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USING MUSIC IN THE CLASSROOM

          A majority of pupils appreciate songs and as a lot of the most popular songs are in English, it's certainly an ideal opportunity for a teacher to link up and harmonize with his class, at least for the time of a song.

          Before talking about the different techniques of using songs in the classroom, here are a few lyrics links for songs that I have used.

ABBA - http://www.lyricsfreak.com/a/abba/

http://www.azlyrics.com/a/abba.html

THE BEATLES -
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/beatles/

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palladium/7821/lyrics5.html

THE BEE GEES
http://album.lyricsfreak.com/b/bee+gees/one+night+only_20001198.html

THE CARPENTERS
http://www.vex.net/~paulmac/carpenter/songs.html
 
 

            ... there are many more artists that I could add on to this list, why not share your classroom experiences?

                 Quite a few teachers use songs as an "end of lesson" activity, why not ?  Even if you don't analyse the meaning of a song, it can still be used as a reward or simply a change in the usual lesson, with a simple "fill in the gaps" type of exercise which could help to improve listening skills.

            For more ambitious teachers an interdisciplinary activity would be much more attractive.  You could count on the music teacher to organize some sort of instrumental accompaniment, and the art teacher could get the pupils to illustrate the song in a comic book form ... this activity worked well with the Beatle's song "She's leaving home"  ... if there is a drama and/or video club, why not film the story and even invent a dialogue?

Another Beatles song which has quite a few possibilities is "When I'm 64" from the Sergeant Pepper Album. Other than the basic "fill in the gaps" exercise, why not get the pupils to illustrate the song to show what they have understood. They could prepare a short paragraph to tell the class how they will be and what they will still be doing, when they're 64.
All levels have something to get their teeth into !

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