B1 ESL lesson plan using music videos, narratives, and songs by Halsey, The Big Moon, and Ed Sheeran

Creative ESL Teaching: Connecting Videos, Narratives, and Songs for B1+ Learners

B1, Comparing and Contrasting, Expressing Opinions / Justifications, Integrated Skills, Narrative Tenses, Song Activity One comment

Lesson at a Glance: Creative Connections (Videos & Narratives)

The Experience: This lesson places students in the role of creative directors and video editors. By matching abstract stock footage with current hits from Halsey, Ed Sheeran, and The Big Moon, learners explore the synergy between audio and visual storytelling. The heart of the activity involves synthesizing three distinct clips into a single narrative arc, selecting a lyrical “theme song,” and contrasting their original visions with official music videos.
  • Media / Artists: Halsey, The Big Moon, Ed Sheeran ft. Camila Cabello & Cardi B
  • Target Level: B1 (Intermediate) and above
  • Duration: 1 hour – 1 hour 30 min
  • Language Focus: Narrative Tenses, Comparing & Contrasting
  • Key Outcome: To master narrative sequencing using Past Continuous and Past Simple, while developing sophisticated skills in justifying creative choices and articulating visual-auditory comparisons.
  • Materials: YouTube/Vimeo music videos, stock footage (.mp4), song extracts (.mp3), QR code lyrics sheet, instructions.pdf
Expert Author: Márcia Bonfim
Source: Song Activity Factory

Quick Lesson Overview:

This song-based activity lesson plan for English language teaching features the songs ‘Clementine’ by Halsey, ‘Your Light’ by the Big Moon and ‘South of the Border’ by Ed Sheeran feat Camila Cabello  & Cardi B, and their official music videos. Students talk about music videos and do a matching exercise with videos and song extracts, write a short narrative based on the videos and choose a theme song, read the lyrics of a song, watch music videos and make comparisons.

  • Language level: B1 and above
  • Learner type: All ages
  • Skills: speaking, reading, listening and writing
  • Topic: Music Videos and comparisons
  • Language: Vocabulary related to music videos, songs, expressing opinions and making comparisons
  • Materials: Youtube/ Vimeo videos, and mp3 files
  • Duration: 1 hour – 1h 30 min
  • Downloadable materials:  instructions.pdf; videos.mp4 Song extracts mp3; QR codes Lyrics.pdf 

How to Teach English with Creativity: Step-by-Step Instructions

PART 1 – Warm-up  + Video Match

Step 1. 

Ask your students to think about their favorite music video. Why do they like it? What are the characteristics of a good music video? Have students share their answers as a class. Write some ideas on the board. 

Step 2.

Video match: Tell your students they are going to work with videos and song extracts. Tell them to imagine they are video editors and their task is to choose 3 different songs for three videos. This part is to be done individually. You can use this nice presentation made with genial.ly:  (OBS. if you have no access to the Internet in your classes, you can use the individual mp3 and mp4 files in the downloadable materials section).

Step 3.

Explaining their choices: In pairs, students share their choices and their reasons. After some time, have the pairs share their differences.

PART 2 – Video Narrative + Song Theme

Step 4.

Divide the class into trios. Now, students are going to write a short narrative which connects the three videos, in any order they want. They must also choose one of the three song extracts to be the theme song of their narrative. Give them 10 – 15 min to do that.

In the video below, you can see this step in action with my Cambridge English First Prep Students:

 Step 5. 

Lyrics. After the time’s up, project the qr codes with the complete lyrics of each of the three song extracts, so that the students can access the lyrics to their theme songs. (link in downloadable materials)

Tell them, they are now going to read the lyrics of their theme song, and based on their short narratives, they are going to choose 1 verse or one line from the lyrics that matches their narrative.

Step 6.

The trios present and explain their narratives to class saying which song they chose as the theme song and also the verse they think matches it. After the first presentation, have another group which chose the same song to present next.

Step 7.

After all groups have presented their narratives, if you still have some time left, go on to part 3. If not, assign it for homework.

PART 3  – Music Videos + Comparisons

Step 8.

Play the music videos of the three song extracts. As students watch them, they must answer the following questions:

  1. Is the official music video of your theme song similar to your narrative in any way? Explain. If the music video is different, in which way? Explain.
  2. What did you think of the other music videos? Do you think that their images could match your story in any way? If so, how?

After you play each video, give them some time to discuss the questions.

When all the videos have been played, have students share their answers and have a class discussion

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One comment

  1. Pingback: HOW TO USE SONGS TO TEACH ENGLISH: 12 SONG-BASED LESSON PLANS THAT PROMOTE COLLABORATION, CRITICAL THINKING, CREATIVITY & COMMUNICATION – Song Activity Factory

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