Probably a bit too early in the course to be singing songs but 
as I’ve already mentioned in one of my previous posts, Unit 1 of my pre-intermediate course is about Music.
Rihanna is the most popular singer among the students who have “bravely” decided to vote in the poll embedded in my previous post.
I’ve chosen the song Russian Roulette. I hope you like my choice!! Two possibilities to work with this song.
♥PDF
Also, Visit my section Teaching with songs
Oh My goodness! This first week has been hectic in the high school and by Friday it had taken its toll on me; I was worn out and I sort of needed to unwind. Can you think of a better way than going to the concert the great Gloria Gaynor gave in Oviedo and dancing to the rhythm of her hit I Will Survive? (fits like a glove :), it was just what I needed! Enjoy!
And now, to more down to earth issues. I wanted to show you an exercise I’m going to do with my second-year students you might find helpful. If so, feel free to use it.
The aim is for students to use the vocabulary studied for Physical Description.
Preparation: Pictures of well-known people: celebrities, politicians,singers…
Procedure: Divide students into pairs. One of them faces the board and the other one sits with his back to the board. Display the picture of the famous person and ask the student facing the board to describe this person to his partner.
Some rules for the game: students must start by giving a physical description of the person and only then can they move on to give more information about this person. The student guessing can ask as many questions as he wants. I’m planning of setting a time limit for each picure; maybe 1m or 1.30m. Needless to say, only English is allowed. 😉
This is my choice of pictures
Picture Description on PhotoPeach
There is something I have to tell you. When I am alone in my car
I sing at the top of my voice and I enjoy it so much that sometimes I even dance while driving! But it even gets worse because while I am listening to music, very often, I focus on the grammar or the lyrics and if I am teaching something specific and I feel like my students need a break, then I make a point of not giving up till I find the right song. So much for concentration on the road!
This happened last week with my first and second years. I decided they needed a break from some boring stuff we had been dealing with. We were about to learn Antonyms and then, all of a sudden, Katy Perry was on the radio singing her world famous Hot n Cold. Great for opposites in elementary levels!
I was planning on grabbing the lyrics from Internet and racking my brains to create some good tasks when I decided to try ISL Collective and there it was. Ready to take! Thank you very much Missk for your wonderful job. It was a real timesaver!
(to download this activity you’ll need to register on this site : ISL COLLECTIVE (I talked about this page here).
Now, why don’t you try this activity? It’s a lot of fun.
It’s been a long long time since I haven’t posted a song, just because. But I’m on holidays and I’m still publishing twice or three times a week. so I think a deserve a treat or two! ha, ha ,ha!
Maria Mena has, long ago, won my heart .She released her first album when she was fifteen and writes all the tracks on her albums which are known for their raw emotion and honesty. This song Habits is from her new album Viktoria released in September 2011.
Still on the subject of teaching, over and over again , personality adjectives to my students I bumped into a post where this song was suggested for the teaching of these adjectives.
This is the handout from this song I’m going to give my intermediate students. It contains a bit of everything: working with opposites, phonetics and open questions.
Hope you enjoy the song! handout , HERE
