let them collect in- formation about any reality TV show they like. Putting together what they discussed in class and what they collected in the library, ask them to write a brief reflective essay on what they think about the show, why it does or does not appeal to them.
10.2.6 In class, form pairs and ask them to read what the other part- ner has written and, if necessary, seek clarification.
10.2.7 Ask a select number of students to briefly tell the class about anything unusual or unexpected that they read in their partner’s write-up.
10.2.8 Depending on the proficiency level of your students, take the discussion to a higher level of critical reflection. Focus on some of the criticisms about shows like Survivor or Loft Story. For instance, French critics call reality TV télévision poubelle—trash television. Com- menting on Loft Story, one French television producer is reported to have said, “To me, Loft Story is non-television. It’s just crap—no actors, no script, no production value. . . . As a television professional, there’s nothing easier than picking 10 idiots off the street and asking them to be idiots in front of the camera” (From an article on “Culture Schlock in France: New Reality Television Show Draws a Crowd of Viewers and Critics,” written by Keith Richburg, published in the on-line edition of the Washington Post, May 17, 2001, p. C01). Ask your students what they think about comments like this.
10.2.9 A different kind of observation, no less perceptive, came from a villager in Kenya. In the summer of 2001, CBS, the TV network that produces and broadcasts the most successful reality TV show, Sur-