MUSICAL INTERVIEW: Do You Have The Courage To Change? (Sia – Courage To Change) Teaching English with Songs!

“The only thing that remains constant is change.” Now more than ever we need to pull together to fight for humanity, social justice, equality & so much more. It’s time for real change.

With Sia’s words (and Heraclitus’) I welcome YOU to the SONG ACTIVITY FACTORY!

The place to be if you believe in the power of songs to teach English!.

If you’re a BELIEVER, here you’ll find Creativity, Inspiration, Ideas and Resources to bring Musical innovation to your English Language Teaching Practice!

This week SAF features COURAGE TO CHANGE by SIA!

I hope YOU and your students have inspiring moments with it!

Description:

This song-based STEP-BY-STEP LESSON PLAN for ENGLISH language TEACHING features the lyrics and music video for “Courage to change” by Sia. Students LISTEN to the song, TALK about it and ANSWER questions, READ the lyrics, REVIEW question formation, work in groups to FORMULATE questions for an interview with the singer, and as homework do a piece of writing or record a video.

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

Language level: B1+/B2
Learner type: All ages
Skills: speaking, reading, listening and writing
Topic: Change and courage
Language/grammar: feelings, questions, simple past
Materials: Youtube video, google slide, collaborative google doc
Duration: 1 hour or so
Downloadable materials:  instructions; google slides; collaborative google doc 
(for you to  make a copy you can edit)

STEP-BY-STEP LESSON PLAN

Step 1 (5 min)

Ask students to share in the chat box, some verses they remember from their favorite songs and say why they like them.

Step 2 (7 min)

Play the song Courage to Change by Sia. Ask students what they thought about the song and what they understood about the message.

Step 3 (5 min)

Show the lyrics. Students read them as you play the song again. Help students with the unknown words.

Ask your students: 1- What is the singer feeling? Why do you think so? 2- Who is she singing to?

Step 4 (5 min)

Do a quick review on question formation by writing some sentences on the board and asking students to write the questions to the answers in the chat box. Focus on the Simple past.

E.g., write on the board. I studied for a test yesterday. Students write in the chat box: What did you study yesterday? Remind them to start yes/no questions with Did. Have students ask you questions with BE in the past, as well.

Step 5 (10 – 15 min)

In small groups (breakout rooms), students have to prepare questions for an interview with Sia about the song. Tell them they will have a time limit of 10 min to come up with as many questions as they can for her. Make it clear that the focus is on quantity, not quality. You can have a competition to see which group can have the most questions.

Step 6 (5 min)

Share the link to the collaborative google doc with a designated working space for each group. The groups write (paste) their questions in their designated spaces.

Step 7 (5 – 7 min)

Highlight the mistakes in the questions and have random students correct them.

Step 8 (5 – 7 min)

As a class, students choose the best questions from all groups for the interview.

Step 9 (homework)

Students imagine they are Sia and answer the questions, and then write a short magazine article with the answers.

Alternatively, you can ask the groups to record a video in which they pretend they are Sia and answer the questions. These videos can be shared with the class later.

IF YOU LIKED THIS ACTIVITY AND WOULD LIKE TO USE IT WITH ANOTHER SONG, HERE’S A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO CREATE IT.

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!