August 30, 2009
Concrete Instructions
Sometimes it still doesn’t work.
Sometimes I do the performance, play the song at the beginning and end of class, give them lyrics sheets, and when I finally ask them to sing, I get mumbles.
On these occasions, I used to find myself saying things like, “OK class, let’s sing it again, but louder and with more ENERGY!” Sometimes, I even resorted to threats. “If I don’t hear you singing loud, I’m going to make you do a solo!” I quickly learned that this was useless.
Instead of giving them intangible demands like “more energy”, I learned to give my students concrete steps. For example, when singing La Dentista, I give my students the following instructions:
“There are two main parts: the girl and the dentist. When you sing the girl’s part, get down on the floor like you’re in a dentist’s chair. When you play the dentist, however, you will stand up and look down at the girl. As the dentist, I want to see wide, buggy eyes (I model it for them). Then the girl will sing which means you have to immediately get back down on the floor. You’re scared to death, so clasp your hands together like you’re begging for your life.”
These instructions are simple and concrete. There is no wiggle room for most of these directions. Either you’re on the floor or you’re not. Either your hands are clasped together or they aren’t. If they successfully perform these tasks, you might add more concrete instructions (”Crazy people ALWAYS cock their head to the left. When you’re the dentist, cock your head to the left. But don’t forget the buggy eyes.”) .
The Spanish might take a backseat as they focus on all of your physical demands, but that’s okay. There’s time for the Spanish later. Right now, you’re just trying to imbue the song with a sense of fun. If you can do that, they’ll be begging you for more.
- Page 1 - Introduction
- Page 2 - Lyrics Sheet
- Page 3 - The Performance
- Page 4 - Concrete Instructions
- Page 5 - TPRS
- Page 6 - Verbally Fill in the Blanks (and a game)
- Page 7 - Karaoke Videos
- Page 8 - Closing
Too much clicking? Combine everything onto one page
Gracias Sr. Wooly,
Your tips are great. We have been enjoying your songs in class and the students request it daily, but now you offer some great advice and I look forward to applying them. Especially the “crawling all over the desks” part. jejeje.
Keep up the incredible work.
Sr. Kent de la Chalupa
I fully agree with you about setting things to music that you want them to remember. My principal last year in one of his visits, took up some maracas and sang with us. He reminded me this fall that he still knew “fui, fuiste, fue.”
I found that some verbs can also be learned with the Mexican Hat Dance main refrain music. Verbs like “Estoy, estás, está…” fit to the rhythm — but only if one includes the vosotros form.
I do admit to the kids that they’ll hate me forever, but music works!
Thanks for the great ideas! My students LOVE “Guapo”. We draw Victor and talk about what he’s really like. We sing it and the boys take turns acting out Victor’s role and the girls are the “Victorettes”. This quarter I think I’ll have them bret out into groups and perform the song with props of course, as a presentational assessment. They will videotape it and then we’ll watch them all in class. Gracias Sr. W!
One of my classes found an explanation for “Sam” not having enough time to get to el baño before class…he was talking with friends at the supermarket while looking for a special pink apple that could “rap” “Feliz Cumpleaños” to give to Mr. Bill, his math teacher. He finally found the special apple at Disney World, where a vacationing classmate sold him the apple for $250. Mr. Bill estaba muy contento…pero Sam no tenía la oportunidad para ir al baño antes de la clase de español. Now that you know the background, you can see that “le traeré una manzana” is quite an offer from Sam! Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi! I just wanted to share something that has worked really well in my class. We did the invitation song and after listening and singing the original, I put them in pairs and then they changed the lyrics to other vocabulary words–like jugar al futbol, ver la tele, etc. Then they presented to the class–with fake phones, props, etc. It has been so fun!!!!