Section 2: LISTENING ACTIVITIES

After preparing students for the song with pre-listening activities, the next step
is the actual listening activity. Sometimes this step is referred to as while-
listening or during-listening. When using songs or listening activities, it is
important that the students have a specific task to complete while listening.
There are many things that students can do while listening that will help them
to focus their attention on particular aspects of the songs. Among other things,
students can be asked to listen:
for particular sounds or words,
for detailed information, and
for the main ideas.

When doing listening activities in class, teachers often wonder how many times
songs should be played for students. The answer depends on your own
students needs and interests. You should play the song enough times that
most students can understand at least some of it, but without the song
becoming boring. Remember that you can play the song again during singing
and post-listening activities.

Included below are a number of listening activities that you can use with
almost any song. We encourage you to experiment with different students,
different levels, and different songs. We have tried to include activities that
require no or very minimal materials. For activities which require specific
materials, you can find these materials in Part II of the book, where there are
specific lesson menus and accompanying materials for all of the songs included
on the Sing Out Loud CD.

LISTENING ACTIVITIES:

Listening 1: Relax and Enjoy!

Listening 2: Mixed-Up Lyrics
Listening 3: Mixed-Up Pictures
Listening 4: Dictation
Listening 5: Listening for Rhyming Words
Listening 6: Listening Gap-Fill
Listening 7: Musical Words
Listening 8: Song Bingo
Listening 9: Find the Mistakes
Listening 10: Did You Hear What I Heard?

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Listening 1: Relax and Enjoy!

Purpose: To enjoy listening to the song.

Level: All

Time: 5 10 minutes

Preparation and Materials: Prepare 2 5 questions to guide the class

discussion about the song. Some questions you might ask are the following:
Does it seem like a happy or sad song?
Does it seem to be a serious or humorous song?
Does the song remind you of any other songs you know?
Do you like the song? Why or why not?

Instructions:
1. Tell the students they are going to hear a song and that you want them
to focus on how the song makes them feel and what it reminds them of.
2. Play the song one time.
3. Have a general class discussion about the students ideas and feelings
using the questions that you prepared.
4. After the discussion, select another activity below for the second listening
and / or check the students predictions from the pre-listening activity.

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Listening 2: Mixed Up Lyrics

Purpose: To listen for specific words or phrases; to make print and sound
connections.

Level: All For examples of lyric strips,

see materials for On Top of
Time: 10 20 minutes Old Smokey (page x), Red
River Valley (page x), Swing
Low, Sweet Chariot (page x),
Preparation and Materials: Prepare a
or Oh! Susanna (page x).
handout that contains lines or sets of the
lyrics. Cut the lines into strips. For lower
level classes, you may divide the song into 4 or 5 sections. For more advanced
level students, you can use every line or sentence. For the standard procedure,
you will need one set of strips for every 3 students in the class.

Instructions:
1. Divide students into small groups (3 students per group).
2. Explain that you are going to give them a set of the lyrics from the song.
They should read through the lyrics and put them into the order they
think is correct. Give them about 5 minutes to do this. Clarify any new
vocabulary.
3. Tell students that as you play the song they should check their work and
put the strips in the correct order.
4. Play the song 2 or 3 times so that the majority of the students have the
strips correctly ordered and then check their answers.

Modifications:
A. + movement Count how many lines there are in the song and
- difficulty prepare one strip of paper for each line of the song.
Divide the class into groups with this number of
students in each group. (For example, if the song has
15 lines then each group should have 15 students.)
Give each student one line of the song. Ask the
students to stand up. Tell them that as they listen to
the song they need to stand in the correct order
according to their sentence and what they hear.

B. - groups Give students a page of lyrics (or put them up on the

+ difficulty board), with the lines out of order. Tell students to
put them in the correct order as they listen to the
song by numbering the lines correctly.

C. + difficulty Find a picture to represent the theme of each stanza.

+ materials Divide students into small groups. As you play the

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+ pictures song, pause after each stanza to allow groups to
+ time discuss which picture might represent the theme of
that section of the song. You may play each section
more than once if needed. Repeat this procedure with
all stanzas. Have groups compare the order that they
put the pictures in.

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Listening 3: Mixed Up Pictures

Purpose: To listen for main words or ideas in the song.

Level: All

Time: 15 20 minutes

Preparation and Materials: Prepare a set of large For examples of sets of

pictures related to the main ideas or key words in pictures, see materials for
the lyrics and hang them on the board in random Shell Be Coming Round the
order. Put a letter under each picture: A, B, C, and Mountain (page x), Home on
so on. This activity works best if you choose words the Range (page xx),
that occur only one time in the song. Clementine (page x), or Billy
Boy (page x).
Instructions:
1. Show the pictures to the students. Make sure they know what the
pictures represent and the correct pronunciation of any vocabulary
represented in the picture.
2. Tell the students to write the numbers 1 to X (depending on how many
pictures you have) on a piece of paper. For example the students should
write 1 to 10 if you have 10 pictures.
3. Explain to the students that they are going to listen to the song and they
need to decide which picture was mentioned 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on.
They should write the correct letter next to the number on their paper.
4. Play the song 2 or 3 times so that the majority of the students ordered
the pictures correctly. Check their answers.

Modifications:
A. + groups Divide students into groups. Photocopy and cut up
+ materials the same set of pictures for each group of students.
+ time Follow the instructions above and allow the students
to work in their groups to put the pictures in order by
moving the pictures around on the desk.

B. + difficulty Follow the instructions above, but instead of using

+ words or pictures, use key words or phrases from the song.
phrases You might also use a mixture of words and pictures.

C. + movement Prepare copies of the pictures that students can hold.

+ groups Divide the students into equal groups, with each
+ materials group containing the same number of students as
+ time pictures. Position each group in different parts of the
room, and have each student in the group hold up
one of the pictures. As they listen to the song, have

5
the group members move around so that they are
standing in the order the pictures are mentioned in
the song. At the end, compare the positions for each
group.

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Listening 4: Dictation

Purpose: To listen for details; to write phrases and sentences.

Level: All

Time: 15 20 minutes

Note to the Teacher: Students should not be able to view the song lyrics prior
to doing this activity.

Preparation and Materials: None.

Instructions:
1. Play the song and pause after each line or couple of lines.
Determine when to pause according to the pace of the song.
2. Allow time for students to write what they heard before
continuing with the song.
3. After listening to the song a couple of times in this manner,
have students check what they have written by comparing and
discussing with others.
4. Ask the students to read the lines they heard, or to write their
lines on the board.
5. The class can then look at the board, compare what they have
written, and, if there are differences, try to decide which is the
correct version.
6. Play the song again so that everyone can check their dictations.

Modifications:
A. + groups Put the students into small groups. Allow a
+ difficulty much longer section of the song to play, up
+ time to 6 or 8 lines. Have students write down as
much as they can understand. Then give
them time to work together to recreate the
lyrics.

B. - difficulty Provide a worksheet for students to write

+ materials their dictations on. On the worksheet,
provide some lines of the lyrics on the page,
followed by a blank line for students to
dictate. This will allow students to focus on
producing accurate, but shorter, dictations.

C. + groups This activity can also be combined with the

+ difficulty Crazy Lyrics activity. Divide students into

7
 + creativity groups, and have each group come up with a
+ time new version of the song or stanza. Then, pair
two groups together and have them listen to
and dictate the other groups new version of
the song.

D. - difficulty For longer songs, you may choose only to

- time use one stanza or the chorus of the song.

8
Listening 5: Listening for Rhyming Words

Purpose: To listen for details; to recognize and discriminate between similar

sounds.

Level: All

Time: 10 15 minutes

Preparation and Materials: Prepare a handout containing the song lyrics.

Instructions:
1. Tell the students that they will listen to the song and identify all
of the rhyming words in the song by circling or underlining the
rhyming words on their copy of the song.
2. Working individually or in pairs, have the students listen to the
song and identify rhyming words.
3. Students may check their work with others.
4. Play the song again so that everyone can double-check their
answers.

Modifications:
A. + difficulty Have students write down all of the rhyming
+ materials words that they hear without looking at the
+ dictionary lyrics. In this modification, they can also
use a dictionary to check their spelling.

B. + extension After finding all the rhyming words in the song, the
+ competition students can try to extend their rhyming lists. Either
+ time using a dictionary or working in groups, students can
try to find as many words as possible that rhyme with
the words they have identified. This activity may be
carried out as a game, to see whose list of rhyming
words is the longest.

C. - difficulty Identify three target words from the

beginning of the song that rhyme with other
words in the song. Write these words on the
board, and have students practice hearing
and saying the words. Then, have students
identify any words that rhyme with this
particular set of words.

D. - materials Write the lyrics on the board. Have

individual students come up to circle

9
rhyming words.

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Listening 6: Listening Gap-Fill

Purpose: To listen for details.

Level: All

Time: 15 20 minutes

Preparation and Materials: Traditional listening

gap-fill activities require preparation of a handout
with the songs lyrics printed on it. Some of the For examples of gap fills, see
words in the song are omitted and replaced with materials for Red River Valley
gaps. The teacher decides which words to remove (page x), Clementine (page x),
based on an element of grammar or particular or Oh! Susanna.
vocabulary that the teacher wants the students to
focus on.

Instructions:
1. Hand out the gap-fill activity. Give students time to work individually or
in pairs to guess the missing words before listening. Tell them to write
their guesses in the blank spaces.
2. As you play the song, students check what theyve written (or fill in the
missing words if they have not written anything in the space).
3. After students have listened several times, ask them to compare answers
with a partner.
4. Then play the song again so that everyone can double-check their
answers.

Modifications:
A. + difficulty Have students listen to the song without guessing the
missing words before they listen. They write down the
missing words as they hear the song.

B. + difficulty Prepare a gap-fill worksheet in which each gap

+ sound contains two rhyming words or two similar-sounding
discrimination words. For example: Send it by (mail / rail). Have
students listen and circle the word they think is
correct.

C. + difficulty Create a gap-fill by removing all of the rhyming words

+ sound in the song.
discrimination

D. - difficulty Provide small pictures that the students can use to

+ materials complete each gap instead of writing. Or, provide two

11
 + pictures small pictures in each gap and have students circle
the picture that correctly matches the word that they
here.

E. - materials Write the gap-fill activity on the board, providing a

number for each gap. Have students write down their
answers for each gap on a piece of paper.

F. - difficulty Provide a synonym or other rhyming word

underneath each gap-fill line as a hint for students.

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Listening 7: Musical Words

Purpose: To listen for and write specific words or phrases.

Level: All

Time: 10 15 minutes

Preparation and Materials: Select several locations in the song after which to
stop the music.

Instructions:
1. Divide students into small groups.
2. Tell students that you are going to play a part of the song and then stop
the song suddenly.
3. Explain that they need to write down as many words as they hear while
the song is playing. Tell them that their team will get one point for each
correct word that they write down.
4. Play the song. Have the students write down any words they hear.
5. Stop the song suddenly and tell the students to stop writing.
6. Check the students answers by playing that section again.
7. After listening to the section twice, have groups call out the words that
they heard, and as a class confirm whether the words appeared in the
song. Have each group count how many words they got for that section,
and record each teams score on the board.
8. Repeat the procedure until you have finished all the parts of the song.
The team with the most points at the end wins.

Modifications:
A. - difficulty Complete this activity with only one stanza or the
- time chorus of the song.

B. - writing Instead of having students write down words as they

listen, allow students to call out the words that they
remember. As a class, generate a list of all of the
words.

C. + groups Have students listen to a section of the song, and

+ main ideas then in groups generate a description of the theme or
topic of that section of the song.

D. + groups Divide students into groups and have each group

+ difficulty write a paraphrase for each line or stanza or section
+ time of the song.

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Listening 8: Song Bingo

Purpose: To listen for specific words; to introduce vocabulary from the song.

Level: All

Time: 10 15 minutes

Preparation and Materials: Select 20 30 words from the song and write
them on the board in random order.

Instructions:
1. Make sure that the students know the meaning and pronunciation of all
of the words.
2. Tell the students to draw a blank 3 x 3 grid on their papers. Instruct
them to write one word from the board in each square.
3. Tell them that you are going to play the song and they should cross off
the words in their grids when they hear them. The first student to cross
off all 9 of their words should shout Bingo!.
4. When the first student has finished, play the song one more time so that
the whole class can check their answers.

Modifications:
A. + difficulty Write 5 10 verbs that occur in the song on the
+ verb forms board. Have students fill in their grids by choosing a
verb and writing down one form of that verb (for
example, they could write the past tense or the third
person singular).

B. + difficulty Have students draw a larger grid and use more words
+ extension to fill in the grid.
+ time

C. + difficulty Instead of using individual words, use phrases in the

+ phrases boxes. This works especially well for very common
combinations of words, such as phrasal verbs (for
example, go out), adjective plus noun combinations
(for example, yellow submarine) and so on.

D. + difficulty Have students select 9 words for their grid. Instead of

+ time writing the word, however, have students write a
definition for each word in the grid.

E. + materials Do this activity using pictures. Either provide small

14
+ pictures pictures for each of the words, or have students draw
their own pictures of the vocabulary items in the grid.

15
Listening 9: Find the Mistakes

Purpose: To listen for details; To listen for/write specific words/phrases.

Level: All

Time: 10 15 minutes

Preparation and Materials: Prepare a handout with

For examples of lyrics with
the song lyrics with a number of the words changed.
mistakes see materials for
You will need at least one copy for every 3 students.
Ive been Working on the
Railroad (page x), Yankee
Instructions: Doodle Dandy (page x), or
1. Tell the students that they are going to read Billy Boy (page x).
the lyrics of a song as you play it, but that the
written lyrics have a number of mistakes. If
you wish, you can tell them how many mistakes there are.
2. Explain that when they find a mistake they should try to fix it by writing
down the correct word.
3. Hand out the mistake-filled lyrics. Allow students a couple of minutes to
read through them.
4. Play the song 2 or 3 times so that the students can find the majority of
the mistakes.
5. Play the song one more time to check the answers.

Modifications:
A. - difficulty Tell students the number of mistakes contained on
the worksheet. You can also tell them the type of
mistakes (for example, you could tell students that
there are 2 wrong words, 2 verb tense errors, and 2
incorrectly formed plural nouns.)

B. + difficulty Change a number of active voice verbs into passive

+ active/passive voice. Have students re-write the lyrics in the active
voice voice, and then compare to the song.

16
Listening 10: Did You Hear What I Heard?

Purpose: To listen for the main idea and for specific details.

Level: Intermediate and above

Time: 15 20 minutes

Note to the Teacher: In the same way that you can

use questions for listening in class, you can also use For examples of questions
questions with songs. These can be gist questions, see materials for Michael
which focus on the main ideas, or they can be detail Row the Boat Ashore (page
questions, which focus on specific pieces of x), On Top of Old Smokey
information within the song. (page x), Oh! Susanna (page
x), or Hes Got the World in
Preparation and Materials: Write two or three His Hands (page x).
questions about the main idea, theme, or story of the
song. If you wish, prepare some additional questions
focusing on the details of the song. Write the questions on the board, or
prepare a handout containing the questions.

Instructions:
1. Tell the students that you will play the song once and that they should
focus on answering the questions on the board.
2. After the song has finished, ask the students to compare their answers in
groups of 3 or 4.
3. Play the song again, if needed.
4. Let the students work in groups and then check the answers with the
whole class.
5. If an answer is not correct, help the students to understand why it is not
correct.
6. If you also have questions about specific details, continue using the same
procedure.

Modifications:
A. - difficulty Focus on main idea questions.

B. + difficulty Focus on detail questions.

C. + difficulty Focus on inference questions.

D. + groups Divide students into groups and give each group a

+ extension copy of one stanza from the song. Have each group
+ writing develop 2 3 questions for another group to answer.

17
+ time

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