Tag: song-based activity lesson plan for English teaching

Mother’s Day Flashback: Losing My Religion

losing

Description:
This song-based activity lesson plan for English language teaching features “Losing My Religion” by REM, and its official music video. Students review ways of expressing opinions, agreeing and disagreeing, talk about the meaning of the song, read and discuss people’s opinions about it, watch the music video, and talk about its connection with the lyrics

Language level: intermediate (B1+) and above
Learner type: All ages
Skills: speaking (Cambridge English First Exam - FCE preparation), and reading.
Topic: song meaning and sharing opinions in Cambridge exams 
Language: Vocabulary related to opinions, agreeing, disagreeing, and interaction
Materials: Youtube video, worksheets, and mp3 file
Duration: 1 hour - 1h 30min
Downloadable materials:  instructions; Lyrics worksheet+ opinions; song mp3

PART 1 – WARM-UP/REVIEW

Step 1.

Review ways of expressing opinions in part 4 of the speaking paper for the Cambridge English First Exam (FCE) by asking students to give you examples. Write them on the board, and also add the following: 

What I think is that…    In my (honest/personal) opinion…      It’s clear to me that…

One thing I’m sure of is…  I (strongly) believe that…

Step 2.

Review ways of agreeing and disagreeing. Follow the same as step 1, and also write the following on the board:

That’s right!       I agree.      I couldn’t agree with you more!       I couldn’t have said it better myself

I partially agree with you.    I’m not sure about that. That’s a good point, but…

Step 3.

Tell students they are going to practice these expressions in pairs. Remind them to always give reasons to support their answers.

Give them the following statement to talk about and say what they think and if they agree or disagree and why:

“The songs from the past are much better than the ones we have nowadays” and have them discuss if they agree or disagree with it in pairs. Give them about 2 min, and have the pairs share with the whole class.

PART 2 – SONG LYRICS AND OPINIONS

Step 4.

Tell your students they are going to work with an old song, titled “Losing My Religion” by REM, from the Grammy-awarded album OUT OF TIME, and hand out only the first part with the song lyrics (cut out the opinions, they are to be used in step 7).

Step 5.

Have students read the lyrics (help out with the vocabulary) and think about the message the singer is trying to convey.

Step 6.

Divide students into small groups, to discuss their ideas and come up with a conclusion about the meaning of the song. After some time, play the song as the students read it in their worksheets.

Have the groups share their opinions. (make sure they are using the expressions reviewed/learned in part 1)

Step 7.

Hand out the second part of the worksheet with the opinions about the meaning of the song. Tell your students they were taken from the Internet, and that they are real opinions.

Step 8.

Give students time to read the opinions in the worksheet. Help with any vocabulary doubts that come up. Then, tell students to choose their favorite and least favorite opinion, and share in pairs. Remind them to always give reasons to support their opinions.

Have the pairs share with the whole class.

PART 3  MUSIC VIDEO

Step 9.

Tell your students that in part 3 and 4 of the Cambridge Speaking Paper, they receive points for how well they interact with their partners and that they should make sure to react appropriately to what their partner says and also to find ways to involve their partners. A good way to do this is to ask: What do you think about…?  How do you feel about…? Or give your opinion and ask if their partner agrees with what you said.

Step 10.

Tell students they are going to watch the official music video for “Losing My Religion” and after that, they are going to practice interaction.

Step 11.

After watching the video, divide students into trios (and a group of 4, if needed). One student will just pay attention and check if the other two are using varied expressions as they express their opinions about the video, and also if they are interacting well by involving their partners in the conversation and reacting to him/her.

Step 12.

After 2 minutes, they change, and another student will pay attention to the other two discussing the video. After 2 more minutes, the trios share their experiences and opinions with the whole class.

That’s it for this week! I hope this activity is helpful and enjoyable!

Share this to help other teachers, and also check out these great ways to add novelty and fun to your English classes: Song Lottery,  Song Pieces and Watch & Catch!

Happy teaching!  🙂

Broken & Beautiful – Kelly Clarkson

kelly

Description:
This song-based activity lesson plan for English language teaching features the song Broken & Beautiful by Kelly Clarkson and the official music video. Students talk about movies, do a crosswords exercise with words from the lyrics, listen to the song and do a gap-fill listening exercise with the words found in the crosswords

Language level: Basic (A2) and above
Learner type: All ages
Skills: speaking, reading, listening and writing
Topic: Movies
Language: Vocabulary related to movies, expressing opinions
Materials: Youtube video, worksheets pdf, and mp3 file
Duration: 1 hour 
Downloadable materials:  instructions; worksheet; song mp3

PART 1 – Warm-up

Step 1.

Ask students to work in pairs and talk about their favorite movie. After some time, students share with the whole class.

PART 2 – Music Video

Step 2.

Tell students they are going to watch the music video for the song they are going to work with: Broken and Beautiful. Ask them if they know the song, if they do not, ask them what kind of song they think it’s going to be based on the title (eg. slow, fast, happy, sad), and also what things they expect to see in the video, and have them discuss their guesses in small groups.

Step 3.

Have the groups share their guesses and play the video

Step 4.

Ask students what they thought of the video. Tell them it is part of the soundtrack of a new movie called Ugly Dolls, which will be on theaters on May 3, 2019. Check out the movie site here

PART 3  Worksheet

Step 5. Hand out the worksheet. The exercise one is a crossword, you can have a competition to see who can solve it first!

Answer key

SOLUÇAO

Step 6. Exercise two. Students listen to the song and fill the blanks with the words they found in exercise one.

Answer key 
free [1] pride [2] help [3] strong [4] phenomenal [5] hold [6] underneath [7] ocean [8] emotion [9] fly [10] lies [11] tired [12]

That’s it for this week! I hope this activity is helpful and enjoyable for your students!

Share this to help other teachers, and also check out these great ways to add novelty and fun to your classes: Song Lottery,  Song Pieces and Watch & Catch!

Happy teaching!  🙂

Better Man – Westlife

westlife still

Description:

This short and fun song-based activity for English language teaching features the song “Better Man” by Westlife. Students talk about Music, work in small groups, listen to the song and order a set of words according to the order they are sung. As an optional extension (part 3), students watch the music video and do a speaking exercise.

Language level: Basic (A2) and above
Learner type: All ages
Skills: Listening, group interaction, collaboration, teamwork
Topic: Music, simple vocabulary
Language: group interaction
Materials: cut-out worksheet pdf, and mp3 file (youtube video - optional)
Duration: 20 - 30 min (without part 3)
Downloadable materials:  instructions;  cut out worksheet; song mp3

PART 1 – Warm-up – Intro

Step 1. Ask students if they have heard of the band Westlife. They have reunited after a long time and have launched a song written by Ed Sheeran.  Get a general count of how many students know Westlife, and who likes the band as well as Ed Sheeran. Tell them they are going to work with one of the songs he wrote for the band.

PART 2 Word Order Competition

Step 2. Tell students they are going to work with a song in a different way.

Step 3. Divide the class into trios (or groups of four, depending on the number of students)

Step 4. Have students sit in a circle, and hand out the word sets you printed, cut and paste in advance (one per group). Students should spread them in the middle of their circle so they can be easily sorted out by any member of the team during the activity

Step 5. Explain the activity to the groups. As they listen to the song the first time, they should put the words in the order they are sung. OBS. tell them there is one extra word which is not in the song. If any group identifies it right, they can get an extra point as a bonus!

Step 6 When the song is over, play it the second time, they should check their work, and make changes to the order of the words if they want to. (sometimes a third play may be necessary for a final check before they show you their word order)

Step 7 check the word order of the groups. The one closest to the right order wins. 

RIGHT ORDER:
01 - MOVIE  02 - CRAZY 03 - WHY  04 - THINGS  05- ANGEL  06 - EVERYONE 07 - DREAMS  08 - DOWN 09 - MOUTH  10 - FEEL
MAKE (the extra word for the extra bonus point)

PART 3  Youtube Video (optional)

Step 8. Tell students they are going to watch the music video for “better man” and they must pay attention to what happens in the video.

Step 9.  In pairs, students talk about what they understood from the story and later share with the class.

That’s it for this week! I hope this activity is helpful and enjoyable!

Share this to help other teachers, and also check out these great ways to add novelty and fun to your classes: Song Lottery,  Song Pieces and Watch & Catch!

Happy teaching!  🙂

Shallow – Lady Gaga (Oscar Awards 2019)

GAGA OSCAR

Description:
This is a video and song-based activity for English language teaching featuring Lady Gaga’s Acceptance Speech for Best Original Song at the 2019 Oscar Awards, and also her performance of the winning song “Shallow”, by Bradley Cooper and Gaga herself, in which students talk about winning; find common ideas connecting those quotes about winning and the message in Gaga’s speech; watch the video and do a listening exercise, and finally, read the lyrics and find mistakes in verb forms.

Language level: Pre-Intermediate (B1) and above
Learner type: All ages
Skills: speaking, reading & listening
Topic: Winning
Language: Vocabulary related to winning, expressions to agree, disagree and express opinions
Materials:  Acceptance Speech video.mp4 , Acceptance Speech Worksheet, Shallow worksheet and Shallow performance youtube video
Duration: 1h –  1h 30 min

Downloadable materials:  instructions; Acceptance Speech video.mp4 , Acceptance Speech Worksheet, Shallow worksheet

Instructions

Part 1. QUOTES

Warm-up. Ask students when the last time they won something was. Have students share they’re winning moments with the whole class

Step 1. Have students read the quotes below (project or write them on the board), choose their favorite and share their ideas with a partner. They have to explain their reasons. (give them 2 to 5 minutes)

QUOTES ABOUT WINNING

  1. “When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less.” Paul Brown
  2. “There are more important things in life than winning or losing a game.”Lionel Messi
  3. “The person that said winning isn’t everything, never won anything. Mia Hamm
  4. “You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
  5. “Winning isn’t getting ahead of others. It’s getting ahead of yourself.” Roger Staubach

Step 2. The pairs share their favorites with the whole class. Have a plenary discussion. Have a vote for the best quote. (optional)

PART 2 – ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

Step 3. Tell them they are going to watch Lady Gaga winning the 2019 Oscar for Best Original Song. After watching it, ask them to work in small groups and discuss what she said about winning and which of the quotes is most similar to what she said in the video. Play the video again, if necessary.

Step 4. Have the groups share their conclusions, and check if they got to the same conclusion.

Part 3. LISTENING ACTIVITY (Acceptance Speech worksheet)

Step 5. Give out the Acceptance speech worksheet. Have the students listen to the video again and write down the missing parts. Play it 2x. Have them check in pairs. Them play the video one more time and pause at the gaps to check as a class.

Answer key: 1. Wonderful 2. Person  3. My sister 4.on the planet 5.believing 6. Hard work   7.Have a dream 8. Brave 9. Acts

Part 4: SONG ACTIVITY (video and lyrics)

Step 6. Tell students they are going to watch Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s performance of Shallow at the Oscars. Ask them what they understood about the meaning of the song.

Step 7. Give out the Shallow Worksheet. Tell students to read it find 5 wrong verbs in the lyrics. After some time, play the song so they can check.

Answer key:

1- Say - tell me somethin’ girl  2 - Or do you needs - need   3 - And in the bad times I fearing fear  4 - Aren’t you tired tryin’ to filled fill that void?  5 - I’ll never to meet the ground

That’s it for this week! I hope your students enjoy the activities!

Help other teachers by sharing this, and also check out our newest activity: Mother’s Day flashback: Losing My Religion

Happy teaching! 🙂 

No Matter What – Calum Scott

nomatterwhat_scott

Description:
This song-based activity lesson plan for English language teaching features the song No Matter What by Calum Scott  and the official music video. Students talk about parent and children relationships, review irregular verbs and the Simple Past tense, watch an edited video, Write a narrative based on the video, 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: relationships

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

Materials: A vimeo edited video, youtube link for the official video, song mp3 file and song activity Worksheet

Duration: 1 hour

Downloadable materials: instructions; song mp3; song worksheet

Part 1 – warm up / review of irregular verbs

Step1.  Students write down as many irregular verbs as they can remember in 2 min in a sheet of paper. Tell them to write the verbs in their infinitive form

Step 2. Divide the class into two. If there is an odd number, choose the most extroverted student to come to the board and be your assistant,

Step3. Group work.
In their teams, students compile a final list of verbs with all the irregular verbs they remembered.

Step 4. Tell them the team with more correct irregular verbs on the lists will be the winner. Give them an extra 30s to add more verbs to the list.

Step 5. When the time’s up. (Nobody is allowed to add any more verbs to the list at this point. Make sure students know the teams are going to be penalized and lose points for cheating!  Ask teams to count how many verbs they’ve found and tell the assistant.

Step 6. Have your assistant draw a line in the center of the board, and write A/B on each side of it, with the number of verbs each team got.

Step 7. Team A starts telling the assistant all the verbs in their lists, and he/she writes them on their correspondent side of the board. (No corrections at this time)

Step 8. Team B does the same thing, omitting the verbs already in team A’s list. (The teacher checks the lists, to avoid cheating)

Step 9. Class work. The teacher goes over each verb, and with the help of the class, checks if the verbs are really irregular and ask random students to give their correspondent simple past forms, and write them in front of the verbs. Students copy them, as they are going to use them later.
After recounting the valid verbs, the teacher awards points (for verbs in the 2 lists, the teams get 5 points, for original verbs, they get 10) the team with more points is the winner!

Part 2 

Edited video from the music video for “no matter what” – (speaking/writing)

Step 9. Students watch the modified video (obs: the music heard in this video is instrumental and it is not the original song) 


Step 10. In pairs, students talk about the following questions: .

  1. The video shows 3 important moments in the boy’s life. Talk about what happened in these 3 moments.
  2. How did he deal with those situations? Who helped him? How?
  3. Which of the following quotes best applies to the video? why?
a) "A mother is a woman who shows you the light when you just see the dark." Grimaldos Robin 

b) "A mother understands what a child does not say." unknown

c) "Simply having children does not make mothers." John A. Shedd

Step 11. The pairs share their answers and the teacher asks other pairs if they agree/disagree and why. Students express their opinions and have a mini-discussion

Step 12. Students rewatch the video. Tell them to pay attention to the details because they are going to rewrite the story.

Step 13. Give the pairs 10 min to write a paragraph with the story of the video. Tell them to include as many verbs from part 1 in the paragraph as possible.

Step 14, students share their paragraphs
Step 15. Students watch the official music video.

Step 16. In pairs. After they watch the video, the teacher asks the students why they think the boy was bullied in the second part of the video (answers as a class)

Part 3 the lyrics – listening

Step 17.Individual task.
Students receive the song worksheet, listen to the song and fill in the gaps with the verbs in the past
Step 18  play the song again and stop at each gap to check.

Answer key:

  1. Was   2. Didn’t understand  3. Took  4. Said 5. Got  6. Came  7. Ran  8. Saw  9 Had 10. looked

That’s it for this week!
I hope this ELT activity can help your classes and add value to your work!

Share this to help other teachers, and also check out this great activity to help prepare students for the Cambridge English First (FCE) speaking paper: Flashback: Losing My Religion!

Happy teaching!

 

 

Big Love – The Black Eyed Peas

blackeyedpeas

Description:

This song-based activity lesson plan for English language teaching features 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, smartphones, 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 pdf – smartphones or other digital devices (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! 🙂