Hi
I am looking for a bit of advice on music in the class if anyone can help I´d be really grateful...
Our coursebooks do include some music but none of it is the kind my students are interested in. All my music is much older than my students! Also it´s mostly reggae and blues so the words aren´t really easy to make out and not exactly the queens English anyway... can anyone suggest some modern tracks I could play in class? I have levels 1, 3 and 6, teens and adults, and they like rock, reggeaton (mostly seems to be in Spanish though), pop and romantic music.They I´ve looked on esl websites but for some reason many teachers seem to think that the Beatles are the answer to everything! My students are young adults and they want modern music! That said, they seem to like "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. Dido is Ok but the level 1 classes need easy English.
Also, I don´t have my own computer so I´m cut off from limewire! How can I download music in a cybercafe? (guess I´ll just have to improve my Spanish a bit to figure that out).
I don´t know if anyone else has this problem but our coursebooks contain some really boring modules and the listening activities are dire. I get some from the BBC but they tend to better for higher level adult classes only. I´ve checked out some podcasts on itunes but these have the same problem. I want to use exercies from other books I have but the tests are really geared to vocabulary that is in the book we have so its hard to avoid the boring bits, especially as they´re doing intensive couses so there´s not too much time for extra activities.
The other problem I have is trying to keep the quick students from getting bored whilst the slower ones finish a task... can anyone suggest quick fill-in activities I can give them to do whilst the others catch up?
Thanks for anything people can do, it would be much appreciated
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Yea, 80 is too many. But at the private schools.. I sometimes only had 3 in a class. One extreme to another eh? Three is too small, can't get a game going or anything. Well, in the big classes. My god, I was so scared for the first week or so, now I am kinda used to it. I work with the ones who want to learn and basically leave the ones who don't to it. I think when they get older, most schools will consider splitting the class, but at 12, 13, 14. They won't. I think I like the big classes better. They definitely go quicker! Group work is hard work with so many. Sometimes boys against girls works well.
Ok nice one, I´ll give it a try. 80 kids in one class! thats crazy! My directors halved my level one class when it got to 26 (adults ) and I must admit that whilst I quite enjoyed the big class, their test results have improved since it´s been only 17. I guess they pick up swear words from music especially rap, but dont understand them. Maybe they get it from TV but you don´t get English language programmes here unless you get cable. The kids are ok really just hard to engage as they have to come after school. I would have hated it!
How do you manage such a big class? Do you have to do alot of group work?
Hey Al,
Well, haha, to be honest some of my kids are little bastards. But aren't a lot of kids that age? They say the F word all the time.. Maybe in a class of 80 kids.. about 10 are really rowdy and shout and swear. I think 90% know what it means. The rest make up for it though, they are great.The good ones outweigh the bad. I couldn't imagine any of them being advanced enough to ask about past and present tense of the F word.. haha. You made the right call in your answer I think!
Try the song Numb by Linkin Park.. maybe most of them already know it? I don't like rock.. but I love Linkin Park!!
Thanks Rin. I used to do music lessons when I taught level 5 adults but for level 1 you do need simple stuff. The level 6 are all kids and they like rock so maybe I´ll try Linkin Park with them (I hate rock!). I have found some extra activities recently for the faster students but they often still need a bit of help so it means that I´m getting called all over the class to give attention to different people - it´s quite exhausting after 7 hours on your feet! I checked out the lyrics for your Green Day tune - how does the F word go down with 13 year olds where you live? Do they already understand it? I had some students yesterday (15 years) wanted to use it to finish a sentence so called me over to say "what´s the past tense of fuck? What does it mean anyway?" In the end I gave them the past tense but told them not to use it because it´s rude. What do you do?
Also, I copied loads of crosswords that I found on the net. They were handy for when the quick ones finished early.
Hmm, www.esl-galaxy.com I think thats where I got them.
Hey Al,
My kids are middle school. So like popular music. Lady Gaga... Michael Jackson, Justin Beiber, Linkin Park. I did a music lesson last week.. I made a worksheet with about 10 questions. For example, What do you think the song Beat it is about? The last two where which was your favourite song, why? and With a friend, write a short song. I didn't give them the words, but most of them knew a lot of the words already. If you search Justin Beiber-Love Me, it has really easy lyrics. You tube often has the songs with the lyrics on screen. My lessons are 40 minutes, so I had time for about 5 or 6 songs plus time to talk about the questions. They really liked Green day-Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
Hope that helps a little.
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