ESL Activities - Songs 4 All
1. Puzzles: these can be done in big construction paper pieces (whole class) or using small paper strips (pairwork/teamwork). You can scramble: stanzas, lines or words.
2. Fill in the blanks: you can select the words to hide at random or according to your teaching point, eg parts of speech (nouns, verbs).
3. Pictures: you can use flashcards as cues for filling in the blanks activities. Another option is to use pictures for story-telling/writing: give students a picture for each team and ask them to create a side story. Some tips for writing a story are: give the names, occupation and physical description of the characters; describe the place they live in; describe their relationship.
4. Context questions: after the song, you can ask students to answer true/false, comprehension or multiple choice questions to check for main ideas understanding. Your class can also discuss topics related to love songs, such as trust, love, faithfulness etc.
Contributed by Tere García. EFL teacher, trainer and academic consultant in Monterrey, Mexico. Works for Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León and Pearson Education. (teregarcia @ enlace.net.mx).