Using a song in class

I like to use country music with students because of the story element.  I've also found that country music, being old-fashioned to today's students, is neutral territory.  Many young students identify with a certain kind of music and may have an almost tribal reaction to music that represents another type of student.

This is a description of how I use Saginaw, Michigan by Lefty Frizzell in the classroom.  I begin by telling the students the story of the song.  Then I give them the following vocabulary list to help them recognize words they would hear in the song and might not know.

a claim, hard-working, wealthy, good enough, to claim, to dig, ground, to pray, to strike it rich, father-in-law, greedy, It serves him right, to miss, least of all, newly-weds, ashamed

I explain each word, give an example and use these questions for PQA:

1. Who has a claim to this bag?

2.  Are you hard-working?  Is he?

3.  How could you become wealthy?

4.  Are you good enough in English to go to the U.S.A.?

5.  Do you claim to be a good student?

6.  Where did you dig?

7.  What have you found in the ground?

8.  When/where do you pray?

9.  How could you strike it rich?

10.  Where could you hit a strike?

11.  Do you know your future father-in-law?

12.  Are you greedy?  Do you have greedy friends?

13.  When did you think, "It serves me right"?

14.  Do you have friends who are newly-wed?

15.  When was the last time you were ashamed?

16.  Who do you miss?

17.  What school subject do you like least of all?

I don’t expect students to retain all of this vocabulary.  But when they listen to the song, they will recognize the words they hear and find the song easier to comprehend.

I then ask them to listen to the song and fill in the blanks in a cloze exercise.

I was _____________ in Saginaw, Michigan.

I grew up in a ________________ in Saginaw Bay.

My dad was a ___________, hard-working Saginaw fisherman.

Too many __________he came home with too little pay.

I loved a __________in Saginaw, Michigan,

The _____________of a wealthy, wealthy man.

But he called me, "that __________of a Saginaw fisherman,"

Not ____________ enough to claim his daughter's hand.

Now I'm up here in __________, digging around for gold.

Like a crazy fool I'm ___________ in this frozen ground so cold.

But with each new ___________I pray I'll strike it rich, and then

I'll go back _____________and claim my love in Saginaw, Michigan.

I wrote my love, I wrote my love,

In Saginaw, Michigan, Saginaw, Michigan.

I said, "Honey, I'm coming home, ___________wait for me.

And you can tell your dad I'm ___________back a richer man.

I hit the biggest strike in Klondike history.

Her dad met me, her dad met me,

In Saginaw, Michigan, Saginaw, Michigan.

He gave me a great big party with________________.

Then he________, "Son, you wise, young, ambitious man,

Will you __________your father-in-law your Klondike claim?"

___________he's up there in Alaska, digging in the cold, cold ground.

The greedy fool is looking for the gold I never_____________.

It serves him right and ______________here is missing him,

Least of all the newly-weds of Saginaw, Michigan.

We're the happiest man and wife in Saginaw, Michigan.

He's ashamed to show his face in Saginaw, Michigan.

A cloze exercise is not a listening test; it’s listening practice.  The blanks should always correspond to well known vocabulary.  The difficulty is in recognizing words that the students already know when they are sung.  For instance, in this song students may not recognize “little” as the singer pronounces it. As they learn to identify words that are not spoken as slowly and carefully as they are in a classroom, they will become more confident.

When the students have filled in all blanks, we can then discuss the story.  Here are some questions that can get the conversation started.

Where was the singer born?  Was his father a policeman or a fisherman?   Whose daughter did he love?   Was the girl's father rich or poor?  Did the girl’s father want him to marry her? Where did the boy go?  What was he looking for? Where was he digging?  What did he pray every day?  Who did he write to?  Was he coming home a poor man?  Who met him?  What did he drink? What did his father-in-law want?    Who did he sell his Klondike claim to? Where did his father-in-law go?  What is his father-in-law doing? Who is happy?  Who is ashamed?  Is the singer an honest man?

In some classes I found it useful to use the song to work on the following structures:  too many – too few – too much – too little - not good enough.

Here are some suggestions for PQA with these structures:

I have too many cats.   How many cats do you have?  Too many or too few?

How many classes do you have on Friday?

How many euros do you have ? pairs of shoes? Pairs of jeans? Video games?

I have too much work.  How much work do you have?  Too much or too little?

I have too little time.  How much time do you have to play?  Too much or too little?

Money?  Who has too much money?  Who has enough money?

Are you wealthy?  Are you wealthy enough to buy a Ferrari?

Are you old enough to drive a Ferrari? Are you tall enough to play basketball?

Are you strong enough to play rugby? Are you fast enough to play soccer?

Are you intelligent enough to play video games? 

The answer to most of these questions should be yes.  The teacher can then say, “I’m not tall enough to play basketball.  I’m not fast enough to play soccer, etc.

Who likes cats?  Who loves cats?  Who adores cats? Where do you live?  How many cats do you have?  Too many or too few?  

If you have a student who adores cats, you can then lead into the following story, adapting it to your class.  Everything which is underlined can be changed.

There was a boy who had too many cats.  Name?  Where did he live?  How many cats?  73.  Too many or too few?  How many cats did he have?  How many baskets did he have for his cats?  19  Too many or too few?  Did he have enough baskets?  How many mouths did he have to feed?  Did he have enough food?  Too much or too little?  Why?  Did he have too little money or too much money to feed 73 cats?  Was he rich?  Was he wealthy?  Who wasn't wealthy?  He wasn't wealthy enough to feed 73 cats.  Then one day he broke away.  Where did he go?  He came to Agen.  Who did he meet?  He met Camille.  She loved cats, but she had too few cats.  She said, "Will you give me your cats?"  He gave her 54 cats.  She was very happy.  She was the happiest girl in Agen.  Too many or too few?  Enough.  He was happy.  The happiest boy in Z.  He was wealthy enough to feed 19 cats.  He had enough baskets for 19 cats.

After you have created the story with your class, you can ask them to retell it, writing the numbers on the board and pointing at them when the students need to say them.  TPRS teaches numbers in homeopathic doses, so every story should contain numbers.

The following lesson can be reading the story as you have typed it up.  Or simply reading the lyrics to the song.  It would be interesting to try to create a parallel story about a student as you read the lyrics.