Friday, April 07, 2006

Ideas for using songs

I tried this idea today in class. But remember we're trained professionals so don't try this at home, kids.














I thought that I'd do something different as the students have been doing exams all week and are very tired. Anyway, I choose 5am by Appleton as it's a sweet ballad and doesn't have much in the way of difficult language.

lesson plan

1 Write the title and the first couple of lines of the song;

It's 5 o'clock in the morning And I give up on sleep

life with a conscience and I decide to walk away


2 Ask students to guess what the song is about and who "I" is in this situation.

3 Play the song but without giving the students the lyrics. Ask students to come up with ideas about the what's the song is about in pairs.

4 Hand out the lyrics and play the song again.


It's 5 o'clock in the morning And I give up on sleep life (?) with a conscience and I decide to walk away

So I find my posessions And slide from your room Ignore all regrets I push myself into the street

I, I, I dont want to talk I've said my piece and I'll just go now I would love to believe and be? content to wait with you again

At 6 o'clock in the morning you'll awake all alone and pause for a moment to damn or bless me as you wish

I, I, I dont want to talk I've said my piece and I'll just go now I would love to believe and be? content to wait with you again

I agree, it would never be right and I'll just go now, and id love to believe and id be content to wait with you again, again, again

I, I, I dont want to talk I've said my piece and I'll just go now I would love to believe and be? content to wait with you again

5 This time ask students to think of questions using how, what, where, when, who, why

e.g. Why did she leave ?

6 Students then ask each other the questions and come up with their own answers.

7 Ask the students to do a role play. Divide the group into boys and girls/men and women and ask them to imagine that the they are the "I" and "you" in the song and that they meet by chance a year later.


This exercise got mixed results, I'm not sure if it was the fact that everyone was tired, they didn't like the song or it's just not a good idea. Then again if you try something new you have got to accept the fact that it may not work, I'll try this with a couple of other classes then we'll see.

2 comments:

Theodora Papapanagiotou said...

Maybe you could turn the song to a gapped text excersise or cut the text into pieces and let them match them (involve movement) and then do the role play. I don't know... when I use a song in the classroom, they usually don't pay any attention to the lyrics... maybe I don't do it right!

teacher dude said...

I deliberately tried to make it something other than a listening comprehension exercise. The idea was to respond to the themes in the song rather than try to understand everything. That way everyone (from the strongest to the weakest student) has something to contribute.

Still, like I said, it's a work in progress.