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Author Topic: Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' song lesson  (Read 12506 times)

Offline lindsaydp1

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Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' song lesson
« on: June 15, 2011, 04:26:15 PM »
Hi all

So here is one-class lesson on Bruno Mars' song, Count on me. It's a really easy and fun song, with no controversial lyrics or drama! It's good for my lower level HS kids, as there are only a few verses and an easy chorus.

Attached are lyrics with gaps to fill in, and a PPT with some new vocab (taken from the missing words in the song). The way I usually do a music lesson is thus: I play the song once (no TV on, just the song) and have them scribble down all the English words they hear, then we brainstorm for a few minutes. They like this a lot, oddly enough!

Then I hand out the lyrics sheets and play the song again, twice. They usually have all the words down by the second listen. I then go through the lyrics slowly, with the help of the PPT, so explain all the words and phrases they might not know. There is some Korean in there (My CT helped with those so maybe get yours to check them!)

I will then play the second video, which is the same song but done with animation that matches the lyrics. It's really cute and very Asian in style, so they should like it. I'll then have a general discussion about friendship, what you'd do for a friend, what wouldn't you do, are you a dependable mate, etc...

My kids really like Bruno Mars, so this should work well. I'll try it out next week!


« Last Edit: June 18, 2011, 10:51:56 AM by shhowse »

Offline pureminstrel

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Re: Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' lesson
« Reply #1 on: June 15, 2011, 05:30:57 PM »
This is fabulous! One quick question, though, when you say that you "brainstorm" are you saying that the kids will try to remember the song and come up with words that could possibly fill the blanks? 

Offline lindsaydp1

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Re: Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' lesson
« Reply #2 on: June 15, 2011, 06:01:41 PM »
No, I do that before I even give them the lyric sheets. They just have to write down all the words they hear, without the benefit of seeing them. So they have to really listen, rather than read. Then I just get them to yell them out and I write them on the board. If one happens to correspond with a missing word on the sheet them I'll point it out later:)

Offline gookduballstar

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Re: Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' lesson
« Reply #3 on: June 15, 2011, 06:29:24 PM »
Thanks for this! I teach at an all girls middle school and my girls all seem to really like Bruno. I'm sure they will love this, especially the cute animation at the end. cheers

Offline pureminstrel

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Re: Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' lesson
« Reply #4 on: June 16, 2011, 12:04:01 PM »
Awesome!  Thank you for this.  I'm teaching a song next week, but i'll be teaching it to 11 classes!!! I would be bored stiff with just one song. This one will definitely work way better for my girls. 
« Last Edit: June 16, 2011, 12:05:49 PM by pureminstrel »

Ochodnid

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Re: Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' lesson
« Reply #5 on: June 16, 2011, 12:58:35 PM »
Thanks for posting this. I will toss is my archive and use it at a later date. I am teaching "You belong with me" by Taylor Swift next week to my High School girls. I would toss this in there, but if I do, they will riot and kill me lol.

Offline agarrett

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Re: Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' lesson
« Reply #6 on: June 16, 2011, 01:34:59 PM »
Great for my after school class! Thanks!!!!

Offline UK girl

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Re: Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' lesson
« Reply #7 on: June 16, 2011, 01:50:05 PM »
Wow, great. Thank you! Really wanted to do a Bruno Mars song but even though someone posted a slightly cleaner version of 'The Lazy Song', I still felt it was too rude for my 5/6th graders (Elementary!!!)

I do a song after school lesson every Tuesday for them in the same format and they love it!

I think you should add this to existing threads about pop songs etc, as it will be easier for people to find. I know I always do general searches like that anyway! I don't want it to go unnoticed! Thanks again!

Offline AlexZacharias

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Re: Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' song lesson
« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2011, 01:52:44 PM »
This is great! I love a straight forward, easy to follow lesson:)

Offline ThuyKha

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Re: Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' song lesson
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2011, 02:16:58 PM »
In regards to doing lessons on songs, my partner and I have also created this template during one of your orientation. They're famous songs that your students can compare/contrast with - What's Love Got to Do with it and All We Need is Love. The students highly enjoy discussing the lyrics as well as dictating what each phrase may mean to each artist.

Offline CellarDoor

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Re: Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' song lesson
« Reply #10 on: February 06, 2012, 02:19:26 PM »
I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but there's a Korean cover of this song by G.NA and Lee Gi Chan too, so students may be very familiar with the chorus since a lot of it is still in English in the Korean version of this "ballad."  Here's the link to the Korean version.

http://music.daum.net/album/main?album_id=560835

I really like the song now that I've listened to it, I just hope students won't be too familiar with it since the Korean language version was released in May 12. ;)

Here's another link to a redux of the Bruno Mars music vid, since the others were taken down:
  They stepped it down to a lower key and it's a video carefully put together from his other music, but still pretty nice.  Just... not a consistent narrative or anything.  I haven't seen the original if there is one, so I don't know how to compare the two.

Offline akarnold

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Re: Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' song lesson
« Reply #11 on: March 05, 2012, 10:14:47 AM »
This is a great format for teaching general vocabulary.  Does anyone know of a good song that uses the conditional/subjunctive formations of "I wish I were...I would..."???  I have to teach a lesson on this for my high school 1st graders and I think they would really like to hear a song with the language first.

Thanks!

Offline CellarDoor

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Re: Bruno Mars- 'Count on me' song lesson
« Reply #12 on: April 05, 2012, 02:22:23 PM »
This is a great format for teaching general vocabulary.  Does anyone know of a good song that uses the conditional/subjunctive formations of "I wish I were...I would..."???  I have to teach a lesson on this for my high school 1st graders and I think they would really like to hear a song with the language first.

Thanks!

...Hmm... well, the Oscar Meyer theme song...?  Haha, there must be something better than that out there though. That jingle definitely has both "I wish I were" and I[woul]'d in it.

 

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