Job Discussion Forums

[pellinzo]

Hi guys. I've set my self a challenge. I'm going to create one lesson plan, based on a song in the Top 10 every week and post it on my blog.

Here is a link

https://lyricalenglish.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/welcome/

If you have any feedback I would love to hear from you.

[pellinzo]

First lesson ready. Clink the link below for the plan. Any feedback is more than welcome.

http://lyricalenglish.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/happy-by-pharrell-williams-2/

[grahamb]

Just a few quick comments.

I can't see elementary students handling this: the song's too fast and they won't be able to do the discussion task (slide 5), as it requires them to use past tense forms.

You use the passive in the instructions on slide 2 (You will be shown…). Consider You will see instead.

Check that the students understand what they have to do in each task. After you give your instructions, nominate a student and ask him/her, "What are you going to do?" If he/she can't give a simple reply, there's a fair chance the instructions have not been understood.

What's the word represented by the phonemic symbols at the bottom of the left-hand column on slide 7? It doesn't look like along. Try using the Lucinda Sans Unicode font for phonemic spellings.

Why not get them to sing along with the song as a final activity? Stress-free and fun for younger learners.

[grahamb]

What's Plan B in the event of a power failure or computer malfunction? I had the latter last week.

[Sashadroogie]

It's a nice idea, but I have found that song-based lessons are not always as much fun for the students as teachers sometimes seem to think. Even when selected by a class, or usually one student in a class, that doesn't mean the song in question is actually teaching anything, or even that listening to it in a lesson is that enjoyable an activity to begin with.

But then I am a grumpy old codger, so don't pay me any heed...

[pellinzo]

Thanks for the feedback.

Try it with your elementary students. If challenged they can often surprise you with what they are capable of.

All of my lessons are only suggestions. Every teacher can adapt depending on age/level/style etc.

[Teacher in Rome]

I really like this site:

http://eslhiphop.com/

(And I'm not even a fan of hip-hop!)

[jaffa]

I've always really wanted to teach Sympathy For The Devil to Saudis.

[grahamb]

… or to Russian nuns!

[pellinzo]

I always teach Fairytale of New York at Christmas. Students can't get enough of the profanity.

[Stomper]

Tom's Diner - Suzanne Vega
El Paso - Marty Robbins
Money, Money, Money - ABBA (Went down very well in China...wonder why?)

[VietCanada]

I have found that students enjoy singing- to a point. I have many young students who can sing the alphabet song but cannot recite the alphabet if asked. They certainly cannot gap fill missing letters in a series. p _ r. I think singing can be a fun and constructive part of a lesson or syllabus but I don't feel it can be the primary methodology. That's MHO and experience anyway.

[Agamemnon]

I think that this is a great often untaped and rarely used resource, most kids will happily join in this activity and it has great long term memory retention potential.
Recently I was reminded by an old student I taught many moons ago about a song she still remembers to this day it was "Friday I'm in love" by The Cure. she still knew all the words and even sang it to her parents, she married 2 years ago and even sings it to her baby daughter.
Good luck to the OP, I for one will follow his progress with interest.

[adaruby]

[spiral78]