Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mrsquirrel]

For you karaoke and song users how do you use it in the classroom? What age group are you using it for? Is it effective and how do you tie it into the theme of your lessons?

Are you using it in a PS or academy? What class sizes?

[spliff]

I use it in my advanced special class, they can't get enough of it! We use it through the TV amp. Doing that and drama this term. Also, plan to mix in some reading as well as my co-teacher bought tons of interesting science and story books. Last week we used "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to make a short play and now practicing it. She also bought a 1,200,000 vid cam so when they have it down we'll record it and maybe show it on the Monday morning announcement network at the school. No more boring "Up and Away" sick of UNO....also bought a lot more board games that me and the kids are itching to try out...have to make some time for them. Maybe use them as a reward for good participation and attitudes.

[icnelly]

For elementary school I build some routines with them. I got C is for Cookie from ddeubel's site. I started by setting the pattern: ___ is for ___. Modeled it with A: A is for ___. Got the kids going on that by raising hands and giving me an example: A is for apple, and then when C came up, I made sure to elicit cookie (drawing little pictures, simulation, etc) and then when they said cookie, I switched to pattern practice for a couple rounds (2 x: C is for cookie.), and then played the song for them, and every class I've done it with knew it enough to sing the patterns and not be downtrodden about the other words/sentences they couldn't sing: the kids always request it.

I've got an awesome ABC rock and roll .kfn that the kids love. a Mr. Sun song, Elmo Rap, and some others. PM with your email addy if you want any of them. I also just made a pop song named: Lollipop by Mika. My teacher's class loved it.

So, the karaoke goes over well...

EDIT: typos

[ddeubel]

Yes, karaoke works! It can be for class atmosphere/bonding/fun or for something deathly educational.

I have quite a few kids karaoke's in that vein. I also wish I could share with the songs from ESLROCKS.com that I've produced. But due to copyright, can't distribute beyond my own use but her songs are cool, produced by a famous L.A. rock producer and they change the lyrics. For example "I want to rock n' roll all night and party every day." Becomes a rowdy version of "I want to esl all night and practice every day". Hopefully I'll have a flash version of the karaoke player for my site by the new year. Just click and play big screen. See www.streamkaraoke.com for one similiar for personal use. they have a demo which only has a few songs...

I use karaoke for higher level students. I've got the Little Prince, Kafka, even Charles Bukowski. I have a dream speech. Lots of the www.breakingnewsenglish.com stuff.

what karaoke really is, is a dynamic way for teachers to teach in a multi modal fashion. text to speech technology at its finest and it fosters text recognition even better than tradition phonics (imo).

If you want more info. join in on my karoake discussions in my community. My karaoke folder also has a screencast which takes you through everything to make a karaoke song yourself....

Also--karaoke is much better than video with subtitles! Why? It is more language focused, less visually distracting.

DD