I am a huge fan of using Song lyrics as an additional learning tool when delivering GCSE English Language. There’s a lot of benefits to it such as listening and visual engagement along with various themes and contexts which would also be present in the traditional fiction extracts that the students can study. Moreover, as I teach resit learners in FE, I believe there needs to be a focus on differing and adapting the traditional teacher approach.

I have already successfully delivered sessions this year based on music:

So I woke up over the Easter Holidays and The Special’s ‘Ghost Town’ came into my head. I listened to it again and was trying to think about how I could use this song within my teaching, What about paper 1 question 4 -the big 20 marker that often confuses the students? And then I realised that I could do a lot more with it than just looking at practicing exams!

As the students enter the classroom, i’m going to play the song quietly in the background; it gets them thinking and makes them curious. Their first task will be to explode the quote ‘ghost town’. I will emphasise the need to explore and discuss effects, possible connotations and hidden meanings. After 5 minutes, i’m going to ask volunteers from each table group to have a look at some related ‘ghost town’ images around the classroom. They will be responsible for developing their team’s ideas before whole group feedback.

I will then give a bit of background about the song – when it was released, the 1981 riots, Thatcher (I do want to hold off some of the themes to see if they can work some out for themselves). I will then show them a short video based on the riots which we will discuss and I will prompt them to further develop their ideas around a ‘ghost town’.

Time for the song – I will play it in the background while the students follow the lyrics. Ideally, i’d like them to discuss and share their thoughts followed by a pair activity of working out any themes – this will lead onto the question 4 later in the session. Possible themes are unemployment, urban decay and violence which I will share on the board following their contributions.

Quiet annotation – techniques, meanings and effects. Although the lyrics are short, they can pick out a lot from them:

I also want the students to realise that they don’t need to pick out millions of quotes for question 4. Four quotes are more than enough – as long as they have really focused on the effects and how they link to the question.

With their planning and exploration of the song, they can then apply to a paper 1 question 4 (which they are familiar with). I will recap the focus of the question and what they must mention within their answer – making it clear whether they agree or disagree (I encourage them to agree), language/structure/tone, evidence, effects, zooming in on an important word within the quote, reader, link.

The question is:

A student, having read the lyrics said ‘I feel that The Specials are trying to convey a feeling of hopelessness’.

To what extent do you agree:

I’m going to deliver the session with my GCSE groups when I return after the Easter break. Bear in mind that this is a plan and as we all know, teaching is a live process so I may naturally miss elements out/change things during the lesson. I’ll add a blog post to share whether it was effective or not. Hopefully, I may be able to share some of their responses.