April 2, 2010

No, it's not an April Fool--Lady Gaga as a teaching tool.

As a supplement yesterday's lesson about cellular telephone vocabulary, I brought music into the classroom. Lady Gaga's duet with Beyonce, called “Telephone”, tells the epic story of having a night out with friends ruined by a needy boyfriend's cell phone habits. With countless references to our vocabulary words set to a bumping beat, the song gave us context for talking about telephones.

The tiny speakers (from the Russian Market--where else?) connected to my ipod literally “brought the noise” for my class. We listened to the song a few times, read the lyrics and I even made them illustrate the scene. My students really hate it when I make them draw, but they all drew something today, even if it was only a disco ball. I liked listening to them describe their drawing to the class. This is Lady Gaga and Beyonce. They are at the club, drinking champagne and dancing. The man is calling. Lady Gaga is getting a text. She is annoyed.

A successful lesson. Thanks, Gaga.

By the way, my students are definitely prepared for any conversation involving "sippin' that bub" or "blowin' up my phone".

1 comment:

  1. That's awesome! I wonder how many other teachable moments Lady Gaga can offer the world. Rheagen is still trying to figure out why Lady Gaga had to go to jail and why she wants everyone to see her butt cheeks.

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