| Songs for teaching might help you with the big question | | | | attractive layout to enrich the visual side of your lesson |
| of how to motivate your students. Songs are fun, help | | | | plan. |
| relax the classroom atmosphere, incorporate both | | | | Listening to the song itself is the main core of your |
| reading and listening skills, and in general, are enjoyable! | | | | activity. Play the song at least twice. |
| When students see a teacher entering the classroom | | | | Here are a few sample main activity ideas: |
| with a tape in hand, they are suddenly very motivated | | | | 1. Delete every seventh word or so to create a cloze |
| to learn, especially when it comes to teaching ESL. | | | | activity. Depending on the level of your students, you |
| Teaching songs should ideally follow a traditional lesson | | | | might want to insert a word bank. |
| plan. Since they incorporate both reading and listening | | | | 2. Present the students the song with twenty mistakes. |
| skills, ESL teachers can weave these skills into their | | | | Have students circle the mistakes. Depending on the |
| lesson plans. By all means, this lesson plan is not | | | | level, you could ask them to correct the mistakes or |
| exhaustive. | | | | give them a word bank and have them choose the |
| Lesson Beginnings (Pre) | | | | right word. |
| Teaching songs must involve a purpose for listening. It | | | | 3. Give students envelopes with sentence strips. Have |
| is up to the teacher to create that purpose. Here are a | | | | them read and if possible, put the sentence strips in the |
| few ideas for lesson beginnings regarding teaching | | | | correct order. (The chorus should be in one section) |
| songs. | | | | Students check their answers while and after listening |
| 1. Show a piece of art work as an example for | | | | to the song. |
| teaching the song "Starry, Starry Night" as a lead-in. | | | | 4. Song Bingo. Have students choose nine words from |
| 2. Have students imagine what the world would be like | | | | the song. They mark an X when they hear the word |
| in twenty or thirty years as a springboard to the song | | | | being sung. |
| "Imagine" by John Lennon. Collect their answers by | | | | Lesson Endings (post) |
| writing them on the board. | | | | 1. Have students write their own 'imagines' in relation to |
| 3. Give students the basic vocabulary from the song | | | | John Lennon's song "Imagine." Encourage them to |
| and ask them to predict what the song might be about. | | | | share with the rest of the class. |
| Now it is time to play the song. Make sure the song is | | | | 2. Students prepare a memory game based on the |
| recorded on a good quality cassette. Using CD's are | | | | words they learned from the song. |
| ultimately, much better. Have clear copies with | | | | 3. Students can reflect on how the song made them |
| reasonably large font. When choosing a song you | | | | feel and jot down any random thoughts or feelings for |
| yourself like, avoid singers who muffle the words and | | | | a further classroom discussion. |
| choose age appropriate themes and lyrics. Use an | | | | The most important thing is to have fun! |