Teaching with Songs: Tattoos Together [a lesson plan for English language Teaching]

Description:

This song-based activity lesson plan for English language teaching features the song “Tattoos Together” by Lauv and the ‘clean’ version of the official music video. Students talk about tattoos; watch a video and play a memory game in teams, do a word search exercise, listen to the song, do a listening exercise with the lyrics, and write (answer) questions for the singer.

Language level: B1 and above
Learner type: All ages
Skills: speaking, reading, listening and writing
Topic: Tattoos and relationships
Language: Vocabulary related to tattoos, expressing opinions 
Materials: genially presentation, music video (clean version), 
worksheet and mp3 file
Duration: 1 hour - 1h 30 min
Downloadable materials:  instructions.pdf; music video (clean version); worksheet.pdf; song mp3

PART 1 – Warm-up – Intro

You can use this nice genial.ly presentation for steps 1 and 2:

Step 1.

Whole class. Project the slide one (see image below) and as a class have students answer if they’d like to get tattoos together or not and why.

Step 2.

Pairwork. Project the slide two (see image below) and in pairs, students discuss the questions. About 5 minutes later, have the pairs share their answers with the whole class. Ask around if students agree or disagree and have a short conversation.

PART 2 – Music Video

Step 3.

Music video – first watch.

Tell students they are going to watch a music video which is titled TATTOOS TOGETHER, BY LAUV in which the singer and his girlfriend decided to get (guess) tattoos together. After watching, ask students to tell you some things they saw in the video and what happened. Ask students what they think the singer will do after the end of the video.

Step 4.

Music video – second watch (memory game).

Divide students into pairs or trios and tell them it is going to be a competition to see which team has a better memory. They have to watch the music video again and pay attention because you are going to ask them questions about it. The team with more correct answers is the winner1 keep track of the teams’ score on the board.

Questions for the memory game:

1.The singer had a necklace. What shape was the pendant? ( a heart)
2.How many lamps were there in his bedroom? (2)
3.What color were the curtains in his bedroom? (orange)
4.How many bikes were on the video? (1, with two seats)
5.How many flowers did the vendor have? (3)
6.What color flower did he buy? (blue)
7.What game were the guys playing on the sidewalk?( chess)
 8.What color was the old man’s hat? (gray)
9.What was the woman selling? (donuts and coffee)
10.Was the skater wearing pants or shorts? (pants)

PART 3 – WORKSHEET

Step 5.

Worksheet ex 1: word search.

Hand out the song worksheets. Tell your students that those 10 words are from the song. Their first task is to find them all in the word search. Again, you can give small prizes to the students who find all the words first!

OBS. THERE ARE WORDS forward and backwards, up, down and also diagonal.

Answer Key

Step 6.

Worksheet ex 2. Listening exercise.

Students listen to the song and complete the lyrics with the words they’ve found in the worksheet. OBs. 2 words will not be used. And 2 words will be used twice.

Answers: 1- back 2- weekend 3 – girlfriend 4 – shapes 5- letters 6- naked 7- weekend 8- girlfriend 9- cherry10- favorite

Step 7. (optional)

Interview the singer.

In small groups, the students make a list with 1 – 5 questions they could ask the singer about what happened in the music video. Give them about 5 min to formulate the questions.

When the time’s up, the groups exchange the questions and each group answers the questions as if they were the singer. (5 min)

Finally, the groups share their answers with the whole class!

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!