SLS Activities
The basic SLS activity can be done with any subtitled musical DVD.
I suggest using a good video projector and good sound.
Source for Video
Most DVD musicals come with decent subtitling and will work for this activity.Even better, you can edit DVD video to produce fairly high quality dynamic subtitling on most computers. See resource section for recommended programs.
Making Work Sheets
1) Librettos and lyrics are generally available online and can be purchased.
2) Texts need to be proofed as they will rarely exactly match audio.
3) Most language tools can not check readability w/out corrected punctuation. Add/correct punctuation.
4) Worksheet activities should target your students reading level and needs. See recommended assessment tools.
5) A basic cloze-style worksheet works well, & use short response questions. See worksheet section for ideas.
Basically for 15-20 minutes at the beginning of classes the students:
1. watch three brief repetitions of projected SLS musical video; (SLS plays before classes, three repetitions after bell to start each class, and played during passing times.) This is a very good starter activity --the volume and the strength of the video tends to eliminate disruptive behaviors. Teacher should model focus, tracking strategies, echo singing, etc.
2. while watching: complete cloze-style worksheets (Lyrics with blanks based on a pattern, such as type of word, related vocabulary, alliterations, etc.), this response sheet also can include short responses questions.
The entire activity can take less than 20 minutes per day. The source materials for this activity can come from popular story-musicals containing lyrics well above students’ instructional reading levels and can be paired with class reading activities.
For beginners I would suggest trying the Lion King, or Beauty and the Beast, for secondary students I would suggest Les Miserables and Hugo's novel, ‘Cats’ and ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’, 'Big River' and Huckleberry Finn. The idea is to choose source material that will both challenge and engage your students.
The activity must include a worksheet task (cloze, proofreading/editing) and echo reading/rehearsed reading/ or sing-a-longs.
The worksheet task is important; it would be so simple if they would all just voluntarily focus on learning the lyrics, however in the practical application the students need a simple task to complete, one that promotes both repetition and focus. The idea is to promote the active tracking of the subtitling. Pick exercises to target reading strategies, story elements and vocabulary from related reading assignments.Once the students get engaged they will slowly take over and the singing and learning will become spontaneous.
Teach/Student produced SLS
Teachers (and students) can also produce subtitled multi-media files themselves.
This type of SLS activity centers on creating and manipulating subtitling with audio and visual files. This activity starts with students producing Karaoke versions of their favorite songs and quickly progresses to work products for class use. For this activity, my students learned to use ‘Karafun’ (a free karaoke production program), and Microsoft Word and PowerPoint programs.
For this type of SLS activity students:
(1) create exact matching transcripts for their assigned audio content, including marking syllabication
(2) combine text, audio and visual files to create a multimedia file
(3) synchronize the text timing with the audio;
(4) add background video and convert composition into presentation format;
(5) make engagement worksheet or vocabulary activities.
Steps one and three are the most time and labor intensive, since these steps required the students to listen to audio multiple times and to create, match and synchronize texts to the audio file. These projects are then incorporated into the classroom SLS presentation activity. I have used this format in my classroom for three years. During that time, in addition to some very well produced Karaoke products, students recorded SLS audio-text books, created SLS poetry slams, explored American rhetoric, and created vocabulary mash-ups with popular music
There is also a professional version of Karafun and many more programs and activities that can be used in conjunction with SLS.