Chants/Poems1. Robyn Groth Topic: food/manners 2. Steve Schubert
This chant incorporates some authentic material taken from television and teaches students about how sales work in the United States, which may or may not be similar to how sales work their own countries. There is a specific jargon associated with sales and students can use this information in the daily lives. The chorus should be familiar to everyone in the area. I also want students to learn how to pronounce plural forms, know what items are mass nouns, and how to form compound words in the plural. This exercise can also be used to build vocabulary in what could be “home improvement” theme in an ESL lesson. Hopefully, this lesson could help bridge the gap between language learning and culture learning.
3. Anonymous Purpose: To create poem introducing/reinforcing the pronunciation of a difficult combination of letters (o-u-g-h) in English.
Discussion: This poem would be appropriate for adult learners at a low-intermediate level. The teacher however, must be careful to discover if it would be too easy for the students. These words may pose great difficulty to the students, however since most of the words are of high-frequency, the poem may be too easy for some intermediate levels. To extend the activity, you might have the students pull out all the “ough” words and think of other rhymes. The teacher could also tailor this to the different pronunciations and different vocabulary items in the area; e.g., “Scarborough” or “plough” and various name in the British Isles. Finally, this poem includes only a handful of “ough” words; an assignment might be to find other, low-frequency words, and bring in pronunciations and definitions.
4. Heather Caylor
This chant is meant to introduce students to some of the common irregular past tense verb forms. Ideally, this chant would be used with intermediate level students already familiar with some less complex grammatical structures (ie present tense conjugation, pronouns, etc). Students of any age level could potentially use this chant, although it might be helpful for identification purposes (namely the students being able to identify with the ideas in the chant) if they were old enough to know something about transporting themselves from place to place. In addition to the usage of irregular past verb forms, this chant also includes a couple common expletives (“Hey!” and “uh-oh.”), the expression “he won’t get far,” and also, I hope, some humor, which might help increase class comfort.
5. Maria N. Fruit Story-telling: Incorporating Literature in the ESL Classroom • Exercise:
• Course: Writing
“A Taste of Life”
6. Anna Schlumbohm
This chant is intended for university students at a mid to low intermediate level. The main focus of the chant is to practice asking questions, mainly using the question words (who, what, where, when, why, how) of English, and the auxiliary question words (do, will, can). Some expressions to talk about before reading the poem:
Grammar questions for the students after reading the poem:
Content questions:
The students can use this poem to facilitate a discussion about times when they were late or overslept, how they felt, what the consequences were, etc. Also, the teacher can touch on things like panic, irony, the double meaning of the title, and maybe even the cultural icon of the pop tart. Also, for a follow up exercise, have the students write out their own questions using each of the question words they saw in the poem. 7. Eileen Cannon This song is intended for beginning students, or possibly higher level students if they are in a pronunciation class. It can be used at the beginning or end of a unit focusing on fourteen English vowel sounds: /I/, /i/, /U/, /u/, /æ/. /e/. /?/ (monophthongs), and /aI/, /au/, eI/, /ou/, (diphthongs). Verses can be chosen based on students’ specific needs and/or their first language, which might necessitate practice on some vowel contrasts more than others. The verses do not fit together as a coherent story, so they can be reordered or used in isolation. The theme of Verse One is “A bad day,” Verse Two focuses on talking about food and personal eating preferences. Verse Three describes a travel problem, and Verses Four and Five are about shopping. Each verse features a particular vowel contrast to practice, with the first line having several instances of, for example, /æ/, and the second line having several instances of /e/ (Verse One). The underlined words contain the featured sound. One advantage of this model is that students can see the various spellings that may correspond to one or more English vowel sounds. The vocabulary that would have to be taught includes “with ease,” “(to be) a breeze,” “Twix” (brand name), “monophthong,” and “diphthong.” Note that not all vowel sounds are featured in the song, but other verses could be added as needed. This activity can be used with adult students or with children. To the tune of America the Beautiful:
8. Michael Bortscheller
This song could be useful for intermediate students learning when actions occur relative to one another in the past. It would also be helpful for advanced students who are reviewing the concept. Another potentially helpful song is Changes also by Phil Ochs, which includes uses of the present and future tenses.
9. Todd Eichmann Drama (Soap Opera) I decided to make a dramatic soap opera dialogue because I believe students
tend to remember concepts and patterns better if they occur in a humorous
environment. This dialogue is not meant to reflect natural dialogue, but
most of the conversation is very similar to real spoken English. It is
hoped that the students will be able to transfer these phrases with the
correct verb forms to other conversational settings.
10. Megan Allen
This jazz chant would be appropriate for high beginner students; it makes use of content questions and irregular past tense verbs. While it could be used to introduce either of those grammar points, it would probably be better used after the students are familiar with them. This chant is most appropriate for university students, because of the specific forms of transportation used. It could easily be altered for use with younger students, or non-student adults. This chant could be used to introduce or review transportation grammar, and it could also facilitate conversation about what to do when you’re late to class. It could also lead to a student created dialogues about discussing tardiness with a teacher.
11. Maria Lopez Alfonso The topic of this class is the construction of the imperative in English and the different pronouns in English, especially possessive and object pronouns. This class is meant for low level students. In the first place, the instructor should play the song. After that, the instructor will hand out the lyrics of the song, in the way that it is showed here. The instructor will read through the song and ask the students for words that they do not understand. After clearing every doubt, the instructor will play the song again, but this time the students need to fill in the blanks with the words they hear. The instructor should play the song at least two times, to make sure that the students have time to record the information. After this, the class will discuss the words that go in every blank. This would be the moment to talk about the imperative and also to talk about the pronouns. I would suggest writing on the board a list of the possessive pronouns and a list of the object pronouns, to clarify any doubts. The end of the class will be playing the song again, now that the students have the lyrics complete, and it would be good if the students join and sing the song, which would help them with their pronunciation. MR. SANDMAN, BRING ME A DREAM Mr. Sandman, a dream (Bring me) Mr. Sandman, a dream. (Bring me) Don’t have nobody to call own (My)
12. Tonya Mutel Drama in class Preparation: Task: each group create three or four lines of their own, developing the idea of the poem (the students can imitate the style of the poem or they can be asked to use a particular structure, etc.). The purpose of the exercise doesn’t have to be to produce a paraphrased variant of the poem, but to relate to the central idea. Work in groups: After working out the lines, the group discusses the ideas its members have produced, then the best lines are selected to create a new poem. Each group gets to have a poem of its own. The poems are read aloud after they are ready. Also, the teacher can ask the groups to write their poems down, then cut them (poems) into separate lines and mix the strips of paper. Then, each group (bigger groups can be formed) is offered to draw out the same number of the strips. The students can be asked to write a new poem from what they have, sorting out and adding lines, or develop the opposite idea, etc. Examples of poems:
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