The first time I taught this song I was merely looking for a good example of the simple present tense in English. Which it is, since it contains examples of all the uses of the simple present tense and there is no other tense used in the lyrics. Since it went over well, I used it again and again, with an explanation of the simple present tense and asking the students to find the examples in the song. This was before I had learned about TPRS.
Then one day as we were listening to the song, it suddenly hit me, who the child born in the last stanza was. Her young man. You don't call a mother's child "her young man". The mother who cries at the end is not the mother who cries at the beginning. So, with the students we talked about "vicious circles" and universal truths and repeated actions.
Today I'm still using the song but I no longer talk about the simple present. We talk about the song and the boy in the song and we talk about what a child needs.
I use an embedded reading to present the song. Usually we do readings I and II before hearing the song and reading III after we've heard the song.
Reading I
A baby was born in the Chicago ghetto. His mother cried. She had six mouths to feed.
The little boy grew up. He played in the street and he was
hungry. He learned how to steal and he
learned how to fight. He became an angry
young man.
He was in desperation. He bought a gun and he stole a car. He didn’t get far. He died in the street with a gun in his hand.
Another little baby boy was born. His mother cried.
Reading II
As the cold wind blew and the snow flew, a baby
boy was born in the Chicago ghetto. His mother cried because she had no job,
too little money and six mouths to feed.
The little boy grew up in the ghetto. He played in the street and he was always
cold and hungry. He learned how to steal
and he learned how to fight. He became
an angry young man because he never had a chance.
One night he was in desperation. He needed money. He bought a gun and he stole
a car. He didn’t get far. He died in the street with a gun in his hand.
A crowd gathered round.
That night another baby boy was born. The baby’s mother cried.
Reading III
In January, 1969, as the cold wind blew off Lake
Michigan and the snow flew, a baby boy was born in the Chicago ghetto. His
mother cried because she already had five children and her husband was in
prison. She had no job, too little money and six mouths to feed.
The little boy grew up in the ghetto. He played in
the street and he was always cold and hungry. No one gave him a helping hand.
In the streets of the ghetto he learned how to steal and he learned how to
fight. He grew into an angry young man because he had never had a chance.
He had a girlfriend who loved him, and one night
she told him she was going to have a baby. He needed money because he wanted
his child to have a different life. He looked for a job, but no one wanted to
give a job to a boy from the ghetto. People turned their heads and looked the
other way. Everyone was blind. He was desperate, but no one understood his
desperation.
He broke away from society. He bought a gun and
stole a car. He tried to rob a bank, but the police saw him and shot him. He
died face down in the street, his gun in his hand, as a curious crowd gathered
round to watch him die. They were the people who had turned their heads to look
the other way when he was alive.
That night his son was born and the baby’s mother
cried because her child had no father.
**********
After doing the first two readings, I give the students the lyrics as a cloze exercise. Notice that in the song he says 'she don't need'. With beginners I correct it and put in 'she doesn't need' and they don't notice. With more advanced classes I leave the original expression and if someone notices I explain that many people who are not well-educated talk like that. And that singers of popular music sometimes use incorrect grammar in order to identify themselves with ordinary people.
This is the cloze exercise I give my students:
In the Ghetto
As the snow
flies …
On a cold
and grey _____________ morning,
A poor
little baby child is ____________, in the ghetto.
And his mama
________________
'Cause if
there's one ___________ she doesn't need
It's another
hungry mouth to feed in the ghetto.
People,
don't you ________________?
A child ____________
a helping hand.
Or he’s
going to be an _________ young man some day.
Now, take a
look at you and me,
Are we too
blind to ______________?
Or do we
simply turn our heads and _______ the other way?
Well, the
world turns…
And a hungry
little _________ with a runny nose
Plays in the
_____________ as the cold wind blows, in the ghetto.
And his
hunger burns.
So he starts
to roam the streets at _______________
And he
learns how to steal
And he
_____________ how to fight, in the ghetto.
Then one
night in desperation
The young
__________ breaks away.
He buys a
gun, steals a _____________.
He tries to
____________ but he doesn't get far.
And his mama
cries.
As a crowd
gathers round an ___________ young man,
Face down in
the street with a gun in his _______________, in the ghetto.
And as her
young man dies
On a cold
and grey _______________ morning
Another
little baby child is born, in the ghetto.
And his mama
cries. In the ghetto. In the ghetto.
Notice that the missing words are easy words that I'm fairly sure my students know and can hear. Even so, it's not simple for the students. Often I chose "easy" words that my students did know, but could not recognize as they were sung. "Some day" was an expression that they could not hear. So I have adapted my blanks to make the exercise doable. The point to this kind of exercise is NOT to test our students' listening skills. The point is simply to get them to listen several times to a song they can understand. Comprehensible Input can't get any sweeter. They should feel successful and enjoy doing it. I always insist that they must not write while they are listening. I have them put their pens away and follow with a finger. Then we go back and see what words they remember. That is when I allow them to write in the blanks.
The song dates from 1969 but unfortunately, as my students realize, the problem it describes still exists, so the message is not at all dated. Many have told me that they downloaded it and enjoy listening to it.
