From Wikigogy

Meet Joe Black

My first year university students loved this movie. I warn you, though, it's long. There are 2 DVDs. I showed it over a period of days. There is a sex scene in the second half that I just forwarded past (aren't remote controls wonderful?). (I bought my own DVD player to ensure that when I previewed a movie and decided to show it to my class, that I would then be able to play it for my students, something that I could not rely on with the university's equipment. It's flat and lightweight, which makes it easy to carry back and forth to class. I just have to remember the remote and connecting cables.) My students are extremely helpful in getting all of the other equipment that we need: projector, power strip, speakers, and screen, and they also usually set up the equipment for me and make sure the curtains are closed well to shut out light and that the lights are turned off.

I went to IMDB.com on the Internet to get a plot summary and synopsis and quotes for students to read and practice before viewing the movie. We had great conversations about this movie and students did a writing assignment on the themes of death and love. Seeing the movie over a period of days allowed us to have several conversations about it. Occasionally, if I sensed that students didn't understand a scene, I'd stop the movie and ask questions. This movie was not that easy to understand for my advanced intermediate students, but they really loved it anyways.

There is a board meeting and some executive office scenes; these are helpful for business students to learn about U.S. business culture and to see the level of formality, I believe, and exposed them to corporate intrigue.

Contents 1 Plot outline 2 Plot synopsis 3 Quotes 4 Vocabulary

Plot outline

IMDB.com text removed per copyright issues.

Plot synopsis

IMDB.com text removed per copyright issues.

Quotes

IMDB.com text removed per copyright issues.

Vocabulary

We have worked on the vocabulary that they learned in this movie a number of ways. In one activity, I brought colored paper and lots of marker pens and scissors to class. Students wrote the words on a long strip of paper and the definitions on a page. Then we had a competition between two teams to match the words to the definitions. The team with the most correct matches won. This vocabulary was recycled in a quiz and will also appear on their midterm exam in listening and reading passages.

Then I created a crossword puzzle with the clues given below. You can create it, too, at www.CrosswordWeaver.com. It was the first time that my students had done a crossword puzzle, so I had to teach them how to work one. We have done several vocabulary activities based on new words that they learned from this movie. I also reviewed spelling rules and held a spelling contest on the vocabulary words from this movie.

ACROSS 7 Well-known for some bad quality or deed 8 Limitless, never-ending, vast 9 Seeing quickly or partially 13 Advantage, benefit, special right 16 Imitate someone to entertain others 17 Touchy and aggressive 18 Be inspired with an intense but short-live passion or admiration for 19 A person who is too busy in other people's lives 20 Courage, bravery, perseverance, endurance

DOWN 1 Wealthy, powerful person in business or industry 2 Seen with great fear or apprehension 3 An examination of the body after someone dies to find out the cause of death 4 Firm determination to do something 5 A person's death 6 Leave a job 7 Secret plans to do something wrong or to harm someone 10 The consequences or aftereffects of an event 11 The man a woman is engaged to marry 12 Extremely amusing 14 About to happen 15 Certain to happen, unavoidable Note: For a fee, you can use Crossword Weaver to print a nice copy of this puzzle (one that doesn't look like a web page). You can check it out for free by downloading the demo from www.CrosswordWeaver.com.

Answers to the Crossword Puzzle: Contact me if you need the answers. I've got them stored somewhere.