Teaching with songs: Happier – Marshmello ft. Bastille

Description:

This song-based activity lesson plan for English language teaching features Happier (Marshmelo ft. Bastille) and its official music video. Students talk about pets, watch a video, retell a story, write a text, listen to the song and do a listening exercise with the lyrics

Language level: Pre-Intermediate (B1) and above     
Learner type: All ages
Skills: speaking, writing & listening
Topic: pets
Language: Vocabulary related to pets, expressions to agree, disagree and express opinions
Materials: Youtube video and song activity Worksheet
Duration: 1 hour
Downloadable materials: Happier- Instructions; worksheet

NEW!!! CHECK OUT THE VIDEO VERSION OF THIS POST MODIFIED FOR TEACHING WITH ZOOM:

INSTRUCTIONS

PART 1- WARM – UP

Step 1. WHOLE CLASS:: Why do people have pets? (write students answers on the board, help with some vocabulary)

Step 2. IN PAIRS. Students talk about the following questions, for about 2, 3 minutes:

How can pets help us?
What animal makes the best pet? Why?

Step 3. WHOLE CLASS: (students share what they discussed in pairs with the whole class. As each pair shares their answers, the teacher asks other students if they agree/disagree and why, so everyone gets the chance to participate and get practice with interaction and using the language of opinions/agreement/disagreement.

PART 2 – MUSIC VIDEO

Step 4. DIVIDE THE CLASS into two groups: the ‘A group’ and the ‘B.group’.

The students in the A group stay in the classroom and watch the music video, while the students in the B group go out and wait.

Step 5. Tell the students in the A group to watch the video attentively because they are going to tell the students in the B group the story in the video.

Step 6. Students watch the video (3:53 min)

Happier – Marshmello ft. Bastille (official video)

Step 7. The students in the B group return to class and pair with the A group and IN PAIRS, the Student A tells the story of the video to Student B and Student B writes it down. Allow 10 minutes for the writing of the story.

Step 8. After the time is over, have the pairs share their stories, have a quick vote for the best account of the video, and also ask students (A and B) what they thought of the story depicted in the video.

Step 9. The whole class watches the video and students compare and comment on the differences and details that may have been left out in their written stories.

PART 3 – LYRICS

Step 10. Students receive the worksheet with the lyrics. They listen to the song and circle the words they hear.

Answer key:

Cold
Word
Way
Smile
There
Our
From

This song-based lesson plan is sure to spice up your classes! However, would you like to think, feel and act more creatively on your own to be able to turn ANY song you want into an engaging lesson plan?
HERE are TIME-SAVING ideas that do the heavy work so you can focus on the most important: INSPIRING and MOTIVATING YOUR STUDENTS to learn CREATIVELY!