🎵 Hey there, Music Lovers! Welcome to the Song Activity Factory! 🎵
I’m Márcia Bonfim, an English teacher with 30 years of experience and a deep passion for music.
Why Song Activity Factory?
The POWER OF MUSIC is undeniable. Over the years, I’ve discovered that songs are not just a source of entertainment, but also an untapped EDUCATIONAL TOOL. Yet, creating engaging, song-based activities can be TIME-CONSUMING, and I know how precious your time is. That’s why the SONG CTIVITY FACTORY was born.
Moving Beyond the Mundane
TIRED OF GAP-FILL EXERCISES that fail to captivate students? Me too! I believe learning a new language should be an enjoyable exploration, not a mundane chore. My mission is to BREATHE LIFE into English classes, transforming them into LIVELY and ENGAGING experiences.
Innovative and Inspiring Learning Experiences
At the SONG ACTIVITY FACTORY, you’ll find a practical collection of song-based lesson plans, worksheets, and resources, all designed to engage students in innovative and inspiring ways. Whether you’re an ELT, ESL, EFL, TESOL, TEFL, EAL, ELL, or ELA teacher, these READY-TO-USE ACTIVITIES can easily be incorporated into your lessons.
Let’s Make Learning Sing! 🎤✨
While it’s impossible to use all of my creative ideas with my own students, I’ve built this blog to SHARE them with you. So, whether you’re teaching online or in a traditional classroom, dive in, explore my resources, and let’s make learning sing!
This week, the Song Activity Factory features:
MUSICAL GRAMMAR PIECES is an activity that helps students improve in a few important ways. First, they build their CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING skills by finding and fixing grammar mistakes in song lyrics.
Next, they get to practice COLLABORATION AND COMMUNICATION when they work in groups to agree on the grammar corrections. If they’re working online, they also get better at using digital tools, which is a key DIGITAL LITERACY skill.
By deciding on the grammar corrections themselves, students are boosting their ability to learn and work independently, a skill known as SELF-DIRECTION. And when they’re working with songs from different cultures, they’re improving their GLOBAL AWARENESS, or understanding of the world.
Quick Lesson Overview:
In this song-based lesson plan featuring “Vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo, students read the lyrics extracts, correct them individually, listen to the extracts to check, compare answers in small groups and decide on the final corrected version for a group competition. This activity focuses on VERBS (simple past, present perfect, verb patterns, simple future), object pronouns.
OBS: This lesson plan was made for ONLINE TEACHING, but it can be modified for face-to-face instruction, as well.
Language level: (B1) and above
Learner type: All ages
Skills: speaking, reading, listening and writing
Topic: grammar correction
Language: varied
Materials: genial.ly presentation
Duration: 45 min – 1 hour
Downloadable materials: instructions.pdf
How to Teach English with This ESL Song Lesson Plan: Instructions and Tips
Step 1 (5 min)
Ask them what their favorite kind of music is, etc. Tell your students that in this class they are going to work with songs and correct grammar mistakes in the lyrics.
TIPS & SUGGESTIONS: Make this session as interactive as possible. Encourage all students to share their views. This will make them feel involved and eager to participate. Remember to respect all music tastes and make it a point to highlight that all genres of music can be utilized for learning.
Screen-share the slide with the first MGP (Musical Grammar Piece) with the grammar mistakes.
Use this Pretty Genially Presentation To Enhance Your ESL Song Lesson:
TIPS & SUGGESTIONS: Before starting the session, make sure you are well-versed with the screen-sharing feature of your video conferencing platform and have the slide ready to avoid any delays.
Step 2 (3 min)
GIve 2 minutes for the students to correct the THREE mistakes (individually in the main room). But tell them not to give the answers now.
TIPS & SUGGESTIONS: Explain clearly how they should approach the task. Recommend them to write down their corrections on a piece of paper or a digital note-taking app to minimize confusion later on.
Step 3 (5 min)
Screen-share the second lyrics extract. And repeat step 2
TIPS & SUGGESTIONS: Keep the pace steady and ensure students are following along. You can check in with a quick thumbs-up or thumbs-down poll if the platform allows.
Step 4 (5 min)
Screen-share the third lyrics extract. And repeat step 2
TIPS & SUGGESTIONS: Again, keep the pace steady and ensure students are following along. The repetition should help students get comfortable with the process and improve their efficiency.
Step 5 (10 – 15 min)
PLAY the lyrics extracts so they can check their work. Play the extracts 2 or 3 times.
TIPS & SUGGESTIONS: Make sure your audio settings are optimized for clear playback of the song extracts. Playing it multiple times will ensure students can follow along and catch the mistakes.
Step 6 (10 min)
Divide students into small groups, and put them in BREAKOUT ROOMS. They are going to compare their answers and come to a final group decision on the corrections.
TIPS & SUGGESTIONS: Be clear on how the breakout rooms function and how students should navigate them. Also, provide clear instructions on how they should discuss and agree on the corrections.
Step 7 (5 – 10 min)
Back to the main room. A student from each group (the captain) will send you (privately) the corrected sentences for the first extract in the CHAT BOX. Award points to the right corrections. Then, do the same with the other extracts. The group with more right corrections is the winner.
TIPS & SUGGESTIONS: Be clear on how the scoring system works and how students should send their answers. Encourage friendly competition but also stress the importance of the learning process.
SEE ANSWERS IN THE INSTRUCTIONS.PDF
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!
That’s it for this week! I hope this activity is helpful and enjoyable!
How I Create Visually Appealing Thumbnails
If you’re curious to know how I create those visually appealing thumbnails for our YouTube videos and Blog Posts, I use a fantastic tool that I discovered. It’s user-friendly and perfect for educators who want to add an aesthetic touch to their materials. Check it out HERE
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Happy teaching! 🙂
Song Activity Factory 
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