Waving and Spinning for the Beatles

I experimented with the radio in my classroom this week.

Listening activities are essential for learning a language, as well as conversation practice.
I chose the song "Goodbye Hello" by the Beatles to introduce a lesson on "saludos" or greetings in English. Doing listening activities through music is a great way to connect the students' interests with learning, since most students listen to music that is in English anyways. Also, its easy to add in movement through dance, singing (a great memorization strategy), and vocabulary instruction. And try to teach 6 classes of teenagers in a row...when its raining outside! If you think you wont get a headache from trying to conduct a lecture type lesson, you are wrong! haha, the only way to keep them out of trouble, is to keep them moving...and all of my classes were very active during this lesson!

1. Give instructions: a purpose for listening. The students would be listening for 2 words: "hello" and "goodbye". When they heard "hello", they were instructed to wave at me. When the students heard "goodbye" in the song, they spun around. Otherwise, they might listen to the entire song without understanding anything. This way they can concentrate on a few words. (I naturally do this when I am listening to Spanish. I listen for "important words" to confer meaning of a sentence.)

2. Make sure they understand the directions. Sometimes the students don't know what to do but they don't tell you so. They pretend like they understand. Then when the activity starts, they are confused. Its best to have them repeat what they will be doing. "What words are you listening for?" "What will you do when you hear them?" This way, i know that the reason they aren't waving or spinning: because they are either shy (most likely the reason) or they cant pick out the words "hello" and "goodbye".

3. Play the song and watch them. This is my time to evaluate their listening ability in English. I can quickly see what students hear the words. Though, some of the classes where timid until I modeled and did the motions with them.

4. Show the lyrics. I wrote the lyrics on a transparency for an overhead projector to share with the class. I translated other words and explained the meaning of the entire song.

5. Play the song and students look at lyrics. This time, I pointed to the words and sang along. Most of the students chimed in.

6. Play the song with lyrics up and do motions again. This time, I added motions for many the other words in the song. All of the students sang along and copied my motions. This was the most rewarding part of my week: to see that the students were understanding the meaning of the words through my motions, to hear their correct pronunciation and to see their exuberant faces! (Like they had never had this much fun in school. ever.) At times, it made me so happy I almost shed a tear.

I wish i had a video camera to show them off! They were having so much fun! And learning! :)