Taiwan Teacher - The EFL site that exceeds your needs


EFL Ideas


Rivers - Music for Thought Grades: 6 - 12


The following is one of the most enjoyable activities I have ever carried out. And I must say my students loved it, too. Try it!

I often do songs in class: old songs, new songs...the best of both worlds to suit the kids´ taste... and my own. River Ebro, which crosses our town and is just a few yards away from my doorstep, was the inspiration for an amusing project which kept everyone busy for a couple of weeks.

We listened to quite a few songs, all dealing with rivers:

Lynn Anderson’s (and also The McGuire Sister’s version) - Red River Valley
Mahalia Jackson’s - Down by the Riverside
Frank Sinatra´s - Moonriver
Ike and Tina Turner’s - River Deep, Mountain High
The Beatles´ (and also Elton John’s version) - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Simon and Garfunkel´s - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Boney M´s - Rivers of Babylon
Bruce Springsteen´s - The River
Jeff Beck’s - Ol´ Man River
Albert Hammond´s - Down by the River

We dealt with the lyrics in several ways and, to everybody’s surprise, what had started as a simple linguistic issue led us to a multi-cultural event: by discussing the different messages in the songs, their performers´ careers and their singing styles, we dealt with geography, the history of music, religion, literature, movies, love, art, social trends, drug abuse, politics, the environment... life, in a nutshell. A most substantial subject, indeed. We are already working on two new topics: the Moon and... almost inevitable... Love. Will let you know about our findings, sometime!