We talked about over 6 different activities you can use with lyrics of a song, so today we want to talk about ways you can provide comprehensible input and use the music video in your lesson.

1. MovieTalk

One of the most obvious ways to use a music video is to describe the story in the video in a typical movietalk.  Because of the singing, I might either take screenshots or if I play the video, put it on mute. Although, the video typical includes cuts of the artist singing, so screenshots might be the best option. Depending on the level, get down to the most essential part of the story and narrate what is happening. Use TPRS questioning to provide comprehensible input. If you’ve never done a movietalk, download this FREE “My First MovieTalk” to get an idea.

Here’s a few MovieTalk lessons for songs:
–No te vayas  por Carlos Vives (which is in this year’s tournament)
–A las tres por Los Enanitos Verdes (immigration/migrant worker theme)
–Soy Yo por Bomba Estero: A complete lesson plan and a student favorite

See 5 more other types of activities

2. Musical Bingo

Kara Jacobs shared this blog post where she talks about an idea she adapted from Samara Spielberg and Bethany Drew.
The idea is that the teacher picks out 10-12 things that you can see in the video, like vocabulary words students know and provides that list to the class. Students then create a small bingo grid (3×3 is enough) and then they pick 9 words to write in their grid. As they watch the video they search for those things. When they see them, they mark them off.
Here is an example of the song Bebé por Karen Lizarazo. You can make a copy of this activity for the 3rd Match-up of MMM21.. She also shares one for Búscame by Kany Garcia y Carlos Vives.

3. Storyboard

Have the students create a storyboard by illustrating 6 scenes of the video and writing captions of what is happening or by using the lyrics. Another way to incorporate this is to take 6 images from the video and have the students write captions as seen in the following image:

Another alternative is to have students label the scene with a line from the lyrics.

4. Is THIS the video?

After listening to the song, the teacher will play clips from several different videos. Students watch the clips and decide which they feel is the actual music video. The class discusses why each clip could or could not be the video and why. Remember, this idea is to have the discussion in the target language (90%), so you’ll want to save this for upper-levels or  keep the conversation very simple. Tips: I would make sure the clips don’t have the artist singing in them, but rather the story of the video. Another option would be to take screenshots.

5. Image Pick

Collect random images and have students write a rationale on why the image represents a song in junction with the lyrics. After watching the video, which image best represents the story told in the video? 

6. Parallel story

Tell a parallel story either from the video or using the lyrics. For example, I wrote a story about Juan and Karen based on the song Fotografía by Juanes. You can check out the story for free here or get the full lesson and while this lesson is based mainly on the lyrics, it also pulls from the visuals of the story and the background of the story. 

7. Did it happen?

Write statements of things that happen in the music video and mix in other things that don’t happen. Students then answer true or false statements.

8. LyricsTraining

Watch the official video with lyrics. Click the karaoke option to watch the official video with lyrics or create a digital cloze activity.

Which idea is your favorite? Which are you likely to do in your class this year?