Update, February 22, 2024

This site began 9 years ago as a simple blog where I posted some of the pop songs and song-based activities that worked well in my class. As I became increasingly convinced of pop music’s value as an English teaching/learning tool, I brought more and more songs and activities into my classroom. I posted the most successful ones on this site, which seemed to take on a life of its own. 

Over the years, the site has become like a closet that you put things in but never clean out—for 9 years! I’m in the process of updating it page by page, deleting dead links, adding new links, and standardizing format, which should make it easier to find what you’re looking for. I’ll be finished in a few weeks. 

As I go through the site, I’m coming across activities that I remember working particularly well in my class. I’ll post them on Facebook in case you missed them the first time around.

Sandra

What’s here?

Like many teachers of the English language (ELL, ESL, EFL), I like to enrich my lessons with popular songs. On this site, you’ll find:

• A list of hundreds of classroom-friendly songs, organized by theme, along with links to recommended YouTube videos
• Song-based activities
• Lesson plan ideas
• A Grammar + Songs page with worksheets and songs to pair with specific grammar topics
• Stories behind the songs, written at the beginning to low-intermediate levels.

I’ve become a big fan of creating thematic lessons by starting with a pop song, adding some spin-off activities, and then rounding off the lesson with a related reading—either the story behind the song (there are many on this site) or a news story from the True Stories reading series. I know that some of you who visit this site also use True Stories, so I’ve included some suggestions for stories that work particularly well with specific songs.

What’s new?

• Updates on Facebook: This site has a companion Facebook page, where I’ll post notifications of newly added content.
• Updates on the Recently Added Page: Many of you are now following this blog on WordPress, which means you will get a notification for every post. You might get clusters of individual notifications because new material is usually posted on several different pages. The quickest way to see what’s new is to check the Recently Added page.

Do you have a suggestion for improving this site? A song or activity you’d like to share? Please e-mail me, Sandra Heyer, at songs@ticon.net. This is my personal e-mail address. Your address will not be shared, and you will not get ads or promotions of any kind.

“A real gold mine–it’s chockablock with lesson plans and activities all based on songs.”
TeachingEnglish / British Council