Teaching with songs: Come Out and Play – Billie Eilish

Description:
This is a video and song-based activity for English language teaching featuring 
the Apple ad  Holiday - Share Your Gifts featuring Billie Eilish’s song Come out 
and Play and also the video ‘Holiday - how I create music on IMac and IPhone’,
 in which students talk about talents; find common ideas connecting quotes about 
talent and sharing; watch a video ad and play a memory game with questions about
 it; do a listening exercise with another video in which the singer talks about 
creating music; listen to the song and put the lyrics in order

Language level: Pre-Intermediate (B1) and above
Learner type: All ages
Skills: speaking, reading & listening 
Topics: talent and music 
Language: Vocabulary related to talent and skills, expressions to agree, disagree and express opinions 
Materials: Youtube videos, video activity Worksheet, cut-out song lyrics worksheet and mp3 file
Duration: 1h -  1h 30 min 
Downloadable materials:  instructions; worksheet part 3; song mp3; cut-out song slips part 4

NEW!!! Check out the VIDEO VERSION of this post modified for TEACHING WITH ZOOM!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE 2020 EDITION OF THIS LESSON PLAN FOR ONLINE AND HYBRID CLASSES

Instructions

Part 1 – Warm Up / Quotes

Step 1. Play hangman with the word 'talent'.
Write on the board T ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

Step 2. After the game, ask students to share some of the talents they have (whole class)

Step 3. Write or project the following quotes on the board:

1- “The more you share, the more you receive to share.” Lailah Gifty Akita
2- “Don’t hide yourself. Stand up, keep your head high, and show them what you got!” Joe Mari Fadrigalan
3- “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away”
Pablo Picasso

step 4. Ask students to read them and (individual task) think about their meaning carefully and find out if there is a connection between the quotes, and what it is.

Step 5. After 1 or 2 min, have students share their ideas in pairs (2 min)

Step 6. Have the pairs express their opinions to class and ask if the other students agree/disagree and why

Part 2 – Apple Ad video -Holiday Share your gifts

Step 7. Tell students they are going to watch a video. They should pay attention 
to the story to answer some “memory” game questions about it (divide the class 
into pairs or trios).

Memory Game Questions:

1. what color sweater was the girl wearing in the first scene of the video? (Red)
2. What 7-letter word is written on her laptop cover? (Supreme)
3. What is her occupation (baker)
4. What color is her uniform at her job? (Green)
5. What did she draw on the bus window? (Glasses)
6. What color is the box she keeps her paper sheets in? (Green)
7. What musical instrument does she have? (A piano)

Part 3 – Video 2:  How I Create Music on iMac and iPhone ft. Billie Eilish

Step 8. FIRST WATCH.

Students watch the video and answer the question:
What does Billie Eilish compare music to? (emotion)



Step 9.  Hand out the Worksheet - part 3. Students watch the video again and fill in the gaps in the transcript. Play the video twice. And check the answers as a class.

Answer key:
Billie: I'm Billie Eilish.
Finneas: I'm Finneas.

Billie: And this is how we create a song from scratch.
Music is emotion.
I feel like, every song, I know, sounds like an emotion I've felt.
it's like how could I make a song that sounds like the way that this light looks.
I think that's really weird to think about, but it's more interesting for me that way. Like, it doesn't have to rhyme;
it doesn't have to make sense;
['cause] it's just words.
Sometimes I need to create something out of it.

Finneas: Once we understand the narrative,
[that] we can flesh out a song behind it.
First guitar, then vocals, then that 808 sort of...
Logic is really easy to have fun in
and I think having fun in a program is
how you get better.

Billie: I think you have to force yourself sometimes. just put it out there,
and if it flops, it flops.
But who cares?
At least you're doing what you want to be doing.

Part 4 (extra) lyrics

The Lyrics were divided in 12 slips of paper (print, cut out and laminate)
Step 10. Divide students into groups of 4 (or fewer students per group, depending on the number of students) and give 1 set of cut out lyrics four group.
Students listen and put the lyrics in order
Play the song as many times as necessary. The first team to get the lyrics in the right order wins!

Answer KEY (correct order):
10 - 09 - 11 -12 -01- 03- 08- 06- 05- 04- 02- 07

That’s it for this week and for 2018!

We’ll be back in January to continue providing free high quality ELT song activities for teachers all over the world!

I hope you all have wonderful holiday celebrations, and that in 2019, you have the wisdom and energy to fulfill cherished dreams and achieve amazing goals!