This is one of my favorite lessons. I’ve only done it once so far, but it was a big hit with my students. I love playing music all the time anyway, so this was just a fun way to incorporate some more songs.
It’s an easy plan too:
1. Choose how many songs you want to use. Print out a bracket and fill in the names of the songs. One idea is to choose different genres of music. For example, in a 16 team bracket, you might have 4 songs from Pop, Rock, Bachata, and Salsa.
2. Create a playlist of these songs on youtube. Either use the official videos (or lyric videos if the official video is too risqué). Share the link with your students, either in class, on your class website, or class management such as Edmodo. Tip: If you are going to share in class or on a worksheet, Use bit.ly or QR code to make it easier so students don’t type in the wrong address.
3. Assign a bracket each night for students to listen to at home. They listen to two songs and decide which song they like better. Students who want to, can work ahead as well. As they listen to the song, have them make a list of 5-10 words they understood from the song and write the translation.
4. The next day in class, students vote on which song they like best and that song is the winner and advances to the next round. When you get to the second round, you can play the two songs in class and take a quick vote.
For an editable bracket, along with an editable, check out our World Language Music Lesson product, which includes a template for a 16 song bracket as well as a sample Spanish bracket with 16 Spanish songs and lyrics.
If you do this activity in class, please share your brackets! You can email us at spanishplans@gmail.com, or tweet us @SpanishPlans.
SpanishPlans.org 
Here is my playlist (16 teams):
http://bit.ly/1xRRXnD
My pick: Ay Vamos!
Thanks for sharing!
The students chose the same song! It was really exciting because we chose the winner right before break, and when we returned from break students told me they heard the song in the movie “Furious 7.” I am still working on my list for this year.
From an ELL teacher:
My students each chose songs to put in the hopper, we ended up with around 60 songs. We slotted them as they were pulled to complete the bracket. There were a lot of groans when some favorite songs ended up paired in the first round against each other.
View final 16: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CA4JO42WwAEaqhG.png:large
We’re doing this today in class with the songs we’ve listened to all year. They are loving it! One kid suggested drawing the bracket on the board so we could all visualize the progression as we vote. Couldn’t believe how into it they got! Gracias!
Here are our Sweet 16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72G9udHaAPI&list=PLIOeBEWvweB2FZQsgpaxFNtqoRSYTFHmK
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Here is my playlist for this year. https://open.spotify.com/user/mskimspanish/playlist/0r6YfUeEazKYx2tNzuAbF1
https://m.youtube.com/#/playlist?list=PLLVwfCYM6nVR-eDv3knAM_q9xLpVIV1te
Can’t wait to use this with my students! Thanks for sharing such a creative way to learn!