Job Discussion Forums

[yamahuh]

Well my first class back after our break for Christmas should have been really entertaining...
But it wasn't!

I'm using the 'Senior English for China Student's Book 1A' for the majority of my classes in the public school system and this weeks unit deals with music. No problem, I basically develop a theme based on the unit topic and go from there; the teachers want to teach all the book content so my classes are supposed to supplement theirs.

I spent about two hours looking for relevant music to illustrate 'styles' like punk rock, jazz, heavy metal, classical, rap, pop, hip hop, etc.
I downloaded them onto my Mp3 and off I went.
Figured that I'd introduce the styles as titles first, talk about different instruments and what the kids liked and disliked and then I'd play them extracts from each of the 9 or 10 different songs I had available.
As we listened to the songs I asked them to guess the style from the list on the board, tell me which instrument(s) they could hear and whether they thought it was good or bad / liked it or not.

God almighty, it was like pulling teeth!
I'd like to use this idea for my other classes as I think it has potential but I need to adjust it somehow and for the life of me I can't think how to change it for the better.

Any suggestions for how to improve this idea or better ways to present a 'music' based theme that talks about different styles of music?

[erinyes]

Well - to give you an idea of what your students might have felt.

Let me play this piece of music for you .............. Now guess what type you think it might be from this list:

Goobble
Rofooloo
Rondar
or
Shwishwi


What do you think???
No idea? I guess they just had no idea either.

Perhaps if you got 2 or three types of music - 2 or three songs in each type and asked the students to sort them out - perhaps that would be better.

Then you could ask them why they put them together. "They were both soft and relaxing." Or "They were both fast, and good to dance to" something like that.
And lke all good education - the only right answer is a good answer. So if they say "I put these three together because I liked them and those three together becuase I didn't like them" well - that's cool too really - even if they aren't in the same genre.

Perhaps ask the students what English music they like and why they listen to it. You might be surprised, some of my students like Marilyn Manson, some like Linkin Park. Not all of them like west life.

Maybe get them to argue with you. Say something they will not agree with eg "Pop is heartless trash just for making money" or "Chinese people only like one kind of music!" discuss.

Perhaps play them some music that tells an important story about history "Sunday bloody Sunday' and then tell them the story. Ask them to talk about some of the ways music helped to realise the importance of this issue.

Ask them to tell you about Chinese musicians. Who is their favourite, where do they live, what are their famous songs, and translate some of the words into English and tell you what the songs mean.

[NorbertRadd]

divide 'em up into groups and have them come up with their own feedback.
don't let them be complacent.
they just want to sit and space put.
make them take turns leading the class.

[andyscott84]

This is something that I've done in my class this week actually. I did the same thing as you for the first class, write the genres, let them listen to the music and then tell me how it made them feel. The only answers I got were 'I don't like it' basically. Which is fine, but not what I was looking for.

So I changed the lesson plan a little. I wrote emotions that you could feel next to the genres. I told them whether they liked the music or not what emotion did they get from it. Instead of 'I don't like it' they actually started giving real answers. For example they said that 'Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd' is slow, relaxing and a bit sad. I watched their emotion change from song to song. All songs I'd heard many times, but they were for the first time. So it was from a fresh point of view.

I'm going to try it again sometime with different classes, but use distinctly different music next time.

[Roger]

Dunno but when I saw the thread's title I thought: your job description must be a recipe for hell!

Music? For Chinese kids? Dunno!

What did you expect they would do? Were your expectations realistic?

What can they "learn" from such lessons that you can tst them on? Have you thought of whether they can memorise anything (because that's what they think "learning" is all about!).

Music? I never do that with kids here except some lyrics that I ask them to memorise and to try to interpret. To distinguish between pop and rock is a mental challenge none of them is up to; even I would possibly find it daunting!

Since your lesson revolves around modern pop music, here is what I did recently: I had my students take down the lyrics I dictated to them (no photocopies!).
The lyrics were from Simon & Garfunkel; the songs were fairly popular here (Sounds of Silence, I am a Rock). I didn't dictate the whole song but just one stanza. The more gifted among them actually downloaded the entire version; the also-rans tried to memorise the stanza - and did poorly, but they did memorise it anyway. And it was a good starting-point to get them to actually care about their pronunciation! I told them to pair up with a partner for their rehearsals, and most did! Not that it worked wonders - but it did make them listen to each other speak English!

[andyscott84]

Though I agree, I also must say that learning to express yourself freely in another language is an important part of the process. And for most people music plays an big role in their lives. So understanding genres, instruments etc...and the emotions that go into it is a way for them to connect with the langauge on a more personal level. Not every lesson in life needs to be tested.

[Louras]

The fact that someone said they'd adapted the lesson is a very good thing. The ability to do that is the best way to find what works and what doesn't. Even if it means changing the lesson goal completely.
God, I'm so sick and tired of Mr Know-it-all, I can puke!

[yamahuh]

[wailingtraps]

I'm doing roughly the same thing with my kids this week and the first lesson nose-dived after about three minutes. For some reason the students weren't into listening to music at all. So I upped the difficulty level a bit and started playing name that tune(or in fact name that genre). Play them one or two seconds of the song and then get them to say whether it's pop,rock...whatever. This was somehow the greatest thing since something really, really good. This is good for a warmer and seems to get the students going. I then chose a couple of songs that make for good listening exercises.


No 1 Friday I'm in love by the Cure.
Not the world's greatest song but all the kids have to do is listen for what happens on each day of the week. There are about twenty different things to listen for of which some are very easy to get and some a little harder.


No 2 California Dreaming Jose Feliciano version
Nice clear singing and the kind of lyrics that my 16/17 yr olds can get if they actually listen. Just write a few questions on the board or dictate them and play the song.


By the time the 45 minute lesson was coming to a close the class were having a nice orderly discussion about the songs they had heard and how they felt about them.

That might just be my good luck as I teach in the middle of nowhere in Xinjiang and I have for the most part incredibly well-behaved students....who knows!!!

[yamahuh]

So I revised the lesson somewhat.
First I got them to name any musical style / type they could think of by asking 'What kind of music do you like?' When they replied I wrote their answers into a big grid on the board and added a couple of my own (punk, heavy metal, country etc). For the more obscure styles I gave a brief description and wrote the adjectives on the board under the heading 'Describe' e.g Punk Rock is fast, loud and noisy
Next I talked about musical instruments and listed them on the board under the heading Musical Instruments (I mimed playing a guitar to get them going if they didn't understand the title).
Finally I got them to give me some more descriptive words to talk about music; exciting, romantic, boring etc.

Once this was all done I divided them into teams and gave points to the team to correctly guess the style of music being played and then threw the class open to tell me what instruments they could hear and to describe the music.

Worked like a charm!!

[Ruth]

I'm too late to this topic to be of any use for this year, but perhaps if you are teaching that unit again next year it could help. I too teach senior one students. I'm not required to 'follow' the book, but I do try to. For the music unit I created a PowerPoint lesson including pictures of the singers I featured. I posted song words so the kids could sing along to the music. I have a few more music lessons planned for the spring semester. When I've done songs before I've handed out song words with a few questions about the song to get some discussion going. Music has always been a popular lesson when I've done it. I had one girl write to me that never did she dream she could listen to music in school.

wailingtraps - thanks for the song titles. I have a feeling I'm in a different age bracket than you are and it's good to get music the kids might be more interested in.

What size classes do you folks teach? Mine are 85, 84, and 65. It's difficult to give everyone a chance to speak.

[yamahuh]

My classes are between 60 and 80 and 'Yes' you're right it's damn near impossible to get all the kids to speak. Having said that; it actually works out not TOO bad 'cos half of them don't want to or can't be bothered anyway!!