Tag: Sandra Heyer

Hitting the Right Note:
Extending the Theme of Your Song Activity #5

Posted on | by Pearson

 

2013_Heyer_SandraSandra Heyer

One way to extend the lessons in True Stories Behind the Songs and More True Stories Behind the Songs is to follow up each unit with a supplemental song that connects to the theme of the unit, plus an activity to go with the supplemental song. Each month I’ll share a song-based activity that has worked well with my beginning and high-beginning students. This month, let’s look at some examples of song choices and Writing New Song Lyrics.

How to Write New Song Lyrics in 4 Easy Steps:
Step 1: Choose a song that is easy to sing and copy the lyrics from the Internet.
Step 2: Students listen to the song while reading the lyrics.
Step 3: Working individually, in small groups, or as a class, students personalize the lyrics to fit their own experiences, replacing some words in the song with new words, or replacing an entire verse with a new verse.
Step 4: The class sings the song with the new lyrics. Continue reading →

Hitting the Right Note:
Extending the Theme of Your Song Activity #4

Posted on | by Pearson

2013_Heyer_Sandra Sandra Heyer

One way to extend the lessons in True Stories Behind the Songs and More True Stories Behind the Songs is to follow up each unit with a supplemental song that connects to the theme of the unit, plus an activity to go with the supplemental song. Each month I’ll share a song-based activity that has worked well with my beginning and high-beginning students.

This month, let’s look at some examples of song choices and building a lesson around a repeated phrase. Continue reading →

Hitting the Right Note:
Extending the Theme of Your Song – Practice Activity #3

Posted on | by Pearson

2013_Heyer_SandraSandra Heyer

One way to extend the lessons in True Stories Behind the Songs and More True Stories Behind the Songs is to follow up each song with an activity based on the theme of the unit. Each month I’ll share a song-based activity that has worked well with my beginning and high-beginning students. This month, let’s look at some examples of song choices and personalizing the theme of a song with an activity called Draw-Write-Share.

Many popular songs have themes that are universal: love, resilience, friendship, and family, to name just a few. So it’s easy to see how a song can set the stage for a meaningful class discussion. What is perhaps not so easy is finding a way to structure the discussion for beginning students. A speaking activity that gives your students the opportunity to plan—in contrast to a spontaneous discussion–is generally better suited to the beginning level; it makes it more likely that every student will speak. (In The Art of Teaching Speaking Ken Folse makes a strong case for incorporating a “planning phase” into discussions at every level to ensure more successful student output.) One of my favorite discussion activities for beginners, Draw-Write-Share, has a two-part planning phase. Continue reading →

Hitting the Right Note:
Extending the Theme of Your Song
[Song-Based Activity #2]

Posted on | by Pearson

2013_Heyer_SandraSandra Heyer 

One way to extend the lessons in True Stories Behind the Songs and More True Stories Behind the Songs is to follow up each unit with a supplemental song that connects to the theme of the unit, plus an activity to go with the supplemental song. Each month I’ll share a song-based activity that has worked well with my beginning and high-beginning students.

This month, let’s look at some examples of song choices and the summarizing exercise. Just as a story can be summarized, so can song lyrics – as long as the song tells a story. Once the summary is complete, it can become the basis of further spin-off activities. Continue reading →

Hitting the Right Note:
Extending the Theme of Your Song

Posted on | by Pearson
Author of the popular True Stories seriesSandra Heyer

One way to extend the lessons in True Stories Behind the Songs and More True Stories Behind the Songs is to follow up each unit with a supplemental song that connects to the theme of the unit, plus an activity to go with the supplemental song. Each month I’ll share a song-based activity that has worked well with my beginning and high-beginning students.

This month, let’s look at some examples of song choices and the targeted cloze exercise. Continue reading →