Shrek At Grammarmancomic

The latest addition at Grammarmancomic is that of the Shrek Resource Pack, created by the same force as Grammarman (Brian Boyd), and it goes along with the original Shrek movie; it appears on the site now to coincide with the release of Shrek 3. I’ve personally used the Shrek Resource Pack in class and can confirm that it’s awesome, or more specifically, that it has a whole host of fun and useful activities which are well organized and have clear instructions.

I first used the Shrek Resource Pack about this time last year, in the pre-TEFL Logue era, and it in fact led to my introduction to the main – Grammarman – work of Brian Boyd.

I was teaching a movies “elective” and was looking to show a film which already had some existing material to go along with it. I wasn’t sure at first whether an animated film would go over well with my college-aged students, but it was a hit, and thanks in large part to the Resource Pack activities.

My students’ level was a bit higher than that at which the Resource Pack is made for, so we did not do all of the activities, and I added in a few harder ones. The context was a bit unusual in that some of my students had signed up for the course – which was an elective, but they had to pick some elective – mainly because they thought it offered the possibility to zone out for an hour and half. What was useful about the the Shrek Resource activities was that they were fun enough that the slackers would put up with them and language-goal oriented enough that motivated students could also get something practical out of them. If you’d like to use these materials with a class at a higher level as I did, note that it’s quite possible to adapt some of the activities, or add discussion questions to be addressed at various points throughout the film.

And if you’ve already done Shrek, have a look at the other film activities on offer in the At The Movies section.