Let the music play on!

I have often done research tasks with classes where they all have to find out about a singer/band from a target language country. I decided to repeat this in lockdown, but allowed each Year 9 student to find their own artist to research. Amazingly, there were only a couple of repeats when I went through their work. I created a playlist of the artists that they’d found which I could then share with everyone (a nice way to feel a connection to others when we’re not together).

This exercise had many benefits. Firstly, it was motivational as the students enjoyed having a free choice. Secondly, it introduced me to some new artists as some of the students found some up to date choices. Most importantly for me, I can now use these songs as a basis for future lessons. I am planning activities such as gap fill and other listening work. One song by Rammstein even lends itself to a grammar lesson on sentence construction. I think the students will be engaged with these activities because they chose the music in the first place.