For episode 6 of my Growing with Proficiency podcast, I invited Bertha Delgadillo to join me to discuss music in our World Language Classrooms. Bertha is also a Spanish language teacher, and you can learn more about her by listening to episode 6 of the podcast. Music is such a powerful resource to use in our classrooms because you can use it in so many ways! Bertha and I discussed ways that we use it in our classrooms. She also shared links and resources on where to find music to use, and you’ll find those below and in the show notes of podcast episode 6 HERE. So, why is music important and what are some activities you can use in your World Language classroom?
Why Use Music In Our Classrooms?
It Connects Each Of Us To The Other
Music brings people together. It brings about emotions and reminds us of experiences. Your students can share their experiences with their peers. They can also have new experiences by participating in song activities in the classroom.
Connects Learners To The Target Culture
Students can experience different cultures through music, and learn about new countries. They also learn about new artists and the stories behind the lyrics. By learning about the culture of the music, they learn about the people of that country which they may not even know existed.
Music Is Flexible
Music in your classroom also allows you to create daily lessons or whole units about a specific song. Music is an experience, and we should use it to create intentional experiences for our students. There are so many activities you can do. These include individual experiences and whole group experiences. Bertha shared some of her favorite activities with me on the podcast. Some of these you can do tomorrow in your own class!
Activities Using Music
Social Emotional Activity
This activity has students acknowledge their feelings and help them become self-aware of them. Bertha has her students listen to a song with their eyes shut. Then they rate the song on their paper and write how it makes them feel while listening to it. At the end of the unit, she has them reevaluate how the song makes them feel and see if it’s different than before.
Word Clouds
Bertha shares on the podcast how she creates word clouds. Once created, each student uses it during a song to identify words that they hear while the song is playing. This is a good ear training activity. Use a plastic sleeve, and they can be reused for different classes.
TPR With Music
TPR may sound difficult, but it’s not. Basically, you connect a word with a gesture. Bertha likes to use 5 – 10 words for each song. You preload certain vocabulary to your students before you introduce a song. If you aren’t very creative, have your students create a gesture for the words. Then, play the song and have your students use the gesture whenever they hear the appropriate word. These are also great for Brain Breaks! I didn’t think it would work with high school students, but they love it! This year, I use it more than I have in the past.
Language Guided Output
Bertha designed a template for her students to use for writing a reaction or review of a song. The really fun part of this is that it’s a tweet template, and the students love it!
More Tips For Using Music
Don’t complicate music in your classroom. Keep it simple! All of the activities mentioned can be adapted for your different levels of students. Another activity that Bertha and I discussed is Picture Talk. Bring a picture into the classroom to show your students that relates to the song you chose. This could be a picture of the artist, their family, or the country they are from. You can also extend it by talking about their clothing or the story of the picture itself and how it relates to the song.
Don’t forget to listen to episode 6 where Bertha and I discuss in more detail these activities. Then, subscribe to the podcast so you’ll never miss an episode!
To learn more about the podcast, head to this blog.
Where To Find Good Music?
Radio Garden: Listen to radios around the world
Other Resources
Music to My Ears Course by La Maestra Loca & Profe Delgadillo
Music Database shared by Jody Soberon at the IFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching Facebook Group
Try A Song Sequence!
Somos los Prietos Freebie
Señor Ashby Music Resources
4 Responses
Thank you for your podcast.
I love your topics, and your quality.
Saving me in the CI journey. Acquisition teaching started out with a bang, but then the same activities started to get repetitive and I hit a wall. Your ideas help me break through this.
Thank you!
Andrew Maurer
Thank you Claudia! Another powerful podcast full of valuable ideas easy to put into practice. Both of you are such generous teachers ! I wanted to introduce music in my lessons but did not want to do just the usual fill in the gaps task but now with Bertha’s ideas I am more than ready to try something new and something that will be more meaningful for my students! A million thanks and looking forward to listening all your podcasts!!