Tag: elt material

Big Love – The Black Eyed Peas

blackeyedpeas

Description:

This ELT song activity is based on the song Big Love (The Black Eyed Peas) and it does NOT make use of the official music video  (some scenes it portrays may be shocking for most students, however if you consider it suitable for any specific class you have, use it at your own discretion.) 

In the activity, students talk about bullying, gun control, smart phones and war, read and share opinions about those topics, listen to the song, do listening exercises with a worksheet and the lyrics, scan QR codes, read and write a text for homework,

Language level: intermediate (B2) and above

Learner type: All ages

Skills: speaking, listening, reading & writing

Topic: current controversial issues

Language: Vocabulary related to bullying, guns, smartphones and war, expressions to agree, disagree and express opinions

Materials: cut out opinion + topic sheet + song activity Worksheet – smartphones or other digital device (tablet, laptop, etc) with a qr code reader app installed. Internet connection, wifi available for part 3.

Duration: 1 hour  (or 1h and 30 min if you have time to do step 9 in class + HW)

Downloadable materials: Big Love- instructions; cut-out opinion/issue sheet; song worksheet; song audio mp3

INSTRUCTIONS

Preparation for the activity:

Download and print the cut-out opinion/issue sheet; cut out as indicated and laminate it to make the sets. Make 1 copy per pair or trio of students.  Download and print the song worksheet. 1 per student.

PART 1

Step 1.  Warm up – WHOLE CLASS:: Write/ project the following issues on the board:

BULLYING     –    GUN CONTROL    –   WAR    –    SMARTPHONES

Ask students if they think there is a connection between the four topics and what it is, or ask them which of the four is the most important for society right now and why. Have a vote and write the number of students in front of the issues on the board.  (about 5 minutes)

Step 2. IN PAIRS or TRIOS. Hand out the opinion+issue set, one for each pair/trio of students.

There are 4 pairs of opposite opinions for each of the four issues (bullying, gun control, war, smartphones).

The students’ task is to match the topics with their correspondent opinions.

Step 3. after the pairs or trios have finished matching the opinions and the topics, they are going to talk about the opinions they agree more or disagree and give their reasons. (about 10 minutes – step 1+ step 2)

Step 4. After discussing  in pairs/trios, the students share their opinions with the whole class and have  a short plenary discussion.

PART 2 – LISTENING ACTIVITY WITH LYRICS

Step 5. Individual task. Hand out the song worksheet. It has two exercises: in exercise one, students have to listen to the song and number the verses, lines of the song as they listen to it.

Answer key exercise 1:   4   b. 2   c. 1 d. 3

Step 6. Individual task. In exercise 2 they have the complete lyrics of the song with 10 words removed. Their task is to listen to the song and fill in the blanks in the song lyrics with the words given.

Answer key exercise 2:  

  1. Leaders  2. Fire 3. Americans  4. Young 5. Hands 6. Hope  7. Life 8. Global  9. Believe 10. Violence

Step 7: Back to their original pairs/trios, the students identify which parts of the song in exercise 1 correspond to the issues they discussed in part 1 (bullying, gun control, war, smartphones) and what opinion the song expresses.

Step 8. They share their opinions with the whole class

PART 3 – READING / WRITING

OBS: If there is no time available in class, steps 9 and 10 can be done for homework and handed in the following class.

Step 9. Students choose the issue they want to read about, scan the correspondent QR code on their worksheet and read an article about that issue on Newsela. This is an excellent Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject. Your students will be asked to make a profile there to read the whole article, it is free and fast.

blog song 2 codes

Urls for the articles

Bullying https://newsela.com/read/schools-bullying/id/1155/

Guns https://newsela.com/read/overview-guns-in-america/id/19146/

War https://newsela.com/read/lib-convo-just-war-theory/id/29945/

Smartphones https://newsela.com/read/lib-convo-just-war-theory/id/29945/

Step 10. Homework. Students write a paragraph or two with their opinion about the article they read in the previous step for the following class. (word limit 50 – 80 words)
That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoy this ELT song activity.

Feel free to leave some comments if you wish, and let me know how the activity worked out in your classes.

Happy teaching! 🙂

Happier – Marshmello ft. Bastille

SAF HAPPIER 001

Description:

This ELT song activity is based on the song Happier (Marshmelo ft. Bastille) and its official music video. Students talk about pets, watch a video, retell a story, write a text, listen to the song and do a listening exercise with the lyrics

Language level: Pre-Intermediate (B1) and above     

Learner type: All ages

Skills: speaking, writing & listening

Topic: pets

Language: Vocabulary related to pets, expressions to agree, disagree and express opinions

Materials: Youtube video and song activity Worksheet

Duration: 1 hour

Downloadable materials: Happier- Instructions; worksheet

INSTRUCTIONS

PART 1- WARM – UP

Step 1. WHOLE CLASS:: Why do people have pets? (write students answers on the board, help with some vocabulary)

Step 2. IN PAIRS. Students talk about the following questions, for about 2, 3 minutes:

  1. How can pets help us?
  2. What animal makes the best pet? Why?

Step 3. WHOLE CLASS: (students share what they discussed in pairs with the whole class. As each pair shares their answers, the teacher asks other students if they agree/disagree and why, so everyone gets the chance to participate and get practice with interaction and using the language of opinions/agreement/disagreement.

PART 2 – MUSIC VIDEO

Step 4. DIVIDE THE CLASS  into two groups: the ‘A group’ and the ‘B.group’.

The students in the A group stay in the classroom and watch the music video, while the students in the B group go out and wait.

Step 5. Tell the students in the A group to watch the video attentively because they are going to tell the students in the B group the story in the video.

Step 6. Students watch the video (3:53 min)

Happier – Marshmello ft. Bastille (official video)

Step 7. The students in the B group return to class and pair with the A group and IN PAIRS, the Student A tells the story of the video to Student B and Student B writes it down. Allow 10 minutes for the writing of the story.

Step 8. After the time is over, have the pairs share their stories, have a quick vote for the best account of the video, and also ask students (A and B) what they thought of the story depicted in the video.

Step 9. The whole class watches the video and students compare and comment on the differences and details that may have been left out in their written stories.

PART 3 – LYRICS

Step 10. Students receive the worksheet with the lyrics. They listen to the song and circle the words they hear.

Answer key:

  1. Cold
  2. Word
  3. Way
  4. Smile
  5. There
  6. Our
  7. From

That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoy this ELT song activity.