Song about wanting to get slim for one’s boyfriend – fill in the blanks

How did you pick this theme or topic?

After having talked about food for several lessons, and before the beginning of the project I thought it would be good to stay “in” the topic but from a different perspective. I chose to use a song that Clem had already used in the past so that we could talk more about eating disorders next lesson. The song was good because it used idioms that students did not know, and they were thus able to improve their vocabulary. I used the same song with the intermediate and advanced classes but I left more blanks in the lyrics for the advanced level. The written words were not hard to understand and the singer was singing slowly so I thought it was really appropriate for intermediate students. And indeed, they got almost all the missing words.

How did you present the material? (Handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)

Handout
General discussion

How did students react?

They reacted very well, they were interested in the song and the lyrics. They had fun watching the video too, because it is really funny. They had to fill in the blanks at first, and then we saw the video so they could not rely on the images to understand the song but had to really practice their comprehension skills. They were also interested in the idiomatic expressions. I had planned on spending more time on the video but they asked a lot of questions about expressions, tried to guess, etc… and we listened to the song several times so the activity actually took the whole hour.

Did they engage with each other and you?

They mainly engaged with me because there was no pair or group work today. I called on them to read sentences with the missing words aloud. And the rest of the discussion was based on their own participation, but since they were 6, it was easy for them to speak and they all had several chances to do so.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Handouts
youtube song and video on the tv screen

Please attach a copy.
Below is the lesson plan

Would you recommend this activity for a future class?
Yes. I think music always works.

10/01

1. Warm-up

2. Song: Plaire

– They listen to it for the first time, without the handout.
→ Then, discussion to see what they understood, if they could pick up some words, the general ideas, who is singing…

– I give them the sheet with the lyrics and blanks

– They listen to the song again
→ need to fill in the blanks
– They can listen to it a third time if they feel like it
→ fill in the remaining blanks
– correction

→ we listen to each paragraph and then see what they could understand or couldn’t
→ explanation of the idiomatic expressions and words they don’t understand

3. Vidéo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_KR6mjXbr8

– Discussion about the video