Listening Activity: Lyrics Sort (Où vont les paroles?)

Our focus in class lately is "Pop Culture;" that is we have been talking about and looking at movies, music and culture (dance, art, etc.)  It has been very interesting and engaging for the students!  They have been able to talk about their preferences and opinions in French!  One thing that I noticed we were not doing as often was dedicated, and explicit listening activities.  Music is a great tool with which to do dedicated listening activities!

To continue our look (or listen) to "Soulman" by Ben L'Oncle Soul, I have my students complete 2 listening activities "Comment va la chanson?"
To prepare this activity, you will need to print out the lyrics of the song and cut each line into a strip, and mix them up.  You will need strips with lyrics for each group or student

1.  Give the students the strips, and have them read them in groups.  Before playing the song, have them predict how the song will go by placing the strips in certain order.  (I take a picture of the order for comparison later in the activity.

2. Play the song.  Have the student rearrange the strips as the song plays.

3. Compare their prediction to their ordering after they heard the song.  How did it change? (Sometimes I ask the students to try and sing their version of the song.  It gets pretty funny.)

To make this activity a little shorter (for time), I gave each group one verse or the bridge or chorus.  Students had to arrange the lyrics, and then tell me which part in the song it was.  The students were pretty good at listening and arranging the lyrics.  Some of the students arranged them, asked to hear the song a second time, and sang along to make sure it was write.  After students had the lyrics in order, they started trying to figure out the meaning of the lyrics they had while they waited for other groups.

It was a fantastic activity.  We have been working on this song for 3 classes now, and we haven't even started the culture part!  I'm looking forward to what they find out about the singer in our next lesson.

How do you use music in your class?  Want some more ideas for using music in FSL?  I have a post on using pop music in FSL right this way.

Using Pop Music to Teach French Culture: Introducing Active Listening

One topic that I notice FSL teachers sometime struggle with is ow to teach culture to their students.  This is one topic that I have challenges with-- because I want to make the subject engaging, but teenagers (I teach intermediates) are rarely interested in a history or culture lesson in French.

One way that I work around that is to teach culture through a format that is understood across all cultures, and that's the idea of music. Music is called the "international" language because all cultures have some form of music.  I especially love teaching FSL student about culture through music because I can look at several different cultures (and countries) that make up the Francophone world, and this opens itself to explorations and discussions about diversity.

In order to use music to teach both FSL Language and Culture, I focus on a set of skills to make sure that my students get the most out of the activities and work we do.  The first skill I teach is that of "Active Listening."  Often when we listen to something or someone, it is a passive activity-- we are doing or concentrating on something else.  For my generation (I was born at the very start of the millennial generation in the 80s), listening as a main activity is not something we have had to do.  We have always had the technology to add visual stimuli to whatever we were listening to.  We have always had TV, movies, computers, video games.  More, we grew up in a fast-paced, high- stressed, over-stimulated environment by having access to the technology.  So for kids who like me had and have an overabundance of stimulus in our world, focusing on one thing is considered "boring," or in actually, very challenging for us.  We need practice and training in this skill-- and using music in FSL is a great way to ensure that students focus on the language of the song-- as well as learn about the culture that the song exists in.

When we start looking at "l'ecoute actif" in class, I often give the students instructions for how to sit and act during a listening activity.  I instruct students to sit in their chairs with both feet flat on the ground in front of them.  I explain that this position is natural and comfortable, and will help them to breathe slowly and fully-- which is essential to making sure you don't fidget and move around-- because then the focus comes off listening and onto moving or someone else moving.

After they are sitting comfortably, I ask them to put their hands on their desk, or in their lap.  Last, I ask them to close their eyes-- We grasp for visuals as young people, and have eyes closed takes away that temptation to look around.

Most importantly, I let the students know that this is a challenging skill to learn.  Our culture here in the "West" does not necessarily value listening in this way, so its something that we have to concentrate on and relearn. During this conversation, on of my students who had gone to school in Beijing, noted that when they had to listen to anything, they were taught to listen in this style-- which was really cool for my students to hear!

Then we listen to the text-- in this case it was "Soulman" by Ben L'Oncle Soul.  They could only listen, no lyrics of video to support their listening this time.  It was interesting to see the challenges some of the students had, and it was interesting to see how well some students could focus their listening.  We listened to the song twice, once "passively" and once "actively" and several students noticed that they could pick out more words than when they were listening to music in the background.

Our next step was to think about what hinders our comprehension of a song in French.  To focus our thinking and conversation.  For this activity I used the "Cadrans de dificultés" from the Curriculum.Org website, which is from the new(ish) document "Listening to Learn."  I linked the short PDF above, because its a really good read with some great ideas!  The handout I made for my students was based on an example from the document.

Students listen to a aural text, and rate the difficulty according to vocal, complexity, pace, accent, point and supports in place.  Then, in the box to the right of the rating, they list strategies to help overcome those challenges.

I love this activity because it has the students listen for understanding, but has them problem solve strategies and potential solutions if the are challenged.  I guided the class as we looked at the first column of the page.  This was a very helpful activity!  It made the students' thinking about strategies explicit, and helped me to see if they knew which strategies to use, and when.

Overall, I think that this was an extremely useful lesson for my students.  Even though they complained about the song at first (as teenagers do), it was the first song they asked to listen to on our musique mercredi.

Song: En Classe Je Parle Français- All about that Bass Parody

I have decided, that this year, I want to be the "Weird Al" of French Teachers.

So to kick that off, I wrote some lyrics to go with the song "All About that Bass" that enforce speaking French in class.  Would you like to hear it?


Fun, huh?  I'm teaching in to my classes now, and hopefully they will create a music video in the future for it.  If you want to use it with your classes, feel free!  Here are the lyrics:

If you wanted to sing along to it, you could find a karaoke track on YouTube like this one, but minimize the screen or don't show it, so the students have to use the French lyrics!

If you do use it, and make a totally cool music video, please share it!  I would love to see it!

Using Pop Music in FSL Class

Image by Phil Fung from http://www.philfungstudio.com/store/catalog/pop-music/

I love Pop Music.  It's not the only type of music I love, but it is a pretty great way of learning a language, about a culture and about a generation.  I owe some of my French speaking skills, and my Spanish speaking skills to Pop Music.  Getting a song or lyric in my head is a great way of learning about pronunciation, and sentences, and um.. rhyming.

So, it can't be surprising that I use a healthy amount of Pop Music in my FSL teaching.  I'm specifying Pop Music here as popular music from around la Francophonie-- stuff that French people would listen to on the radio; or buy the CDs of.  I do believe there is a place for FSL music created for children learning FSL, but I really love the authentic learning about language and culture that happens when listening to and studying a piece of Pop Music from a different country.  So, for the most part, I use Pop Music and not FSL created music in class.

There are a few exceptions: I love Mike Ford's Canadiana Folky Pop Music that is targeted for FSL learners and full of Canadian history that he's researched.  But I still consider that Canadian Pop/ Folk music with a cultural focus.  Besides, he was in Moxy Fruvous, so he is practically a pop star.  (And if you haven't heard his albums Canada Needs You, Vols. 1 & 2, and Seaway you're missing out.) The other exception I make is the stuff I wrote for my students, because that was directly related to their own writing, and more of a product of learning than a tool for learning.

So in order to organize the songs that I have used, and will probably use again in my classes, I created a Google Sheet that lists the songs I've used with their links and notes.  It is available here:

As always, please preview any videos before using in your class.  One video on my list, Paradis ou Enfer would be inappropriate to watch in its entirety in class.  He swears at the end, and flashes the middle finger after 1:23 in the video.  Why did I include it?  I cropped the video to 1:20 using TubeChop to avoid the inappropriate sections, so our class could have a discussion on Sierra Leone.  It has some great visuals about the disparity between the rich and poor in that country. So it was worthwhile to use that video for me.  But, you know the rules and culture of your school.  

So, how would I use all these songs in class?  I use music in a few ways, and I thought I could share a few of those strategies with you!  

1. Where was it filmed?/ Où est-ce que l'artiste?

This is a critical thinking activity that I use in class with a music video.  It usually takes a full class to complete, as students will need to watch the video more than one time to answer the questions.  I have used the video A coup de reves by Ben l'Oncle Soul, and the first 1:20 of Paradis ou Enfer by Kaaris.  

1. First we read the questions we will have to answer.  they are usually: 1. Où est-ce que la location du clip?  Pourquoi est-ce que tu penses ça?  2. Quelle est la signification du titre ____?  
2. I have the students watch the video.  
3. Then we make a word bank of what we saw in the video.
4. I give students a few minutes to gather their thought about the questions.  Most will ask to watch the video again.
5. Re-watch the video. Students will point out les indices to help answer the questions.
6. Then we discuss the questions.  We consult maps or other resources to help us find the answer.

My students love figuring this stuff out.  Because the whole discussion happens in French, it is an authentic way of getting them to communicate with each other in French, and to build a curious community which is necessary for any inquiry-type activities.

2. Gimmie!/ Donnez-moi!

This strategy can be used with any song, and a video is not necessary.  Preparation includes making cards with key words from the song on them, cut out.  You need enough sets of cards for the number of groups you have.  For younger grades, focus on less words, and older grades use more words.

1. Hand out the cards to each group of students.
2. Students set the cards out face up between them on a desk or table.
3. Play the song.  While students listen, the try to grab the words they hear before the other members in their group do.
4. Player who got the most words wins.

This is a great activity for introducing new vocabulary, and new words of a song.  Sometime, I have the people act out the words they collected to consolidate comprehension.  Its a fun activity.

3. Rhymes/ Les rîmes

To activate students prior learning, especially around vocabulary, this is a great warm-up.  This can be created in a work sheet, or on a chart paper for students to copy or do orally.

1. Write out the lyrics on a page for each student, or on a chart paper, but omit the words at the end of phrases, or in other places.  The word that is omitted must rhyme with a word in the previous or next line.
2. Before students listen tot he song, have them predict what words will be in the lyrics, by reading the lyrics, and have students fill in the blanks with the words they think are missing.
3. Play the songs.  In a different color have the students write in the real words. 
4. Reflect: How many did they get right? Why did they choose the words they did?

4. Correct this/ Corrigez!

You will need the lyrics posted or copied out for all the students to refer to.  When you write them, replace several of the words in the lyrics with fakes.  This can be as obvious or sneaky as you would like it to be.

1. With the students, read the lyrics (with the errors your put in) together.  Tell the students that there are some errors in the lyrics.  Have them predict which words don't belong.
2. Listen to the song.  Have the students write down the correct words for discussion after the song is over.
3. Discuss which words were wrong.  Did the students know they were wrong? How?

5. How does it go?/ Comment va la chanson?

To prepare this activity, you will need to print out the lyrics of the song and cut each line into a strip, and mix them up.  You will need strips with lyrics for each group or student.

1. Give the students the strips, and have them read them in groups.  Before playing the song, have them predict how the song will go by placing the strips in certain order.  (I take a picture of the order for comparison later in the activity.)
2. Play the song.  Have the student rearrange the strips as the song plays.
3. Compare their prediction to their ordering after they heard the song.  How did it change? (Sometimes I ask the students to try and sing their version of the song.  It gets pretty funny.)

6. Find the picture for the lyrics/ Trouvez l'image des paroles

This activity takes a fair amount of prep.  You will either need to find pictures that go with a song, print out or save stills from a video or movie, or draw simple pictures that reflect lines in the song you are using.  I usually create a sketchnote for the lines, and use those.  You will also need a print out of the lyrics for the students completing the activity.

1. Review the lyrics with the students to ensure comprehension.
2. Have the students review the images available for matching.
3. Listen to the song, and have the student match the images to lines or verses of the song.
4. After they have matched them, reflect: why did they choose that image for that line?

I have a few more ideas, but I haven't tried them yet.  As I do, I will update this post.  What are some ways you use Pop Music in your FSL class?  

Making Music for French Class Again

After I posted about making music for French class, I got some great comments!  Thank you!  One comment asked if I wouldn't mind sharing the "karaoke" version of the song so that other students can try writing their own verses.  No problem!  Great suggestion.  So I have added to the original post the track without my singing, and a copy of my lyrics for you and your students to consult.  Click here to go to the original post.

Making music for French Class

Students reading my song lyrics to understand the format

I love using music in French class.  The kids love it, and I do too.  Its the one thing that can really get me moving.  My grade 5 classes had completed a short unit on Popular French music.  Some of the songs we discovered are some of the kids' favorites!

Lately, I have been writing my own French songs for the kids to listen to in class.  I wrote one song for our project on Movember; we had some male staff in our school participate this year.  The song was part of a webquest that some students completed.  They loved that song!  For the whole week, they walked around singing "je n'aime pas les moustaches."  They even requested it in their class party!

I thought that I would try again by creating a song for our unit "Je me presente!"  I wanted the song to be simple so that the students would understand it, and so that we could turn it into a writing activity.  Here's what I came up with:


And here is the track sans vocals:



 We started listening to it this week, and we read the lyrics. (Click here to download a PDF of the lyrics.)  The students understood the song very quickly (using their strategies!).  They thought it was funny.  Then I told them that they were going to write their own songs, and they were very anxious.  There were a lot of "I can't"s and "too hards" floating around the place.  The students were adamant that they couldn't.  It was quite frustrating, so we moved onto the next activity.  But I knew that we would revisit the song later.

Today, we listened to the song again, and focused on the structure of the lyrics.  The students noticed that there were many repetitions in the song.  We broke down the song into sections: the chorus, and the verses.  The students were asked to write one verse about themselves.  To help them in their writing, they used their notebooks with all their work from the unit "Je me presente."  Each student had written a lot about themselves already.  They just needed to put it in the right format!

Some student lyrics

 Once they got over their initial fear, they started to write some great lyrics!  They were allowed to used my chorus, and format.  That way it would work when they sang it to the instrumental version of my song.  To get them started, I suggested that they write out the chorus, because its less intimidating than a blank page-- that's what I do.  Many of the students said this helped. And they were writing!  They were talking to each other about song ideas, and trying to find rhyming words for their verses!
It was really exciting for me to see them trying to create their songs.  They were very intimidated about the idea, but as they started, they were adding more ideas.  What we will do is finish our verses, and record our song about our class. 

If you were interested in making your own songs, I will tell you how I made mine.  I use the ipad app Garage Band to make and record songs for class.  Its easy to use, and I can hook up my guitar to it, or use the sounds in the program.  The best way to start is to play around with the app, and find a sound you like.  If you have a friend or child that plays music, they can help too!  I make my husband sing on some of the songs if I need a deep voice.  The resulting song is not bad in quality, or sound.  Its great for class, and you can export the song to other platforms if needed.  For my mustache song, I exported it to Moviemaker, to create a video.

More student's lyrics

If you are not the type to write a song, there are other cool ways to incorporate music and writing into your classroom.  This teacher had his students write the lyrics of the popular song "What does the fox say?" in French.  I had a friend who was in a French children's music group, and they had a contest:  Schools submitted their translations of songs, and then the group recorded it and a video starting the students!  I like to use French Pop music in the activity "Milling to the music" or as we call in in French class, "Marchez a la musique."  Universal France has a great You Tube channel for discovering upbeat modern French music.    
Want to take the plunge and try GarageBand?  This is a great tutorial site if you are interested in trying out the app.  If you make up a song, let me know!  I love finding new french music.  And, as always, you are welcome to use my song in class.  It will fulfill my dream of being a pop star ;-)