Super Simple Songs
Devon Thagard, co-creator of SuperSimpleSongs, comes to the studio this week. He discusses his ESL experience and how he uses songs in class with young children. There are also some recommendations for music for young learners and a way to get a free set of SuperSimpleSong CDs.
Learn more: www.supersimplesongs.com
Visit devon’s blog at http://simplesongs.blogs.com
listen to some i-mixes of simple songs:
Devon’s podcast: www.kodomoeikaiwa.podomatic.com
Game of the Week: RPS challenge
In 5 minutes practice any target language with students aged 5-100. All you need are some markers and students. It’s a great warm-up activity or review activity.
January 29th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Hey guys,
Thanks…I enjoyed it!
January 29th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Thanks for featuring us! When I heard Eric talk about how much he dreads teaching kids with music, it brought me back to when I first started teaching and how much I feared it too. I think for any ESL teacher who teaches young kids and uses music, its important to take things slow-and don’t make learning every word the focus-the focus should be getting up and moving and just having fun. When it comes to young learners I think music is no different than English-it should be played with, not “taught”.
Of course, if you don’t have the right music for the age/level you are working with, none of that matters. I think/hope we’ve made some of that “right” music with Super Simple Songs or you can find lots more out there from some of the artists Devon mentioned as well. I am a big fan of Sue Schnitzer and use her songs a lot in my classes. (http://www.weebeemusic.com/) Her early albums in particular have a lot of useful material for young kids.
Thanks again…..looking forward to the next show!
February 1st, 2007 at 1:22 am
I was so glad to hear you interview Devon in your podcast!! I teach preschoolers, and I found the Super Simple English CDs about a month ago. I absolutely love them, and they are so easy to use!! My students love the songs we’ve done so far, and its great to finally be able to bring more music into our lessons. As Mark said in the interview, my own two boys love the songs too, and are often singing them while they play!
I only found your podcasts recently (got an ipod for Christmas!!) and I really enjoy them!
Looking forward to more!!