Mixing Songs & Houses!? Make Your Students Think Creatively With Musical Neighborhood [Coldplay – Humankind]

DESCRIPTION:

This STEP-BY-STEP LESSON PLAN for ENGLISH language TEACHING features the song “Humankind” by Coldplay.

Students TALK about where they live, DESCRIBE houses and compare photos, LISTEN to the song and match it to one of the pictures, IMAGINE and DESCRIBE what the people who live in the houses look like, READ The lyrics, and WRITE a story (Cambridge English: First for schools Style) for homework.

OBS: This lesson plan was made 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, writing 
Topic: Houses, lifestyles, relationships
Materials: genially presentation, YouTube Videos, cryptpad collaborative doc (Link for you to make a copy and share with your students)
Duration: 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:

CHECK OUT THIS LESSON PLAN IN A VIDEO VERSION:

STEP-BY-STEP LESSON PLAN

Step 1 (5 min)

Warm up questions. Do you like where you live now? Why (not)? Is it a quiet or a noisy neighborhood?

Step 2 (7 min)

Genially presentation link. Slide 1.

Screen-share the pictures of the three houses. Have students describe them. How do they imagine the people who live there?

Ask students to talk about the places and compare them. What might be some good and bad things about living in those places? Would they like to live in one of these places? Why (not)?

Step 3 (7 min)

Slide 2 – Song: first listening. Tell your students that you are going to play a song that one person that lives in one of the houses likes a lot. Their task is to imagine where the person who likes the song lives: picture 1 , 2 or 3?.

Play the song and have students write down the number of the picture and prepare to explain why.

Step 4 (5 min)

Have students share their answers in the chat box. Count how many votes each picture had, and ask students to explain their choices.

Step 5 (10 min)

Slide 3: Working in pairs (breakout rooms), have students choose one house and describe the person who lives in it with the help of the following questions (have them write their description in a doc or notepad for the next step):

1- What does he/she look like? 
2- What’s his/her name? 
3- How old is she/he? 
4- What’s his/her occupation? 
5- Is he/she happy? Why (not)?

Step 6 (10 min)

Share the LINK to the collaborative cryptpad doc.

ATTENTION: this link is read only! YOU HAVE TO MAKE A COPY FOR YOURSELF. After you make your copy by accessing the menu ‘file’ (see pic below), then you can share the link with your students (No sign in is necessary!). WATCH THIS TUTORIAL on how to use cryptpad.

Have the pairs paste their descriptions under the picture they chose. Have the pairs present their residents.

SCREENSHOT OF THE SCRIPTPAD COLLABORATIVE DOC

Step 7 (7 min)

Slide 4: Screen-share the lyrics of the song . Help students with the vocabulary. Slide 5: Play the Official Video! It has a great vibe!!

Ask your students what they thought of the song and if the message really connects to the person and the neighborhood they chose in the previous steps.

Step 8 (Homework – or in class if you have time!)

Students write a story in which the person from house 1 meets a person from house 2 or 3. How does this meeting happen? Where are they? How does it end?

Start with the sentence: “Can you help me?” asked the girl looking lost.

Include:

1- a party

2- one line from the lyrics

Write 140 – 190 words

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!