Conversation Class
Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: 19. November 2009

Class theme/topics discussed: Music in Germany

How did you pick this theme or topic? The students had told me earlier that they were interested in German music and bands, so I thought it might be interesting to talk about this topic with them.

 

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
First of all, I asked the students about their music taste and if they did some sort of music themselves. Then I asked them about their knowledge of German bands, songs, and music in general and their opinion on it. Afterwards, I put 10 flashcards on the table which had pictures of 10 different German singers / bands from the 80s until 2009 on them (Herbert Groenemeyer, Marius Mueller-Westernhagen, Die Toten Hosen, die Aerzte, Xavier Naidoo, Tokio Hotel, Culcha Candela, Sportfreunde Stiller). Next to that I put 10 flashcards with the respective names, 10 cards with song titles and 10 cards with dates on them. I told my students that they were supposed to match each singer / band with their name, their most famous song and the year of that song. To help them do this, I showed them all the songs on youtube. Although this was quite challenging, the students got most of it right. Afterwards I had them glue everything on a large poster and name it “Musik in Deutschland”. As a last activity, I asked my students to write a short German poem / song using the song titles we had listened to before.

How did students react?
The students were very interested and seemed to have fun. They wrote down some of the singers they liked, because they said they wanted to listen to them at home.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they talked a lot. Especially when they working together on matching all the songs, dates, names with the respective singers or bands.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Flashcards of bands / singers, names, song titles, dates
Computer + youtube videos
Large blank poster

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, I would use this activity again. The students seemed to like it and they had fun working on it. I might change the number of bands / singers though.. maybe to the 5 or 6 most popular ones.