Take advantage of the power of music and use it in your ESL classes.

We’ve created this page to provide resources, lessons, and ideas on teaching with music. There are printable materials for classroom use, lessons, lyrics, and ideas. We also have two discussion forums and links to other web sites about music. Get ready to jam.

Low Prep Ideas for Using Music in the ESL Classroom

Lessons

• Conversation Question Cards: Music - A conversation card set on music. For suggestions on how to use these cards, take a look at Ideas for Using Conversation Card Sets.
• Musical Impressions - You bring four songs to class and copies of this classroom handout. Then divide the students into groups of three, and monitor as they engage in meaningful discussion. For use with high-beginner and low-intermediate students.
• ESL Scavenger Hunt: Music - This is an Internet scavenger hunt intermediate and advanced students can do in pairs or individually. This lesson will take 45-60 minutes. To use this scavenger hunt, print the page and review the tasks with your students before bringing them to the computer lab. Once there, students can come directly to this site. (Clicking on the links from this site will result in a new window opening in their browsers.) This scavenger hunt will teach students about the International Lyrics Server, MIDI karakoe, on-line music quizzes, and more. Please note, the MIDI karakoe site requires QuickTime. If your computers are not equipped with QuickTime, I recommend skipping this site rather than having students download the program.
• The All Music Guide - This Internet worksheet introduces students to the extensive on-line music resource called the All Music Guide.

Lyrics

Here are the lyrics to some songs you might want to use in your class!

• The Beach Boys: Wouldn't It Be Nice
• Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven
• The Eagles: Hotel California
• Madonna: Holiday
• 4 Non Blondes: What's Up?
• Elvis Presley: Suspicious Minds
• Guns 'N Roses: November Rain
• U2: One

Classroom Handouts

The following printable handouts each focus on specific songs. (Okay, I'm a U2 fan.) Designed for use in small groups, each lesson includes pre-listening discussion questions, a vocabulary exercise, a listening fill-in, and discussion questions. Though these lessons were designed for high-intermediate listening/speaking classes, they could easily be adapted for other skills or levels.

• U2: One
• U2: Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World