While teenagers learn...

Recently I've been through this very interesting experience in class... I was teaching lesson C5 (Young Express 5), which is a lesson about talking about necessary changes in life. So, students learn how to use "wish", "If only" and some other structures. Well, one of my students has recently been grounded by her parents. I've spoken to her mother and I don't need to say that she's been very sad: I guess anyone here can imagine what it is like to be a 16-year-old with no TV, no phone, no internet, no parties... Although she's usually very talkative and funny, she's been very quiet these days, for obvious reasons.

While I was drilling with students, and getting some examples from them, she was looking down, writing on a piece of paper. She didn't seem to be paying attention to the class at all, so I went near her to see what was going on. I asked her to see what was written on the piece of paper and those happened to be the lyrics to this song.



The whole song brings lots of  "I wish" examples. Since, at a first moment, I didn't know those were lyrics I asked her: "Is this a poem?" She said, "No, teacher, those are lyrics to "The Nicest Thing". "Is it cool?", I asked. "Not really, it's depressing, but it's beautiful!"

I went on with the lesson and still had 10 minutes. I had planned to use some of the activities in the Activity Book, but decided to make use of the "hint" that student had just given me. So I looked up for the video on You Tube and found this animation. We watched the video together and, after that, we discussed the meaning of the sentences in the lyrics and if they had ever been through such an obsessive relationship. They told me very interesting stories.

What really caught my eye was that, as a matter of fact, although she was not looking at me and repeating the sentences with the students, she was paying attention to the lesson. But her mind was processing "I wish" in a different way. She remembered the song that, actually, had a lot to do with the way she was feeling. Needless to say she paid a lot of attention to the class when I showed the video and started the discussion. Her participation  changed completely, and the students got very excited about each other's stories.