Student Collaboration & Creativity To Review And Practice the Present Perfect With Songs!

DESCRIPTION:

This STEP-BY-STEP LESSON PLAN for ENGLISH language TEACHING features 5 song extracts by NEFFEX.

Students SPECULATE about a photo, WRITE sentences about it with the Present Perfect, and CORRECT other students’ sentences in a collaborative doc made with Cryptpad, WORK in teams, LISTEN to 5 different short song extracts by and IDENTIFY THE PRESENT PERFECT verbs in each one.

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, writing 
Grammar: Present Perfect
Materials: genially presentation, YouTube Videos, cryptpad doc (prepare in advance and get a link)(see VIDEO TUTORIAL)
Duration: about 1 hour
Downloadable materials:  instructions.pdf

Welcome to the Song Activity Factory! Here, we follow the rules of The Creative Jedi Code:

See below for other posts to Teach English Creatively With Songs:

STEP-BY-STEP LESSON PLAN

Step 1 (5 min)

Genially presentation link

slide 1. What’s going on in this photo? 2) What do you see that makes you say that? 3) What more can you find? Have students describe the picture and say what they think is going on. After everybody has guessed, reveal what it is about:

The original caption reads: Mana Hashimoto, right, with Iliana Mejía, a student at the Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School. Ms. Hashimoto was leading a hands-on workshop that enables visually impaired students to experience dance.

Step 2 (10 min)

slide 2 with 5 words + photo. In pairs (breakout rooms), students write the minimum of 3 sentences about the photo with the Present Perfect using the 5 words. Tell them to save their sentences to a notepad, so they can copy and paste them to another doc later.

It may also be a good idea to quickly review the formation of the Present Perfect Tense. Have students give you some examples in the affirmative, negative, interrogative forms. Write them on the board.

Step 3 (5 min)

PREPARATION IN ADVANCE. Create a collaborative doc with cryptpad and get a link to share with your students. The Video below is a quick tutorial on how to do it!

Decide who is group/pair 1, group/pair 2, etc before you share the link.

Share the link to the collaborative doc with your students and have them paste their sentences to their corresponding places.

Step 4 (7 min)

Highlight the mistakes and have students correct them. You can have a vote on the most creative sentences!

Step 5 (5 min)

Divide students into pairs or trios (it can be the same from before), and tell them they are going to listen to various extracts of songs that have verbs in the Present Perfect. They can get points for each correct verb they identify, as well as the 5 words from step 2 because each extract has one of those words (better, poetry, smile, coast, pain).

Step 6 + 7 + 8 (15 – 20 min)

Tell them they have 3 chances to try to get the right verbs, they don’t need to get the whole sentence, just the subject + aux ver + verb ex: I’ve done, Have you heard, etc. Then, play the Video. Song 1 extract is recorded 3 times in a row. Pause the video. Students write down the answer for song 1. (play more times if necessary).

Step 7

Pause the video before the answers appear on the screen!

Check what the teams wrote down (you can use the chat feature of the application you’re using with your online students. ex: in-meeting chat in zoom , and ask them to use it to send you the answers. Assign points. (1 for each right answer, if there is more than 1 verb in the recording) Remember that they can also get an extra point if they identify one of the words from step 2 (better, poetry, smile, coast, pain).

Resume the video for them to see the right answer.

Step 8

Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the next song extracts. The team with more points, in the end, is the winner!

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!