Song Lyrics Scramble
David Conrad
| GRADE LEVEL: | JHS 2 and 3, or high level 1 |
| SKILLS: | Listening |
| TIME: | 10-15 minutes |
| MATERIALS: | Music source (CD, laptop, etc), lyrics |
OBJECTIVES:
To listen to simple English sentences for a sustained amount of time and have fun
(Note: Stolen from a presentation at the midyear conference, but I had never seen it in an Ideas Handbook, so here it is! No copyright infringement of The Beatles intended.)
PROCEDURE:
1. Choose a song you like that has simple English sentences that are not too difficult to hear. Many Beatles songs work well, and oldies, and melodic soft-rock or folk tunes. Choosing something a little obscure or esoteric from your country (country music for us American southerners, if you can stomach it) is a good way to introduce some culture, too.
2. Type the lyrics, one line of lyrics per line of text, double-spaced. Like this, but with the entire song:
Yesterday
All my troubles seemed so far away
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh I believe in yesterday
3. Make as many copies as there are groups in a class.
4. Cut the sheets so that each line is on a separate strip of paper. Divide it so that each group of students will have the entire song, one of every line. I put them into envelopes so they wouldn't get mingled or lost.
5. Make groups, pass out the envelopes containing the strips of lyrics to the groups. Groups can be anywhere from 2-6 people I suppose, but groups of 3 or 4 seem to do the best. Explain that they are to listen to the song and arrange the lyrics into the proper order. You can tell them who the artist is or where they're from at this point.
6. Play the song, multiple times as needed, and finally check the results of each group and announce the winners. If you like prizes, give out prizes for a difficult job well done.
NOTES:
When learning a second language, it's often difficult to pay attention to a steady stream of words, even if you know basic vocabulary and grammar structures. It's easy to get hung up on words you don't know or write it off as too much information and tune it out. This activity helps students with their listening stamina and encourages them in a fun way NOT to zone out or tune out information. It also helps them recognize familiar words (the word "Yesterday," for example) when spoken by someone other than the JTE and ALT.
My students were incredibly into this, and even the ones who are quieter and less enthusiastic spoke up to request a third playing of the song. As they get more and more lyrics in the right place, they become very motivated to finish it.
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