truepoetsociety

Une version illustrée assez bien chantée ICI.

Une version pour les enfants de qualité médiocre musicalement mais bien illustré dans le clip ICI.

La meilleure version chantée par des enfants à écouter mais qq erreurs de script ICI.

With the lyrics here.

The karaoke here.

It’s also good for getting students to really listen to each other and to take notes or just for some fun.

Preparation

• The activity is based around a short video clip of a crime. Any crime scene will do. The video doesn’t even have to be in English as you can do it with the sound off.

Procedure

• You should split the class into two groups and tell one half that they are going to be the police and they are going to interview the witness to a crime. Their task is to work together with the other police and prepare questions that they will ask the witness.

• Tell the other half of the class that they are going to witness a crime. You’ll need to have the classroom set up so that only the ‘witnesses’ can see the TV screen. If you trust your students enough you could actually send ‘the police’ out of the class or to another classroom, to work on their questions while the witnesses watch the crime.

• When the crime scene video clip has been played, put the students into pairs so that each of the police is with a witness. The police should then interview the witness and get as much information as possible about the crime.

• Make sure that the police take notes as they listen. If you have artistic students you could also get them to work together on a picture of the criminal or a diagram of the crime-scene reconstruction.

• To add an element of motivation you could also give a prize to the most accurate notes.

If you have a video that is in English you can play it with the sound on and, for higher levels, even extend the focus to reported speech: ‘He told everyone to put up their hands.’

Technology-free crime scene

Preparation

• If you don’t have access to a video / TV you can do a ‘low-tech’ version of this activity by cutting pictures out of a magazine. Be sure to cut out enough for half the class to each have a picture and have a few extras to spare.

Procedure

• Put the students into pairs, one policeman and one witness, and have the witness from each pair come to the front of the class.

• Give each one a picture of a person to look at. Tell them that the person in the picture is a criminal. They shouldn’t let anyone else see the picture.

• Once they’ve had a couple of minutes to look at the picture, take all the pictures back and then send the witnesses back to their seats.

• Their partner, the policeman, then has to ask questions and make notes so that they build up some idea of what the person in the picture looks like.

• Once they have their description, put all the pictures on the floor at the front of the class and get the policemen to come to the front of the class and see if they can find the picture that the witness described.

• You should make sure that the witnesses remain silent until all the policemen have ‘arrested’ the picture of their choice.

• You can then try this again reversing the roles this time. This gives the students a chance to learn from any mistakes they may have made the first time round.

You can make the activity more difficult by selecting pictures of people who look more similar (same age / sex etc.) or easier by having a greater range of people.

This activity can also be a very useful lead into discussions or vocabulary work on crime or description.

Target language: Past continuous

1. Write on board: Mrs. McDonald was found dead in her house on Tuesday at eight in the morning. You have to find who killed her and why.

2. Explain to students they are going to prepare a play and perform it (split them in 2 or 3 groups) while one group performs the other watches them. The audience has to guess who the murderer is. (Here you have 2 options, depending on the level, although it works well with pre-intermediate students too.)

3. Preparation: give students enough time to prepare this and help them at this stage, if necessary, especially using the past continuous, e.g. what were you doing yesterday at 7 o’clock etc. (Don’t give them any help during the performance.)

• Option (a) Tell the students they are free to invent a story about why she is dead, and how; they can choose their own personalities and alibis, and decide who will be the inspector as he or she has to prepare a few questions to ask the suspects. They work in groups and they decide who the murderer is amongst themselves. If you have a class of say 8 or 10, divide them in two groups so that they don’t know what the other group is planning. This is important when they are going to perform, as the other group who’s watching them has to guess who the murderer is just before the end. They can also ask additional questions and for clarification to the performers.

• (b) or you can give them a few suggestions saying she was very rich, or famous, or whatever comes to your mind. Write on the board a few relatives or friends e.g. her niece, her brother-in-law, her sister, husband, neighbour etc. Write on the board some useful questions e.g. « what were you doing at ….? where were you staying? etc. They prepare the play, but still let them decide who’s who.

4. When they are ready, the students perform while the other group or groups watch and listen carefully to decide who the murderer is.

5. Just before the end of the play the performing group stops and asks their audience who they think the murderer is, inviting them to ask any additional questions or for clarification. (At the end I always start clapping for the others to do the same and thank them for their performance.)

6. If the audience guesses right, give them points or a round of applause.

7. Change performers and repeat from point 3.

8. Of course, teachers can use their own imagination or better still get the learners to invent the characters and alibis.

My personal comment: I always ask for feedback, up to now they have always really enjoyed it. I’m always amazed at their imagination, I think the best one was when one group had decided it was suicide! Enjoy and good luck!

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/find-murderer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wsqtg-Rs7Y

How to use songs in classroom. Ideas here.

Songs can be exploited in many ways.

1. The cloze or gap fill

This is the most familiar and popular activity, and for that reason is probably overused. However, there are many important things to bear in mind when using them, and there are many different ways to use them.

• Have a point, be it vocabulary or prepositions or whatever.

• Don’t cloze 3 or more in a row.

• For lower levels: give the first letter, miss out word endings, give dashes for letters, or give a glossary.

• Give vocabulary clues or synonyms for the missing words.

• Get students to work in pairs to predict words before you play the tape.

• Insert extra words which students then cross out as they listen.

• Change the words, as in « Careful Shouts » or « Countless Whiskies. »

• Cloze unstressed, then stressed words in the same song, and have students discuss why one is easier than the other.

• Cloze several words in a row and Ss have to guess not only form (adj., adv., n., vb, prep.) but words, rhythm and rhyme.

2. A-B activities

Students match beginnings and ends of lines, such as . »Another Day in Paradise » (simple) or « Private Investigations » & « If Only… » (more complicated).

3. Mixed-up activities

Generally, have the lines of the song on separate strips of paper.

• Students put down strips as they hear them.

• Mixed-up lines/verses.

• Students try to organize in advance (use prompts).

4. Dictation

• Wall dictation

• Self-dictation (whole song blanked)

• Part Dictation

5. Translation

• Class chooses a song from their own language.

• Groups translate.

• Check with other groups.

• Combine the best. Then work on rhyme and rhythm.

6. Jigsaw-listening

• Groups listen to different songs with the same (Luka/Behind the Wall) or different themes (Easy Street/Money for Nothing) and peer teach vocabulary, compare.

7. Composing

Listen to the song.

• Students add verses of their own. Good songs for this are, « Imagine » & « Man Gave Names To All The Animals » by Bob Dylan.

• Students finish the line in each verse, then listen to check.

• In groups, students then write their own verse.

8. Writing

Put random words from the song on the board. Students try and write the « tale of the song. »

• Students paraphrase the song
• Cut the song in half. Students predict the other half.

9. Pronunciation

• He’s got the whole world… /h/ sound

• Do I speak double Dutch to a real double duchess… /d/ sound

10. Vocabulary

• Miming verbs

• Dictionary work

• Matching

11. Listening

• Give Ss word list. Ss number as they hear them.

• Sound discrimination, e.g. tempted/tended

12. Posters

Arrange lyrics and pictures, or just lyrics, or translate.

Top 10 des chansons pour apprendre l’anglais.

Easy song quizzes here.

Song quizzes for intermediate here.