One of my goals as a language teacher is to get students interested in exploring resources outside of class. That’s why I designed Independent Exploration. In addition to assigning homework where students must find something fun to do from my Independent Exploration library, I also like to take class time sometimes to introduce resources. Recently I conducted two lessons during which students sampled some music videos from francophone artists and then wrote and spoke their opinions about them in French. All of the music came from my music library in Independent Exploration. I selected five songs from various parts of the francophone world, some recent, some not. In case you’re wondering how I find new and relevant music, there are a number of artists I follow, but a great resource lately has been the Manie Musicale library. Even if you don’t participate in Manie Musicale (which, sadly, I have not yet, but would like to in the future), their incredibly well-organized library of artists from around the world is a great place to find new music to share with your students. An added bonus is that it has all been vetted by French teachers, so it is school appropriate. Below is the playlist of songs we listened to on one of the days. Email subscribers, click here to watch the videos.
Before we watched each video, we learned a little bit about the artist. Below is a Nearpod with some biographical information, as well as the artist’s country on a map. Email subscribers, click here to access the Nearpod.
As the students watched the videos, I asked them to describe the music in French on a provided sheet and check off whether they liked it or not. After we watched all the videos, students told their neighbors which music they liked best and why and voted for their favorite artist. Below is the sheet they filled in. Click here to access the document.
The students really got into this. After hearing one of the songs, a student exclaimed, “This one’s going on the playlist!” I reminded students that all of these songs and others were available to listen to in the Independent Exploration library, which they all have access to on our school’s learning management system.
This is a simple way to introduce students to new music while keeping in the target language and hopefully inspiring them to listen at home. What ways have you used authentic music in your class?
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