Sheltering Change, more ideas for your lessons

I've always loved this song (written by Jagger/Richards, and released on the Stones' Let It Bleed album towards the end of 1969), and, as you probably already know, I'm very fond of Playing for Change, too. They are good enough reasons for me to link it here in this blog.

But how can we use it in our lessons, you might ask. Well, think about it and tell me!

I can think of numerous ideas - I'll just give you a few clues.

Before you even start playing the song, look at the title, 'Playing for Change'. What is change? What does playing for change mean? What does this organisation stand for? How did it start?

Then, the title of the song, 'Gimme shelter'. What's 'gimme'? What's shelter? What collocations can you think of? What do you think the song is about?

There is also the caption: It is in the shelter of each other that the people live

Have you heard of it? It's an Irish proverb. What do you think the 'shelter' here refers to? Why the definite article in 'the people'?

Finally, make sure they know what 'sign up' and 'mailing list' are.

So, even before you play the song, there's enough material for a whole lesson, depending on your class.

So, you've played the song; you've rocked the building, the DOS has come to see what's going on..., now what do you do?

Where were the musicians from? Can you name the country and nationality? How many instruments appeared in the video? How many can you name? Webquest: find out the names of those you don't know. Which instrument did you like best? Which performer? Which singer?

Diagnose the lyrics. Focus on phrases such as:

• a storm is threat'ning my very life today
• I'm gonna fade away
• It's such a shot away
• the whole of the third verse

The whole song is very metaphoric. Elicit interpretation. Elicit more examples. Get them to write more verses in groups. Choose the best.

More stuff you can use:

Related posts:

Building a school from the ground up

"When you educate a girl, you educate the whole world"

We are the champions: one song, countless activities

Singapore rocks F1 again! Reading comprehension

Read the short text and answer the questions that follow.

Last year, we saw the first Formula 1 night race being inaugurated amidst the bright Singapore night, and we saw how fortune smiled on Alonso making him the surprise winner in spite of having a lacklustre Renault under his control.While it's doubtful whether Alonso can turn the wheel of fortune to his favour again, we can be sure of yet another fascinating inauguration. Formula 1 now wants to present not just a grand sporting event, but a grand entertainment package: this year, the sounds of the engines roaring at more than 300 km/hour will not be the only noise that cuts across the Singapore night skyline, but spectators will also be rocking to music from the likes of people like ZZ Top, Simple Minds and Beyoncé.

F1 ROCKS™, stretching from 24-26 Sep, will be broadcast around the globe. Would we see Schumi trying to sweat excess baggage off, or Alonso bopping with Hamilton to Beyoncé?

Now, answer the following questions.

1. The English language has quite a few idioms with the word 'fortune', two of which were used in this post. What are their equivalents in your language?

2. Very often, we don't say what we mean directly, but we used metaphors and other means, and you'd need to read between the lines to see the hidden meaning. Could you explain what I was trying to say or refer to when I wrote the following?

a. 'the noise ... cuts across the ... night'
b. 'Schumi trying to sweat excess baggage off' and
c. 'Alonso bopping with Hamilton...'
d. '... the bright Singapore night'