Malaysian Teachers & Education

Songs & Pedagogic Ideas by Bibi Baxter for Music Fans, Teachers & Students of English 

Here is an activity that I designed and used with my beginner level university prep school students. Before listening to the song, we talked about personalities, boarded some adjectives, and suggeted some opposites of these adjectives. Then I gave out the handouts and we went over the words together and talked about the new vocabulary together. I explained the students that they are going to listen the song, and try to fill in the blanks using the words on the right. It is important to tell the students that these words are not the opposites or antonyms of the adjectives given in the song, but there are just contradictions or some kind of relationship between them. The students also choose from the multile choice options or guess what the singer is going to say before listening to the song. Before listening to the song, I asked the students to work in pairs or small group and try to fill in blanks. As a discussion, the students were told to justify their choices. There are also some useful spoken English expressions and collocations in the song such as 'giving a high five, flicking a cigarette' which you might focus on after listening to the song. As a post-listening activity, the students can be asked to write their own versions of the song, describing their own personalities.

1. What is your most obsessive thought? 2. Where is your favorite place in the world, and why? 3. What's the one thing your parents don't understand about you? 4. What have you learned that nobody taught you? 5. What is your earliest, most vivid memory? 6. If you have experienced a moment of sudden faith or loss of faith, what prompted it? 7. If you could take back one thing you have done, what would it be? 8. What is your greatest talent or accomplishment? 9. What is the most joyful moment you have experienced? 10. What is the most painful moment you have experienced? 11. What question would you ask God? 12. Which super power would you choose - and what would you do with it? 13. If you could make one rule about life, what would it be? 14. How would you define time? 15. What is it about some people that makes you immediately like - or dislike - them? 16. If you could be an animal, what animal would you be? 17. If you could have a conversation with a historical figure, who would it be? 18. If you could go back in time, where would you go? What would you do? 19. What do you know, that no one else knows? 20. If you had an extra hour in each day, what would you do with it?

feeling creatively stuck? Well, this is the unsticking place. You'll find a new visual or random-words inspiration every single day just for artists, writers, and the terminally creative. Once you've scared away The Block, post your work in the comments or leave a link for us to visit. Let's start a creative pandemic

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