Song of the week (Novice)

Looking for songs?

What to do with songs?

I have transitioned to a new, more efficient format:

  • Monday: I tell my students the story of the artist and/or the song and/or the video clip. Always a story on Monday and then we watch the clip together! Sometimes I do a cultural activity on the video.
  • The rest of the week: I give my students a cloze version of the lyrics (including English translation). Each day they listen to the song once and complete the cloze.
  • Friday: We complete the cloze together, and if they are up for it, we sing our song of the week!

Artists in alphabetical order:

Note: I have not updated all the activities on this blog to the new format. Sorry…

photo credit: oouinouin from Nanterre, France, CC BY 2.0

31 comments

  1. Bonjour…Love this! Do you have a list you can share for French 2?

  2. Cecile, my district is requiring we begin all of our classes with bell work. Frustrated by the limitations of written work, I adapted your song idea. It is going very well and I am so happy I took the time to look at your site. Thank you for sharing. I am going to send you the vocabulary gathering sheets I have developed to encourage reluctant volunteers. Merci!

  3. Do you by chance know how to find French songs organized by grammar points? I’ve been looking everywhere! Thanks in advance, Your themes are great!

  4. This site….. Stromae “Papoutai” (2013) (daily activities and Friday fill_in_the_blanks) does not bring up this song. Is there a way to resend this? Stromae is in the states this weekend, and I was wanting to have this song comme la chanson de la semaine.
    Merci.

  5. Thanks for your AWESOME blog!!! Do you show the you tube videos or just play the audio?

    • Thanks for your question. Yes! I play the video clip everyday while students are working on their daily song tasks. I have updated my post “Chanson de la semaine – How it works” to reflect the answer to your question. Merci! goo.gl/xCk3D4

  6. He Cecile,

    Thank you so much for all these! By the way, have you ever used lyricstraining.com? If not, I recommend checking it out – it’s fantastic!

    I usually do the following with it:

    1. Students watch the song karaoke style – they can sing along easily because it shows which word it’s on, and still has the video in the background. I have it playing each day before class start, so those who arrive early get to enjoy watching/singing along. Here’s an example with “Soulman” by Ben l’Oncle Soul: http://lyricstraining.com/fr/play/soulman/H0ZDLkEUg0#k6!Madamesenora2e

    2. Analyze full lyrics in several ways like you do. You can print them straight from the website, including with a line index. “Soulman” example here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3fcqpYF44d6ZkMwN3lsMUxZWnM/view?usp=sharing

    3. Printed out gap fill (super easy to make) also has the line index option, as well as the option to give a word bank or not. “Soulman” example here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3fcqpYF44d6LTNObm83bEFHLVk/view?usp=sharing

    4. Students do an online exercise that I designed, which is targeted to my learning objectives (so easy to make!). All of my students have accounts, which makes it fun for them to compete to see who can get the highest scores. I like how it boosts the confidence of some of my weakest students, since some of them are top scorers for this! I give them bonus incentives if they do it again later at home. “Soulman” example here: http://lyricstraining.com/fr/play/soulman/H0ZDLkEUg0#mSV/c!Madamesenora2e

    You probably already knew about this, but otherwise, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! It’s also a great way to discover new music. They are adding songs on a daily basis.

    -Amy

  7. Salut! Le lien pour Derniere Danse/activites est casse, et j’aimerais bien l’utiliser avec ma classe. Vous n’auriez pas toujours une copie, ou le temps d’y mettre le bon lien? Merci en avance!

  8. I love this idea and have been doing Song of the week with my French 3’s (using Novice ones now because they are more like French 1s). I have a couple to add- Edith Piaf- Non, je ne regrette rien and La Seine de Vanessa Paradis. I can share via email if anyone is interested.

  9. OMG. I wish I had had this amazing list when I was still in the HS French classroom. Great work. Some of these are favorites of mine, but there are some new ones, too!

    • What level do you teach now? I am now teaching an Elementary group so I am thinking to maybe add a song list for that age group… (It won’t look like song of the week though as I only see them once a week)

  10. Cecile, I haven’t found the Agius video online BUT you can buy a copy on iTunes for 99 cents and have it forever….

  11. Just discovering this now! I’ve struggled with how to make songs interesting-this is so fun and great for vocabulary, too! Merci. I will be starting it tomorrow!!

Leave a Reply