Teaching English with songs: Cambridge English: First (FCE) – Sing It With Me, JP Cooper

Description:
This song-based activity lesson plan for English language teaching features the song Sing it with me by JP Cooper/ Astrid S and its official music video. Students talk about photos and create characters and life backgrounds, write and compare short narratives, watch a music video, do a listening exercise with the lyrics, and write a story.

Language level: B2 and above
Learner type: All ages
Skills: speaking, reading, listening and writing
Topic: Character, feelings, life stories
Language: Vocabulary to describe appearance, character, feelings, 
and narrative tenses
Materials: Youtube video, worksheet, photos, and mp3 file
Duration: 1 hour - 1h 30 min

Downloadable materials:  instructions; Listening worksheet; Photos;
 song mp3

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

Part 1 – Photos

Here’s a nice presentation created with genial.ly (An online platform to create Interactive learning experiences for the 21st-century education) which you can use for the next steps, in case your classroom resources allow. 

Step 1

Show your students the first photo (the woman)

And have them answer the following questions in pairs. Tell them to use their imagination to answer question 3:

1. What does the woman look like?
2. Where do you think she is?
3. Who is she? Create a “life” for her; include all the bullet points in your answer.

• What kind of person do you think she is?
• What has she done in her life?
• How is she feeling right now? Why?

Step 2

After about 2 min, have the pairs share their answers with the whole class.

Step 3

Tell them they are going to do the same thing with the second picture (the man)

Show your students the second photo (the man)

And have them answer the following questions in pairs. Tell them to use their imagination to answer question 3:

1. What does the man look like?
2. Where do you think he is?
3. Who is he? Create a “life” for him; include all the bullet points in your answer.

• What kind of person do you think he is?
• What has he done in her life?
• How is he feeling right now? Why?

Step 4

After about 2 min, have the pairs share their answers with the whole class.

Step 5

Tell your students that the two photos are taken from a music video. It tells a story that has the man and the woman interacting at some point.

Step 6

Put them into trios and ask them to write down a narrative in which the man and woman are characters. It must include:

• A mistake
• A cassette tape

Give them 10-15 minutes to write down their narratives (1 per trio),  and help them with any vocabulary.

Step 7

When they have finished their narratives, ask one student from each group to read out their texts. Discuss the different plots. You can have a vote for the most interesting, the craziest, etc.

Step 8

Tell them that they are going to watch the music video and their task is to pay attention to the differences between their narratives and the real one.

Step 9

Taking turns, the trios talk about the differences between their narratives and the one the video showed. Also, have them say if the personality they created for the man and the woman matched the characters’ in the video.

Part 2 – Listening Worksheet

Step 10

NEW!!! YOU CAN USE THIS >>>>INTERACTIVE WORKSHEET <<<<

Hand out the Listening Worksheet with factual questions about the song “Sing it With Me” by JP Cooper & Astrid S. The questions in the worksheet were created by  Quillionz | World’s first AI-platform for building quizzes.

OBS. this exercise is inspired by Cambridge English: First (FCE) Paper 4 (listening), part 2, although not exactly like it because the students do not write the exact words they hear. Some questions ask the students to give logical answers based on what they hear in the song.

Step 11

Tell your students they are going to listen to the song they’ve heard on the music video. Their task is to answer the questions as they listen to it. Give them some time to look at the questions before you play the mp3.

Answer key : 1. favorite songs 2. wishes 3. afford  4. record 5. wants 6. head 7. call   8. plays  9. surprised  10. somebody 11. heart

Part 3 –  Writing a Story

On the Cambridge English: First for Schools (FCE for schools),  in the second part of the Writing paper (Paper 2), there is the option of writing a Story. If you are preparing your students for this exam, you can assign the next step for homework (or do it in class, if you have at least 40 min to spare).

Step 12

This question is similar to the ones the students are likely to find in the real exam:

Your teacher has asked you to write a story for the school magazine.
Stories wanted

Your story must begin with this sentence: As Mary was looking at the birthday cake at her friend’s party, she felt really sad about what had happened that day. Your story must include: A surprise Some money

Write your story (140 – 190 words)

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That’s it for this week! If you liked this activity, share it to help other teachers. Also, check out this activity featuring Callum Scott’s No Matter What,  which focus on writing stories as well.

For more practice for Cambridge English First (FCE) using this song, click here to get an extra worksheet to practice Reading and Use of English part 1.

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Happy teaching!  🙂