full text in doc format here
full song in mp3 format here
Possibly one hour for steps 1 to 4; step 5 as homework; 1 more hour for steps 6 to 8 (or longer, depending on the exercises in step 8)
"Can you name the four seasons?" (Write them on the board
as they come, putting SPRING in the center) "Which season is your favorite?
Why?" (just a couple of minutes, then erase everything but SPRING.)
"What words come to your mind when you think of spring?"
Write BRAINSTORMING on board (with a thoughtful smiley, thinking "words
words words" !). Write down everything that comes from the students. A
sketchy tree on the board could be handy, to show the "leaves" and
"sprouts" or "sap" or whatever they might think of...
Transition : "is it a happy season? ... Let's work on that, let's
see a few words that deal with being happy or sad."
Put 2 smileys on the board [ :-) and :-( ] and add URL of next exercise.
Check it out here.
Make sure the students write everything down, in 2 columns... You could also
ask them to write (and then say to the group) a couple of sentences using the
new words.
First work on the intro music (could be played on a classroom cassette or CD
player obviously).
MP3 version available here.
"What sort of music is this? What feelings does it convey? What might
the song be about?"
Then listen to the first part of the song, with comprehension questions through these 2 exercises : Quiz and MCQ
Instructions : "Some words in the song have disappeared. Listen carefully
to this part, and try to imagine what the singer is singing. Write your ideas
in your copybooks, and then report to the class."
See this here.
"Now try to imagine the rest of the song (you should write at least
10 verses).
To help you, here are some rhymes that are actually present in the song (but
you can imagine others if you prefer)" :
notoriety / anxiety /
society / impiety /
propriety / variety /
games / names /
pigeon / religion /
If the (home) assignment was similar to point 5. above, then students should be able to start with this Cloze exercise (without even listening to the song).
Then there's a couple more activities, associated with listening : Mixed Lyrics 1, Mixed Lyrics 2, and Cloze again.
There's the subtitled version (well, IF it works properly, that is...;-) to let students finally hear everything. It would also be nice for them to get the full text (doc format)
"From concise notes (see them here in plain Text format), write TL's biography."
(It might be relevant first to remind the students of the role of the passive voice, which will be very useful here.) Think also of giving them a short wordbank including useful chronological linkwords : First, At first, Then, Later, Later on, Eventually...
Created by Lucy George, Frédéric Chotard and
Gilles Siche
March 2004