Baby Baby Baby

Every day, I co-teach a summer camp English class to 16 year olds.  There are about 25 kids in the class, 20 girls and 5 boys.  They sit on opposite sides of the room, separated by a shoulder-high divider.  The other teacher, Shravan (a 22 year old business student), explained to me that many of the girls come from conservative families and it is better to keep the girls and boys separate.

Girls

The first day, Shravan asked me if I had any ideas for teaching confidence.  The students, particularly the girls, are painfully shy when they speak in class.  Most barely speak above a whisper.  I wanted to do something that they would find engaging and get excited about.  This is summer school after all.

Boys

A friend suggested that we teach the lyrics to popular songs in English. And iTunes Friday was born.  I took class suggestions.  The only song that was remotely appropriate was Justin Bieber’s Baby.  

On Friday, I handed out lyrics with missing words.  The class listened to the song on repeat and filled in the blanks.  When we finished each stanza, we would discuss what was happening in the song. (I glossed over the part “she woke me up daily, don’t need no Starbucks.”  I told them that Ludacris was so happy to see his girlfriend every day, he didn’t need coffee or chai in the morning to feel awake.)  I was dying laughing on the inside while reading JBieb’s lyrics like poetry.

In the end, I think it went well.  I also think I was invited to watch Titanic though I pretended not to hear.  By the end, the entire class was singing out loud.  Monday, they asked to hear the song again at the end of class.

Whether this translates into more confidence for the students, we will see.   In any event, they seem to be excited already for the upcoming Friday.  And the class talks a lot about what song they want to do next.  At least it’s a start. Baby baby baby oh.

Want to test yourself?  Here are the lyrics we handed out and a link to the song.