Song of the week (Novice)

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 responses to “Song of the week (Novice)”

  1. Jeanette Borich Avatar
    Jeanette Borich

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

    1. cecilelaine Avatar

      Jeanette, you can totally use this list for French 2 also! You would simply focus on different aspects/vocab/themes of the songs.

      1. Jeanette Borich Avatar
        Jeanette Borich

        Yes, of course! I really am not a music person, but I can totally see this working for me 🙂

      2. cecilelaine Avatar

        Good for you! That’s the PIRATE spirit!

  2. Brooke Avatar
    Brooke

    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!

    1. cecilelaine Avatar

      Bravo Brooke et merci!

  3. Lindsey Manduano Avatar
    Lindsey Manduano

    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!

    1. Daniela Budulean Avatar
      Daniela Budulean

      This is a very good website, organized by grammar points and by general themes
      http://platea.pntic.mec.es/cvera/hotpot/chansons/

      1. Brooke Avatar
        Brooke

        Thanks for sharing this Daniela. It looks similar to a site the Spanish teachers in my district use. I know they have had success using it in preparation for eventually taking the AP exam.

      2. cecilelaine Avatar

        This is a very good site I have used in the past, I am glad to see they are updating their songs! I found “Je vole” from Louane 🙂

  4. cecilelaine Avatar

    Hi Lindsey, lepointdufle.net is organized by grammar points and sometimes has songs. Also, this site is pretty good for songs organized by grammar points. Check it out and hopefully it is what you have been looking for: http://carmenvera.eoidehellin.es/hotpot/chansons/index.htm

  5. Brooke Avatar

    I thought I would share this site with your followers. I am yet to work with it, but find it nice to know someone else is sharing language acquisition techniques through music.

    http://learn-french-free-with-stories.weebly.com/

    1. cecilelaine Avatar

      merci!

  6. cheryl shank Avatar

    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.

    1. cecilelaine Avatar

      Done, thanks for flagging it!

  7. Corry Avatar
    Corry

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

    1. cecilelaine Avatar

      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

      1. corry Avatar
        corry

        Thanks! 🙂

  8. Amy T Avatar

    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

    1. cecilelaine Avatar

      Merci Amy for sharing your step-by-step user guide to lyricstraining.com!

  9. Erin Parris-Dallia Avatar
    Erin Parris-Dallia

    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!

    1. cecilelaine Avatar

      Merci Erin! Je l’ai réparé 🙂

  10. Chera H Avatar

    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.

    1. cecilelaine Avatar

      I would love to add these songs to the list and give you credit for the suggestion/activities. Please send me what you have at cecileflaine@gmail.com. Thank you!

  11. Jill Wiley Avatar

    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!

    1. cecilelaine Avatar

      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)

  12. mmedeb Avatar

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

  13. krista hudson Avatar
    krista hudson

    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!!

  14. […] for songs for older students? Check this post […]

  15. Campbell Ainsworth Avatar
    Campbell Ainsworth

    Thanks, love these ideas!

  16. […] for songs? Here is my song collections for Novice and for Intermediate […]

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