Teaching with songs: MUSICAL QUOTES with Alec Benjamin, a lesson plan for ELT

Description:

This song-based activity STEP-BY-STEP LESSON PLAN for ENGLISH language TEACHING features the lyrics and music video for “Match In The Rain” by Alec Benjamin. Students IDENTIFY famous people in photos, READ quotes about music and talk about them, READ sentences from the song, MATCH sentences from a song to images with speech bubbles, SPECULATE about the music genre, WATCH the music video, and DO a Use of English p2 (Cambridge English First) with the lyrics (interactive worksheet)

OBS: This lesson plan was made to be used for ONLINE TEACHING, but it can be modified for face-to-face instruction, as well.

Language level: B2
Learner type: All ages
Skills: speaking, reading, listening and writing
Topic: Music
Language: agreement/disagreement, expressing opinions
Materials: Youtube video, google slides and interactive worksheet
Duration: 1 hour or so
Downloadable materials:  instructions; google slides

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO VERSION OF THIS POST! 😉

STEP-BY-STEP LESSON PLAN

PART 1 – QUOTES

Step 1 (2 min)

Show slide 1 with the 3 photos and ask your students if they know who they are.

Step 2 (3min)

Click slide 1 to show the quotes, students read them. Check their understanding.

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” ― Albert Einstein

“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” ― Bob Marley

“Music is the strongest form of magic.” ― Marilyn Manson

Step 3 (5 min)

Pairwork (breakout rooms). Students talk about the questions:

1- Do you agree with the quotes? Why (not)?

2- Which one is your favorite? Why?

Step 4 (10 min)

Back to the main room, students share their ideas with the class.

Have all students participate and ask questions like: Do you agree? What do you think? Etc

PART 2 – SENTENCES

Step 5 (7 min)

Show slide 2 with the 3 sentences. Tell them they’re from the song “Match In The Rain” by Alec Benjamin. Ask them if they know the singer and/or his songs. Have students read the sentences and check if they know the vocabulary.

“I sense trouble on the horizon
I'm afraid our time is up”

“Should I just give up?”

“This love's impossible to save”

Step 6 (3 min)

Show the slide with the 3 photos with speech bubbles.

Have students talk about the pictures.

Step 7 (7 min)

In pairs (breakout rooms) tell students to match the sentences and the photos. They have to come up with an explanation to why the person/animal is thinking that.

Step 8 (10 min)

The pairs share their ideas and explain why.

Step 9 (3 min)

Based on the 3 sentences, ask students to say what kind of music they think it is (sad, happy, musical genre, etc)

Play the music video for them to check their ideas.

PART 3 – INTERACTIVE WORKSHEET

Step 10 (10 min)

Share the LINK to the interactive worksheet with the USE OF ENGLISH part 2 exercise (Cambridge English: First). Students think of a word to complete the blanks. Then, listen to the song and check their answers.

Answers:

1- been 2- this 3- of 4- that 5- these 6 - though 7- to 8- the

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!