Señor Wooly’s Blog

hen I first started teaching, I understood that music could be a highly effective way to teach language, but I couldn’t figure out how to introduce it in a way that wouldn’t repel the students. Sure, there were a few classes that enjoyed singing, but most were annoyed by it.

I still remember my first year of teaching when I tried to get 8th graders to sing one of Barbara MacArthur’s Taco songs. I passed out the lyrics, popped on the music and yelled, “Clase, ¡Canten!”

One problem — They had never heard the song before.

They didn’t know the melody, words or rhythm. Of course, some students attempted to appease me by moving their lips, and others looked desperately at their paper, hoping to avoid eye contact with me, but most would just look at their peers and laugh.

Seeing this lack of interest, I changed tactics. Thinking that the missing ingredient was a good role model, I ratcheted up my own enthusiasm, singing extra loud and getting in students’ faces, attempting to intimidate them into a fun learning experience. This basically solidified their view of me as a complete and total loony. When my enthusiasm failed to ignite the class, I resorted to threats. I said, “Ok, class, I better hear everyone sing this song with energy, or else we’re going to have to sing it five more times!! And remember, have fun with it!”

Well, you can imagine how it went from there. I never got that class to learn the song. In fact, that class lost interest in music for the rest of the year.

So, how do you expose students to music without letting them make a communal decision that it’s stupid, embarrassing and a waste of time?

In this article, I’ll give you a few tips, tricks, and activities that often work for me.

DISCLAIMER: There is no magic remedy. A small minority of classes will always be negative towards music. However, I find that these techniques are great for putting the swing classes into the right frame of mind.

As you read this article, I encourage you to leave your own comments. Do you have a trick that works for you? To comment, you must be logged in.

1) Filling in the Lyrics Sheet

The first couple of listens are essential. You need to let them hear the song a couple of times, but you need to do it without letting them sit there and silently communicate with each other. If they don’t have a task at hand, they’ll roll eyes, shake their heads, and before you know it, the whole class will have decided that the song is STOOOOOPID.

A simple activity will help to solve the problem.

Give students a lyrics sheet that has a few words missing. As they listen to the song, they fill in the blanks with what they hear. Typically, I hand out a double-sided sheet. The first side has 5-6 words missing. The second side has 10-15 words missing. I play the song twice, and they fill in the blanks. This way, they have listened to it two times before ever being asked to sing it out loud.

After this activity, we don’t do anything else with the song for the day. We let the music sink in a little, and tomorrow they might be ready for more.

NOTE #1: You might consider playing the song as they leave class, and again as they arrive the next day. The more exposure they can get without being asked to perform only improves the odds that they’ll sing later.

NOTE #2: I generally do not provide English translations on the lyrics sheet. If you do this, they will read the translation rather than focus on filling in the words.

2) The Performance

Here is where I completely contradict Idea #1.

There is a danger in exposing students to a new song with a low-energy activity. Filling in lyrics sheets is a safe and simple way to introduce a song, but students also perceive it as work. Sometimes that lack of energy can set a tone that is nearly impossible to break.

When I introduce a song that is dramatic by nature (¿Puedo ir al baño?, Los Quehaceres, Me Duele, etc.), I often find it’s best to present the song with a performance. I turn on the non-vocals version of the songs that is included on my CD and I sing my heart out. I sing with my eyes closed, climb on desks, and scream in students’ faces. Of course, students think I’m absolutely out of my mind, but they usually love the performance.

Following this, we might segway into a more low-energy activity like filling in the blanks. However, the tone for the song has been set. Later, when I ask students to perform, most will imitate my performance and energy.

Of course, this is my personality. You have to teach to your personality, and if this doesn’t sound like something you can pull off (or want to pull off), you probably shouldn’t try. It’s kind of like dancing. You can be a terrible dancer, but as long as you do it with confidence, everyone has a great time with you. But if you try to do it halfway so as to not be noticed, everyone will notice.

If you don’t want to do a live performance, showing my music videos will also serve the same purpose. I have music videos for Billy la Bufanda, ¿Adónde Vas?, ¿Puedo ir al baño?, and Me Duele.

3) 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.

4) TPRS

TPRS is a big subject — much bigger than I can even begin to address in this blog. If you are not familiar with TPRS, you may want to skip this step (for now). However, if you are interested in finding out more, I recommend looking at Blaine Ray’s site and Ben Slavic’s site. Also, joining the Yahoo Group moretprs would be a good idea.

In the meantime, here are a few thoughts on using TPRS with my music:

Most of my music is story-based. I find that students are far more interested in singing if there is a character with a real point of view. Since there is a story already built in, many of my songs lend themselves to fun TPRS discussions.

I turn off the music, pass out the lyrics, and we dissect the song as though it were regular literature. We translate together as a class and then do circular questioning. Here are the three types of questions, along with sample questions for the song ¿Puedo ir al baño?:

• Questions about facts written in the song
• ¿Quién necesita ir al baño?
• ¿Quién ya fue al baño?
• ¿Adónde quiere ir el chico?
• Questions that allow students to invent new story details or that create a parallel story
• ¿Cómo se llama el chico?
• ¿Necesita ir al baño o quiere ir al baño?
• ¿En qué clase está el chico?
• Personal questions of my students relating to themes in the story
• ¿Quiénes necesitan ir al baño ahora?
• ¿Cuál es el mejor baño en nuestra escuela?
• ¿Hiciste tu tarea?
• ¿Vas a lavar mi pizarra?

TPRS is the real meat and potatoes of the learning process. It serves to help students learn (and memorize) the song, but more importantly, it helps to merge new and previous knowledge. Before using TPRS, I found that students could memorize a song perfectly, but few students would know how to draw on phrases from the song in a real life context. It’s as though the lyrics from the song were impossible to access unless I played the song itself.

This is a major point, whether you use TPRS or not. Music is wonderful for memorizing information. It has a way of sticking in our heads like nothing else can. However, when students successfully learn a song, there is a temptation to believe that the phrases in that song are now mastered. Absolutely not. You need to create a bridge to previous knowledge. Otherwise, that knowledge will only remain accessible within the context of that music.

5) Verbally fill in the blanks

After the class becomes familiar with a song, I like to a do an activity that is similar to the fill-in-the-blanks activity, but verbally instead of written.

I start by singing the song a capella. Then, I suddenly stop without warning, and the students immediately sing the very next word in the song. You will have to coach them to provide only one word, rather than the rest of the phrase. The other challenge is to keep the rhythm of the song going. For example:

ME: Maestro, ¿puedo ir al baño, por favor. Yo necesito — (I suddenly stop singing)

STUDENTS: –ir–

ME: –al baño. Por favor. Es una — (I suddenly stop singing)

STUDENTS: –emergencia.

ME: Y ya — (I suddenly stop singing)

STUDENTS: –hice–

ME: mi tarea.

Once again, it’s important that students try to retain the rhythm and melody of the song. They don’t just say “emergencia”. They sing it.

I find this method to be a great way to start class. Without even saying hello, I just start singing, which always gets their attention. I like to review old songs this way, too. Sometimes I don’t want to waste 3-4 minutes to pull out some old song that doesn’t have much to do with the day’s lessons. However, as a quick 30-second activity that manages to get their attention, review old material, and amuse them at the same time, I think it’s a pretty decent way to start class.

5.5) Fill in the Blanks: The Game

A game that is based on the activity above. Two teams. On the chalkboard are 20-30 notecards with all of the vocabulary and/or important phrases from the song. For the song ¿Puedo ir al baño?, there would be the following notecards:

• puedo
• por favor
• Maestra
• esperar
• ir

(and so on…)

One person from each team approaches the chalkboard. Like the activity above, I sing a capella, and stop suddenly. The first person to grab the correct card gets a point for their team.

This activity is rather time-intensive in that you need to create all the cards and find some way to make them stick to the chalkboard (I use magnetic tape), but I find it’s a great activity that reviews the song’s content very well.

6) Karaoke Videos

You are the teacher. You are not cool. By default, any music you introduce is also not cool.

There’s always that one class that rebels against any music you introduce. It’s usually the result of one or two loud-mouth students who try to make the rules in class. Each year, I would try a couple of songs, and it always went so poorly that I would give up with that class and just do other activities. The problem is that there really are students in those classes who are quietly thinking to themselves, “I wish we could hear that song.”

That’s why I created karaoke videos. I wanted an activity where students could study the music in a structured fashion away from the pressure from their peers. Karaoke videos are available to subscribers who purchase full site access.

Late last year, I tested out the karaoke tool for the first time with my students. I told them that they had to learn the song La Dentista using the karaoke tool. Please know, I have attempted to give music homework in the past, but it was rarely successful. Only a few students would actually go home and listen to the song. And those who did would often listen to it in a completely unstructured fashion (while doing other homework, playing videogames, etc).

The karaoke tool changed things completely. A majority of my students showed up to class the next day with the song almost entirely memorized.

The reason the karaoke tool is so useful its flexibility. A student can listen to the song while reading the lyrics in English or Spanish. Or, she can turn off one or both of the subtitle sets to challenge herself. If she really wants a challenge, she can turn off the pre-recorded vocals and supply her own.

But enough with the explanation. If you haven’t seen it yet, go check out a sample karaoke video.

7) Just Sing

Enough already. You’ve done the lyrics sheets with missing words, you’ve let them use karaoke videos, you’ve dissected the song using TPRS questioning. Time to throw caution to the wind and just let them sing.

If you can get the class to enjoy communally singing a song together, then you’ve won the battle. They’ll take it from here.

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