Target population: grade 8

Objectives:

This lesson is intended for the intermediate level. The objectives are:

1. To show to the students an interesting way to learn a grammatical structure topic.
2. To encourage students to look for a various texts that can teach them a lot.
3. To look for another text, prefer to a song text, and see if they can learn any grammatical structure topic from it.

Instructions for working with "La Isla Bonita":

1. These tasks based on the song text of Madonna, so as a teacher you have to see to it that each student will take hold of the song sheet (see appendix I).

    

2. Ask the students for an example of the past simple. You can tell them to elicit sentences using past simple. Another idea, if it is possible, let them make up a story according to the pictures below

   

   Tell the students to look at the picture story and use past simple to describe what happened in the story.

3. From examples on the board, elicit basic rules for past simple: when it is used, why it is used (see appendix II for the rules).
4. While listening to the song tell them to write down the verbs in the past simple as much as they can hear.
5. Now hand out the song sheets and ask them to fill the rest and underline the past verbs.
6. Vocabulary:
   1. Look at the glossary list and learn the vocabulary (for best students)
      desert - a land without people.
      nature - the whole universe and every created thing.
      breeze - gentle wind.
      sting - the hurt somebody.
      lullaby - a song for encouraging a baby to sleep.
      pray - speak to god and make a request.
      fast - opposite of slow.
      sky - the space we look up to from the earth.
      beautiful - nice.
      dream - something which one sees during the sleep.
      wind - a flow of air.
   2. For weaker students
      Translate to Hebrew the past verbs from the song
      dreamt ____________
      knew ______________
      played _____________
      fell ________________
      carried _____________
      called _____________
      prayed _____________
      went _______________
      told ________________
      said _______________

    

7. Choose five words from the vocabulary list and elicit five sentences using the past simple.
8. Listen to the song again. What do you think the song is about?
9. Do you know who is Madonna? Do you know another songs of her? Can you give an example?
10. Enabling task (for homework): go to the site http://www.lyrics.com/ and try (if it is possible) to find another song that you can learn any grammatical structure topic.

Good luck
For questions: zbv@bezeqint.net

Appendix I

La Isla Bonita
written by Madonna, Pat Leonard, and Bruce Gaitsch
Track 7, Time: 4:01
-------------------------

(Spoken:)

 

Como puede ser verdad

How could it be true?

Last night I dreamt of San Pedro Just like I'd never gone, I knew the song A young girl with eyes like the desert It all seems like yesterday, not far away

Chorus:  

Tropical the island breeze All of nature wild and free This is where I long to be La isla bonita And when the samba played The sun would set so high Ring through my ears and sting my eyes Your Spanish lullaby

The beautiful island

I fell in love with San Pedro Warm wind carried on the sea, he called to me Te dijo te amo I prayed that the days would last They went so fast

He told you, "I love you"

(chorus)

I want to be where the sun warms the sky
When it's time for siesta you can watch them go by
Beautiful faces, no cares in this world
Where a girl loves a boy, and a boy loves a girl

Last night I dreamt of San Pedro
It all seems like yesterday, not far away

(chorus twice)  

La la la la la la la Te dijo te amo La la la la la la la El dijo que te ama

He told you, "I love you" He said he loves you

Appendix II - The Past Simple Rules

It is preferred to make it on flashcards.  

1. Regular verbs: Base form + ed
   walk - walked pass - passed
   The verb is the same for all persons.
   • I talked to Jill yesterday.
   • Debby booked her flight to Paris.

    

2. When the verb ends in e, add only d.
   move - moved live - lived

    

3. When the verb ends in a consonant + y, change the y to i and add ed.
   study - studied try - tried

    

4. When the verb in one syllable and ends in a consonant, double the last letter before adding ed.
   stop - stopped plan - planned

    

5. Many verbs are irregular. It means that these verbs don't obey to the rules above. They form the past simple in a variety of different ways. For example: catch - caught, can - could, buy - bought, sing - sang.

    

6. We use the past simple for an activity or situation that began and ended in the past. Usually we use the past time expressions (such as yesterday, last month/weak, ago etc). For example: I finished my homework an hour ago.

    

7. We use did to form questions and did + not (didn't) to form negative sentences with all verbs except the verb be (was/were). For examples:
   • Did they sing? (question)
   • They didn't sing. (negative)
   • Didn't Sally phone you? (negative question)

    

8. For questions and negative sentences, the verb stays in the base form even for he, she or it. For examples:
   • Helen lived in California.
   • Everybody knew him.