In order to prepare for an upcoming workshop, I’ve been creating some materials for using songs in the language classroom. While I incorporated several songs during my last two years in the classroom (I blogged some of my lessons here), I wanted to add a few more ideas for my workshop participants. Fortunately, some awesome language teachers out there have blogged lots of great suggestions for using songs and I relied heavily on ideas shared by others (see bibliography below).
One activity that I hadn’t had time to prepare when I was in the classroom was a Picture Talk with a music video. (Click here for a great explanation of Picture Talk.) In order to demonstrate this strategy, I chose the song, Je te le donne by Vitaa as the video illustrates a sweet story that I thought would be engaging to students. To implement this strategy, I would use the screenshots in this Google Slides Presentation to narrate the narrative depicted in the video. I have included a few questions on the slides, to help guide the Picture Talk. As directed on slide #23, I would not show the actual video until we had discussed the first 22 slides, as a way of building anticipation. While I created this Picture Talk with Intermediate learners in mind, the questions could easily be modified for Novices.
In addition to the Picture Talk presentation, I prepared this document with additional activities that could be used when using this song with Intermediate learners. On the first day, I would lead a short discussion of the pre-reading questions and then play the song (without showing the video). Although not included on the document, I would create a cloze activity for the students to complete as they listened. After going over the cloze activity, I would have the students complete the interpretive activities (B & C). If time permits, I would then have the students complete one of the presentational writing activities, although this could also be assigned for homework.
On the second day, I would have the students do the pre-viewing collaborative storyboard activity in preparation for the Picture Talk. Following the Picture Talk, I would have the students complete the interpersonal and then presentational activities.
For other great ideas on using songs in the classroom, here’s the bibliography I compiled for my presentation:
- http://www.onestopenglish.com/methodology/teaching-articles/methodology-articles/pdf-content/teaching-materials-teaching-with-the-help-of-songs-article/550124.article
- https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-use-songs-english-language-classroom
- https://spanishmama.com/teach-spanish-with-authentic-music/
- https://kplacido.com/2013/10/06/la-musica/
- https://comprehensibleclassroom.com/2015/09/24/what-can-i-do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-with-a-song/
- http://www.lesliedavison.com/lesliedavison/blog/2014/12/4/what-else-can-you-do-with-a-song