I've received so much from other's on this site, I feel I'm way overdue in giving back. So here goes!
For over a year now, I have been starting each 2nd year class (in Middle School) with Slang of the Day. I play them a music video (either K-Pop or US-Pop found on YouTube) and ask them simply to listen for ANY English words they hear. After the video, I ask them what words they remember hearing-hopefully they'll mention the ones I'm going to teach, but it doesn't really matter if they don't. Then, I show them a short and simple power point explaining 1-2 slang phrases or words from the song using the most eye-catching/provocative pictures that I can. Sometimes my slides will have a "sounds like" picture vs. "real meaning" picture. With the help of a CT's translation, I get them to understand and repeat it outloud as a class for a few times.
Note on why this is worth it
The main point of this is just to start with something fun and engaging. It gets them excited for class and they look forward to it each week. I keep this exercise exclusively to my 2nd years to give them an added sense of "specialness". Based on some candid conversations with students and observations from over a year of teaching, I feel that 2nd year is the worst year both academically and socially for middle school students. This often leads to behavior issues and bad attitude toward school. The music videos give them a little break from all the bore, drama, and stress of the day. So yeah, it's not all that practical from an academic perspective, but its other benefits like class control, engagement of students, etc, make it worth doing.
Regardless of your love/hate/disdain of K-Pop, the majority of our students listen to it and love it. It's been really helpful for me as a teacher to build relationships by meeting them where they're at.
I'm attaching a directory of K-Pop songs, artist names, slang, date, and student reaction. I'm also attaching the power points I've made thus far. Not all of the songs have power points yet and not all of them have been tested out on classes. Please note: my power points are super duper simple so if you like pretty ones you'll have to jazz it up yourself.
Also, I try to stick to clean cut videos. I don't show any videos containing alcohol usage, profanity, or anything too hot and heavy. Be careful! Watch the video ALL THE WAY THROUGH before you show it to the class (I speak from personal experience here, there are some nasty suprises). Most K-Pop groups will make an Adult Version of their MV and a TV/Clean Version. I also try to choose videos with English subs.
Final note of credit: This was not my original idea. I got it at GEPIK training from Simon and Martina of Eat Your Kimchi. So THANK YOU Simon and Martina for the great idea!!
