project draft
Table of Contents

Etwinning project 08-09

SONGS, LANGUAGE & CULTURE

POP/ROCK SONGS

1) Our music scene: description of the music scene in each country: which singers/bands are now popular, genres. In which languages do they sing? Are there any who sing in English? Are lyrics important?
Festivals./ concerts… experiences (general information and own experiences: have you been to any concert, festival…, are you part of any fan club….?)

Podcasts /videos ( for videos and photos here we always need parents’ approval)… with comments (from students of all countries)
TMbold textThis is good. I like it because this informative page(pages) would give info about students’ background; this would help put specific project work in context. I do not see it as the focus of the project, just as important background to it.

METHODOLOGY

Suppose a group of students from each country chooses to work on this part. Even if working in a national group, they could anyway agree on how to do this: they could decide on some points to develop using the forum; they could exchange ideas and suggestions and prepare a draft in a new page the whole group could work on.
TM I imagine students designing the layout of this section of our website(?)
2) Songs and the English language: how many English words related to music are common in your language? Find out also in articles from magazines or papers and make a billboard
Are pop/rock songs a good way to learn English. Why?/why not?
- rhythm: tune stays in your mind (easy to remember) /repetitions
- colloquial/natural English
- …
Explain own experiences.
Find out a song in English which has helped you learn some aspects of the English grammar/vocabulary (collocations, phrases, idioms…) and prepare a worksheet with some activities for your partners to work on
TM This is fine – how to teach songs in a creative way; also I like the personal approach to it – ‘a song in English which has helped you learn some aspects of English’ – students could share their personal stories - there would be more than just language, there would be the emotional involvement too, and this could make good read I think.
METHODOLOGY

We can ask them to prepare a list of songs, then choose the ones that are common to the groups, so that students can work together. They could use a new page, to write down their ideas. Anybody can edit the page and enrich it. We could have as many groups as the songs they have in common.

3) Songs: a window to a culture: references to the country’s culture in songs. Give specific examples in songs. Think of a song in your language which may well represent your country (way of living, habits …) and translate it into English. Your partners will do the same, then you will translate their song into your own language
TM When we say ‘country’, we should be very careful to avoid generalisations – students could easily fall prey to stereotypical nation-construct cliches(which we do not want, no?) e.g. urban/rural, capital/periphery, which ethnic group, which age group, which genre,etc.
If we focus on ‘smaller’ groups, like ‘my school’ or my class’ or my friends’, this would be more sincere. I would not like students to tell me what they think people identify with, rather I would want them to say what they identify with and why – whetehr this is mainstream or not makes no difference. Here the idea of politcal protest songs/songs that made a difference seems fine/fits well,

METHODOLOGY

Here we should have groups for each nationality, but each group could "supervise" the other groups' work and ask for questions or explanations about what they are doing/writing. Each group might then comment the other groups' songs in the blog.

4) Songs and other forms of art (literature…):
- examples of poems/ novels made into songs ballads : Bob Dylan, De Andrè What is it (may remind of Blake’s London), Wuthering Heights, based on the novel)
-analyse a song in terms of a poem: similes, alliteration, rhyme…

TM interesting but if we do it, it would be good to work on same song and compare interpretations; again, to keep it focused, this could be a song of protest..or ‘love’ or ‘friendship’, or…? whichever topic we decide to work on. For coherence purposes.
METHODOLOGY

The same as in part 2?

5) IF POSSIBLE:
- compose a song?????? or a karaoke presentation with DVD Maker: students choose the pictures to go with the lyrics

METHODOLOGY

I haven't found a way to get them work together yet :(

TM One thing that comes to mind here – convert a rock song into a rap one – changing the genre, keeping the lyrics, recording and uploading it – have done that once, was great fun!
6) Songs and topics for discussions: think of some songs which present topic of
interest which may be discussed in our blog
ex. We are the World, Imagine, Probably, Jealous Guy Father and Son … of course students will
have a lot of songs in mind!!!!
TM Sure!!

METHODOLOGY

Same as in part 2. Discussions on blog

FINAL PRODUCT

A sort of youth magazine which will be published both on line in a website and in a pdf format, so that it can also be printed. The final song might be recorded and filmed in a CD.

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