Higher Ground

Plan 1

CONTENT: Music and me

CONTEXT: Musicians Around the World

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

By completing the activities, students will:
* Express their own opinion
* Listen to their classmates’ opinion
* Have listened critically to interpret a song
* Compared their ideas with their classmates
LINGUISTIC EXPONENTS:
This song makes me …
I think this song expresses
In myopinion this song is
I (don´t) like this song
happy, boring, sad, funny, love, anger feel happy /want to dance/ jump/ sadness /anger/ good/ bad/ beautiful/ fun/

PREPARATION:

Teacher will ask students what kind of music they listen to; to name some artists they listen to; when they listen to the music. (when they are with friends, at a party, when they are sad, happy, angry); what these songsmake them feel; why they think these artists sing songs (they like to sing, they are good at singing, it’s their job, to express their feelings, or ideas T tries to arrive to “singing to express feelings or ideas”). T writes sts answers on the bb.
What sort of ideas can songs express? Love, happiness, loneliness, sadness, anger. (students have previously worked on feelings as they name them Tpastes on the bb emoticons that represents these feelings)
T plays parts of different music and asks students to tell her how that song makes them feel. And check if the majority feels the same way. Teacher writes sts’ answers on the bb:
This song makes me feel happy/want to dance/jump
I think this song expresses sadness/anger/
In my opinion this song is good/bad/beautiful/fun/
I (don´t) likethis song because it’s too loud/ slow/it reminds me of…

Time: 25’ Aids: flash cards with words and phrases, different styles of music, cd player

CORE TASK:

T tells sts they are now going to listen to a song called “Higher Ground” by Stevie Wonder. T writes the title of the song on the bb. T tells sts to first listen to the song and to concentrate on whatthe song makes them feel. T invites sts to close their eyes and lay their heads if they want.
Once the song is over t asks sts what the song made them feel, if they liked it or not and why.
Now t plays the song a second time and tells sts to write down how the song makes them feel using the prompts on the bb. She tells sts that this is to hand in.

Time: 20’Aids: Higher Ground song

FOLLOW UP:

T asks sts to form groups by looking for other sts who wrote similar things. Once they are in groups, T asks sts to compare what they have written and check for mistakes. Then sts prepare to explain to the rest of the class what they wrote.
Before ending the class sts hand in their work for correction

Time: 15’ Aids: theirwork

Plan 2

CONTENT: Lyrics and their meanings

CONTEXT: Musicians Around the World

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

By completing the activities, students will:
* have reflected on the lyrics of the song
* have described pictures in their own words
* have listened for information
* have made inferences from the lyrics of the text and images
LINGUISTIC EXPONENTS:
This song makesme …
I think this song expresses
In my opinion this song is
I (don´t) like this song
happy, boring, sad, funny, love, anger, feel happy /want to dance/ jump/ sadness /anger/ good/ bad/ beautiful/ fun/

PREPARATION

T asks sts if they recall the song they heard last class. T asks sts what the title of the song is. T pastes it on the bb “Higher Ground”. T asks sts if they remember who thesinger is. T pastes the words “Stevie Wonder” on the bb. T asks sts if they have ever heard of him before. T asks sts what they think Stevie Wonder looks like and why. After sts answer, T pastes a picture of Stevie Wonder. T asks sts if they remember what the song is about.
T pastes on the bb different pictures that represent the words from the song. As t brings out each picture she asks sts...