Portfolio

To incorporate Music into English Classes, teachers need and should make use of technological tools. This portfolio contains 4 activities to teach speaking, writing, listening and reading skills. They can be used most likely in high school classes. 

LISTENING ACTIVITY

ENGLISH - III CYCLE - 7Th GRADE

TARGET CONTENT N° 6: LOCATION OF PEOPLE AND OBJECTS

Warm up Activity

Ask your students to listen to "Family Portrait" by Pink, and write as many words and phrases as they hear. Then, ask them to listen again and share with a classmate what they think the song is about.  

Show them the video to reinforce the song meaning with images.

Activities

Take advantage of the song to teach other skills like grammar, in this case, prepositions. 

• First, explain to the students what prepositions are and give some examples.
• Then, ask your students to listen to the song and fill in the blanks with the missing prepositions.

In this webpage you will find the worksheet to do so.

http://www.musicalenglishlessons.org/popsongs/pink/familyportrait.htm

• Finally, give your students the chance to analyze the prepositions and its usage in the song. Give them time to ask questions as well.

If you want to reinforce the topic ask your students to write a paragraph about their families and of course to use prepositions, they should underline the prepositions to show they understood their usage.

SPEAKING ACTIVITY

ENGLISH - 11Th GRADE

TARGET CONTENT N° 7: MORAL AND VALUES  

Warm up Activity

Ask your students these questions to check prior knowledge. 

•  What are you listening to?
• What types/genres of music do you like to listen to?
• What is you favorite group/singer?
• What’s the artist role in society?
•  Should artists be judged by their behavior?
• Do you play any instrument?

Using http://www.wordle.net/ syntetize the most important words said by your students to the previous questions. 

Activities

• Create groups for your students to discuss the values a singer or an artist must have.
• Then, ask your students to prepare a debate. Some students are in favor of artists being a model in the society. Some are against it. To support their ideas, the students research about the topic. They talk about the influence artists have in young people and in society. They prepare interviews to local artists to know their opinion about the topic. If possible they record the interviews and present them during the debate. They also create brochures o info graphics to support their arguments. They can exchange information through e-mail or some other applications.
• If there were students who play an instrument or sing, they can perform after the debate. 

READING ACTIVITY

ENGLISH - 8Th GRADE

TARGET CONTENT N° 9: GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS OF WORDS  

Reading is always difficult to teach. Here there is an idea to help your students to improve their reading skills. 

Ask them to read this article "Why listening to music is the key to good health" by Naomi Coleman: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-137116/Why-listening-music-key-good-health.html

After that check their understanding using this tool. Here there is the link to a jeopardy game about the article: "Why listening to music is the key to good health" by Naomi Coleman

jeopardylabs.com/play/reading-comprehension128.

Note: you can play some music to help your students concentrate while they are reading, and of course during the game play music for them to have fun and get enthusiastic about it. 

WRITING  ACTIVITIES

ENGLISH - III CYCLE - 9Th GRADE

TARGET CONTENT N° 2: LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENT OF FAMOUS ATHLETES AND MUSICIANS

Warm up Activity

Ask your students to comment on their favorite musicians and athletes. Ask them to share with a classmate what they know about them.

Activities

• Students read and complete this exercise: http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=6424

• They search for information regarding their favorite musician or athlete and his or her more important achievements. 
• They write a paragraph describing their famous athletes, musicians' life and achievements. 

ACTIVITY ABOUT EMOTIONS

Warm up Activity

The fallowing video contains vocabulary regarding emotions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsISd1AMNYU

After watching the video, ask your students how they feel so that they can learn to express their emotions using the English language.

Activities

• Play this video to show how music and emotions can be related.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsc-kZ0-KGY

• Then, each student chooses a tune to create a story. The story must response to the emotion inspired by the music. Using narrative techniques, students make out a story on storybird.com
• Finally, they present the story to the rest of the class.

Useful Writing Skill’s Checker

http://www.paperrater.com/free_paper_grader

Use this link to check your writing skills. It gives you feedback on several issues like the title’s quality, grammar mistakes and some others.

Constructivism

Constructivism is a theory that promotes self-educated people using technology to support it. In this sense, teachers should find ways to use technology to improve not only their student’s academic performance but also other useful skills like critical thinking, controlling emotions, peer discussions, and higher order thinking skills which are quite necessary to be successful in our days.

This presentation shows an activity to teach your students speaking skills while they learn about pollution.

http://prezi.com/jhfwlex9qngq/iii-cycle-9th-grade/

Grammar Activity

CONTENT N° 3 COMPARISON OF PEOPLE’S PHYSICAL FEATURES AND PERSONALITY TRAITS

Activity for 8 graders 

To encourage your students to learn the different ways in which they can compare people´s physical features and personality traits, play “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson and ask them to complete the gaps.

Here, the lyrics to the song

You know the bed feels __________
Sleeping here alone
You know I dream in colour
And do the things I want

You think you got the best of me
Think you've had the last laugh
Bet you think that everything good is gone
Think you left me broken down
Think that I'd come running back
Baby you don't know me, cause you're dead wrong

What doesn't kill you makes you ________
Stand a little ________
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even __________
Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn't kill you makes you ___________
Stand a little __________
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone

You heard that I was starting over with someone new
They told you I was moving on over you

You didn't think that I'd come back
I'd come back swinging
You try to break me, but you see

What doesn't kill you makes you _________
Stand a little ________
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even _______
Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn't kill you makes you _______
Stand a little ______
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone

Thanks to you I got a new thing started
Thanks to you I'm not the broken-hearted
Thanks to you I'm finally thinking about me
You know in the end the day you left was just my beginning
In the end...

What doesn't kill you makes you _______
Stand a little _________
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even ____________
Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone

[2x]
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn't kill you makes you _________
Stand a little __________
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone

(When I'm alone)

After listening to the song, ask your students to complete the fallowing test online:

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=2065

Writing Activities

The benefits of background music in class enhances and changes the classroom dynamics. Your students will feel more encouraged to write and they will let inspiration flies. You should choose nothing too distracting, nothing too cheesy, just a few tunes playing in the background make them feel more comfortable.

Students listen to a popular song and write an extra verse for the ending. They could also rewrite some of the song itself.  Let your students choose the song. Ask them to underline the linking words they find; besides, they use at least three more linking words when writing the stanza.

Content N°7 LINKING WORDS IN CONTEXT for 10 graders.

Students listen to these songs:

"Beautiful" by Cristina Aguilera

"Where is the love?" By Black eyed peas

They choose one of these songs and write a paragraph or an easy based on the song´s message.  Useful for 11 grades. Content N° 10: SENIOR CITIZENS AND MINORITY GROUPS.

Reading Activity

Allow your students to feel relaxed while they work in their reading assignments; to do so play some tunes while they working.

Reading Comprehension is a difficult skill to teach, but you can use multimedia resources to make it easier. For instance, this website offers students short passages about different topics. They need to read them and then answer some questions.

This link shows a passage about opera and its respective comprehension questions.

http://www.grammarbank.com/short-reading-comprehension-passages.html

Speaking Activity

Likes and Dislikes and Preferences 8th grade Content N° 8 

You can also use music as a teaching tool topic.  Here there are some conversations questions regarding the topic. Ask your students to discuss the topic and form their own opinions.

Taken from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/conversation-music-lesson-plan.pdf

Conversation Questions

  

• How often do you listen to music?

• Do you play music while you study, or work? If so, how do you concentrate on the other things?

• Have you ever been to see your favorite musicians live? Were they as good as on the CD?

• What is your favorite music?

• Did you like it the first time you heard it?

• Is there any music you can’t stand? What is it, and why don’t you like it?

• Have your tastes in music changed a lot over the last five years? How?

• Do you think music can heal sick people?

• Do you think animals appreciate music? Why (not)?

• Do you like classical music? Why (not)?

• Can you sing? Do you want to demonstrate now?

Retrieved from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/conversation-music-lesson-plan.pdf

Listening Exercises

Talking about sports and Leisure Activities

Here it's an idea to use music and encourage your students to learn vocabulary regarding sports.

Warm up questions

•       What sports do you know?
•        What is your favorite sport?
•         Do you prefer team sports or individual sports?

Activities

Show your students the Power point presentation http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards/sports.php , then ask them to play the fallowing game.

http://eslgamesworld.com/members/games/vocabulary/memoryaudio/hobbies/index.html

This game improves your students listening skills and boots their memory.

After that, ask your students to listen to this song http://www.dreamenglish.com/sports.

Finally, ask them to cut up pictures from magazines and do a poster with them.

This activity is useful for 9 level: Sports and Leisure Activities 

Topic: DESCRIPTION OF PEOPLE’S PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
This activity works for eight graders. 

http://musicenglish.co.uk/  is a great website because students and teachers can find videos to learn the words to songs. Songs are organized either by artist or by title. You can also find song quizzes and information about your favorite singers. 

What I liked the most about this website is that students can find different songs according to their English level. They can also review important topics like phrasal verbs, modals, adjectives and some others in an entertaining way.

For example, as a teacher you can use “Set Fire to the Rain” by Adele to teach parts of the body.  Here, it is the worksheet.

I let it fall, my (1)_________________
And as it fell, you rose to claim it
It was dark and I was over
Until you kissed my (2) ____________ and you saved me
My (3) _______________, they're strong
But my (4) ____________ were far too weak
To stand in your (5) ________________
Without falling to your (6) ____________
But there's a side to you that I never knew, never knew
All the things you'd say, they were never true, never true
And the games you play, you would always win, always win
But I set fire to the rain
Watched it pour as I touched your (7)_______________
Well, it burned while I cried
'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name
When I lay with you
I could stay there, close my (8)_____________________
Feel you here, forever
You and me together, nothing gets better
But there's a side to you that I never knew, never knew
All the things you'd say, they were never true, never true
And the games you'd play, you would always win, always win
But I set fire to the rain
Watched it pour as I touched your (9)________________
Well, it burned while I cried
'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name
I set fire to the rain, and I threw us into the flames
When I felt something die, 'cause I knew that
That was the last time, the last time
Sometimes I wake up by the door
That (10)_________________ you caught must be waiting for you
Even now when we're already over
I can't help myself from looking for you
I set fire to the rain
Watched it pour as I touched your (11)____________________
Well, it burned while I cried
'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name
I set fire to the rain, and I threw us into the flames
Where I felt something die
'Cause I knew that that was the last time, the last time, oh
Oh, no, let it burn, oh, let it burn, let it burn

Retrieved from:

http://worksheets.musicenglish.co.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2014/01/adele_setfiretotherain_e.pdf

Using Songs to Teach English

Sing Along

Listening to songs, singing them aloud and trying to remember phrases and words help your students to increase their vocabulary and intonation.

In this website http://www.lyrics.com/, for example, you can find lyrics and watch popular videos.  The good thing about this website is that you can sort the songs by country so that you can also know what has caught on in each country and get to know more about their culture as well.

http://es.jango.com/  is a free radio where you can listen to any song and watch the corresponding video.

In smart lyrics http://www.smartlyrics.com/  students can listen to popular songs and keep an eye on the lyrics. 

Music is always fun to listen to, so why do not use it as a tool to improve one student’s skills. Here is a website where students can listen to their favorite songs and fill in the blanks the missing words. 
http://lyricstraining.com/ This tool is actually very entertaining; besides, the student will improve his or her listening skills while having fun.  

Technology and Music

The Use of Music and Sounds in an English Classroom

Music is fun, touching and inspiring. Taking advantage of these features English’s teachers can guide their students to a better comprehension of the target language.

Here, there are some reasons why using music can really help students to learn English in an effective way:

·         First of all, music boosts people’s minds. The combination of sounds and harmonies prepare the brain to work out and retain knowledge.

·         Secondly, when learning a foreign language the student needs to get used to the sounds, intonation patterns, pitches, tune and rhythm used by the native speakers.

·         Through music and songs students get in touch with the target culture. Popular singers are famous for using contractions and slangs which are quite important to understand a country’s culture.

·         Songs also help students to learn new vocabulary. Words and phrases are easier to remember through the use of sounds and music.

The Use of Technology in an English Classroom

The use of technology makes the process of learning interactive, interesting and dynamic and helps the student to overcome the challenges they face.

In the classroom, for instance, the teacher can use different approaches, methodologies and strategies if some of the topics are difficult for the students to follow and understand.

Technology also promotes critical thinking and production. Graphics, videos, chats and others technological tools stimulate students to learn vocabulary, idioms and a better comprehension of the target culture.