“Profe Delgadillo play La bicicleta,” “No, play Corazon by Maluma,”  “Guess what? Tutu was played at the gym yesterday,” or “What is the name of this song so I can add it to my Spanish playlist?” All of these phrases are music to my ears (of the best kind of music when said to me in the target language) and I hear these phrases at least twice a week. Now, I am not an expert at anything, but one thing I know is that my students crave music. Music is part of everyone’s identity. It has the power to connect us. Music in the classroom, in my humble opinion, is part of a win-win acquisition plan.

Not only is music one of the easiest  authentic resources to incorporate into our classrooms, music also allows for organic differentiation in the classroom, strengthens our students’ connections within our classroom, and it amplifies students’ connection to the Spanish speaking world.

From this point forward, I want to emphasize that I am just sharing what has worked for me in my classroom with my students, and all of my statements are based on my experience of what has worked and what hasn’t worked. There is no right or wrong answer to teaching practices,  and yes there is research that is important to read (it can actually save you headaches) , but ultimately our students must guide our decisions.

The following shows the results of a survey I  conducted with the opinions of 47 students. This really put into perspective that music was worth a conscious effort to integrate in my class each week.  

FAQs

How often do you introduce a new song?

I teach high school, so I  like to introduce one song each week. This way, we can add to the collection each week and soon enough have a decent playlist.

My students know that every Wednesday is Música Miércoles. I first learned about integrating music from Allison Weinhold’s Mis Clases Locas blog post about four years ago. In fact, she talked beautifully about music in the WL classroom in a recent podcast episode for Ashley Uyaguari’s Inspired Proficiency Podcast and so did Kara Jacobs in an episode back in November of 2018.

Inspired by Allison’s suggestions, my students just know Música Miércoles is coming! And when it doesn’t, they ask for it.

How do you select the music?

To be honest, this varies. Sometimes, we use it to break the routine of a thematic unit, novel, etc. In occasions, I select it because it is catchy and an instant hit like this week’s Tutu by Camilo and Pedro Capo.  Other times, I find songs that are relevant to the novels we are reading or a theme were are using to acquire language. Additionally, I may want to do a different music style that otherwise I would not highlight, so I find very different songs. In the past, I have even selected songs to expose myself and my students to a different style of music or new artist. When this happens, I tell my students that because I want to set the example.

We must remember that our students are not there only to learn about our passion for (in my case) salsa and bachata or Marc Anthony (although don’t get me wrong, I share that with them), but I find it important to show them every genre possible during their time with me because every Spanish speaking country has its own beautiful and unique beat. We have listened from Los Tigres del Norte all the way to Diego El Cigala. Obviously, they will feel more drawn to beats that are similar to what they already listen to such as Ozuna or Shakira, but you will be surprised that some of them will pick up a new music preference along the way.

When selecting music, I find that there are some questions you must ask yourself: Are parts of  this song at my students’ level? Notice, I said “parts of this song.”  As a teacher who uses comprehensible input in the classroom, I had a hard time integrating songs at the beginning, and I was doing it wrong (at least, for my students. Remember there is no right or wrong way, there is only wrong for the particular students we each teach). I was trying to break down the entire song for my students. Can you imagine? Which leads me to the next question…What parts do I really want to encourage them to sing? Please keep in mind that you don’t have to break down the entire song. In fact, most students won’t enjoy that at all so don’t feel pressured to do it. One of ACTFL’s core practices is to “Guide Learners Through Interpreting Authentic Resources,” and music is one of the simplest ways to do this.

How do you introduce the song?

I like to spotlight the artists. Normally, I prepare a very simple slide (just one slide per artist). I try to put it in very comprehensible language. I like to do this so that the students can start making connections, and believe me, they do! For example, I have them guess where the artists are from at the beginning. In the last three weeks, our artists have all been from Colombia by mere coincidence, but students made that connection and brought it to my attention.

In general, I spend about 5 minutes talking about the artist and circling in the target languages. If the opportunity lends itself, I create Personalized Questions Answers to connect the students to the artist in some way or I might have them make predictions about the song by looking at a still image of it.  I find these activities helpful in inviting the students to discover a new music video. Then, we are ready to move on to the song.

What activities do you have the students complete during the song?

To be honest, the first time we just watch the music video, I simply allow them to enjoy the video and rhythm of song. I have been doing a lot more of this lately. My students seem to enjoy the song even more when we limit ourselves to one – three song highly engaging activities, and not more.

I used to clip chat the video, but personally I rather not clip chat music videos unless there is a lot powerful cultural content behind it as it is the case of Si Tu La Ves by Nicky Jam Ft. Wisin. There is actually a very complete clip chat free unit on TPT for this song, and I have been using that unit for three years when we are learning about Ecuador. You can also create additional activities for the song to check comprehension. Here is an example of activities I created for Si Tu La Ves. Again, I don’t do as many of these activities anymore, but that is not to say that they don’t have any value. Some classes must have pencil to paper activities and I  recognize that.

Other activities you can do are so many. It helps  tremendously if there is already material created for a particular song on Teachers Pay Teachers. Some of my favorite sellers for music products are Kristy Placido, Martina Bex, Carrie Toth, Kara Jacobs, and of course, Mis Clases Locas.

Please remember, that you don’t have to do a ton of activities with the song or go purchase something from TPT. You can do música miércoles for 15 – 30 minutes, an entire lesson, or a week’s unit. It is up to you and your student buy in. Only focus on the importance of being consistent with the music.

Here are six of my top no prep – minimum prep high engagement tips & activities:

1. Remember how I said don’t feel obligated to teach the entire song? Just show them a YouTube video of the lyrics in English and Spanish, just so they know what they are going to be singing to.  Now they know what the song is about. Only break down the chorus or the parts that you really want students to acquire. They can complete a cloze activity (or not) depending on how much time  you want to invest. I like to do an easy cloze activity so they can keep that lyric sheet.
2. Sing the chorus or the entire song (if it is easy) with them line by line and then sing it altogether! That is right, you are the lead singer in this game. Don’t be shy! If  you want the students to buy in and participate, you must put yourself in a vulnerable position and they will meet you half way. I am not good a singing but I can carry a tune. I tell my students that I can’t sing, and if I am singing with my voice acapella, they are singing with me. The minimum requirement in my class is to lip sing. TIP: Sometimes if I am having a hard time with a tune, I use my phone’s iTunes and play the song line straight from there, pause it, and then let the students sing it (I sing it with them). I may do this line by line until we go over the part of the song I want them to master.
3.  Once you have sung with your students, give them a brain break and have the play musical chairs. Project the song with the lyrics in the target language. The requirement is that they all sing (or lip sing) during the game. This provides opportunity for repetition.
4. I got this idea from the marvelous Annabelle Williamson aka La Maestra Loca. Requires a bit  of prep. Select up to 20 key words from the song and create a word cloud. Pair up students, play the song, and have students race each other to touch the word they hear with their finger (kind of like Fly Swatter). It is a great listening activity, maybe not so interpretive, but very valuable because it helps students recognize TL words very fast. In real life, native speakers talk very fast sometimes, so this activity is great training.
5. Another wonderful idea from Annabelle is to  type the song in a large font. Cut it into smaller sentence chunks, and have the students (in groups of 3-4) listen to the song in the background (I also project the lyrics) so that they can sort the song lyrics together.
6. In groups (2-4), give them 5-10 minutes to create an interpretive dance of the chorus or part of the song. This is an interpretive activity they enjoy a lot. They can submit via airdrop, Flipgrid, or perform for the class if they are comfortable.

Bonus activity: A great extra credit opportunity is to give the students an opportunity to perform the song for the class or via a video. You can ask the student for permission to share the video in front of the class if you feel the class will respond in a positive way towards the student. This will build that student’s self-esteem.

There you have it, those are my tips to integrate music in my classroom in a simple form. I think it is so important as it . When talking about building community, Diego Ojeda mentioned at the Word Language Teacher Summit 2019 “When students enjoy a class with community, they also enjoy that outside of the class, and they may even share that with friends,” and I found that Diego is very much correct. Diego also has tons of ideas to integrate music on YouTube. Music is  just one example of that. When you integrate music in your classroom, students have one more thing that unites them,  you also added a new lens to their view, they will begin creating their own playlists, they might follow the artist on social media, they will be making friends with the people who actually hear that music, and they might even sing together in the lunch room. Success!!!