Addressing Low Proficient Learners – 8

Generating Parodies of Popular Songs (Continued)

In the previous post we saw how the first stanza of a popular song is generated with the help of theme-pictures.  It may be noticed that there is a basic and qualitative difference between helping children to rote-learn a song through repetition and generating the text of the poem through interaction; the latter does away with the lethargy of memorizing lines and provides more space for the learners to get psychologically as well as emotionally engaged in the classroom process. The added benefit is that it tackles the issue of learners who may be low proficient in the various language skills.

Module 3: Generating the Second Stanza

Once we have generated the first stanza of the poem through a whole class activity we can work out strategies for generating the remaining stanzas in groups as well as by individual learners.  We need a set of pictures for transacting the modules required for this.

Watching the Video

Play back the first two segments of the video. The events shown in the second segment are:

          Four little babies jumping on the bed

          The second boy falling down and bumping his head

          Papa calling the doctor

          The doctor responding to the call (‘No more babies jumping on the bed’)

Brushing up

• Interact with the students based on these pictures. Here follows a cluster of questions that will be useful for interaction.

You have watched the video.  Can someone sing the first four lines of the song?

How many babies were jumping on the bed?

What happened to one of the babies?

What did mother do?

What did the doctor say?

Theme-based Interaction

• Display Pictures 1 to 4 mounted on a chart,

Picture 1

 Picture 2  

Picture 3

 Picture 4

• Initiate interaction based on the four pictures as suggested below:

          Look at the first picture. How many little babies are there on the bed?

          What are the babies doing?

          What happened then?

          Who called the doctor?

          What did the doctor say?

          Now can somebody try to sing four lines based on these pictures?

• Ask questions one after the other, elicit and write the following on the board.

          Four little babies

          They were jumping on the bed.

          One baby fell down and bumped his head.

          Papa called the doctor.

          The doctor said, ‘No more babies jumping on the bed.’

          Can someone try singing the lines? 

          What will be the first and second  lines? 

          What will be the third and fourth lines?

• Elicit line by line write on the chart.
• Ask students to read the lines from the chart.
• Let them copy the lines into their notebook.

 Module 4: Generating the Remaining Stanzas

Initial interaction

          Shall we sing the first and second stanzas of the song?

• Allow two or three students at random to sing the first two stanzas.

Brainstorming on the Video song

We are going to watch the whole video song now. Notice what changes are made in each stanza.

You have watched the video. How many little babies were there in the beginning?

What were they doing?

One baby fell down. How many little babies were there after that?

How many fell down?

What did the doctor say at the end?

• If necessary play the last segment of the video once again.
• Let students sit in small groups and sing the whole song orally.

Writing the Lines

• Let them write down the text of the 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th stanzas individually.
• Allow a few students to present what they have written.
•  Elicit feedback on the presentations. A few questions are suggested  here.

          Do the four lines follow the same pattern?

          Are there any missing or excess words?

          Are all the word forms correct?

          Are there errors related to spelling, punctuation and capitalization?

Drawing Illustrations

Children may be encouraged to draw their own illustrations for the whole song.

(To be continued)

(Dr KN Anandan)