Started off the new year 11 course with this song:
Lyrics can be found here. The rather idiotic (but kind of fun) exercise I came up with was having the students slot the things that make the singer happy into Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This pyramid is reprinted (in a slightly different and, frankly, less understandable form) in our new book, Green Line 11/12. So where do you think the pencil full of lead goes?
Homework: Write a similar song about things that make you happy. If you don’t want to write about yourself, write from the point of view of a cat, an investment banker, a dairy farmer, Mrs Merkel, a little girl, whatever you like…
great exercise, i saw that many of the students posted this video to facebook after the lesson, and many of them are thinking about going to the concert in november!
Comment by Melissa — September 24, 2009 @ 2:17 pm |
Ha! I was thinking of going myself. Like that’s going to be popular…
Comment by mrs. h. — September 24, 2009 @ 5:56 pm |
Great idea the thing with Maslow’s pyramid. I wish I could do things like this in a lesson, but unfortunately I don’t teach students who would be able to do this. Did you give the lyrics in written form to the students or did they have to listen only?
I wonder if in the plenary after the writing task some students sang their song to the class. Did they?
BY the way: I do like Paolo Nutini’s music very much. After a long time of bying no cds I bought the two albums of him and really enjyed them.
Comment by Christian — October 12, 2009 @ 5:34 pm |
After the first time of playing the song, I gave the students the lyrics, as they’re extremely hard to understand. And no, no one sang their song. It’s a new class, and I guess people would be too embarrassed.
Comment by mrs. h. — October 17, 2009 @ 6:56 pm |