Music & Figurative Language

On Instagram, I do a weekly post called “Music Monday”. These posts feature a song that can be used in the ESL or ELA classroom.

This week I’ve posted about task cards. Have you used task cards before?

These go along with the song, “Brave” by Sara Bareilles. This song has some great uses of personification, metaphor, rhyme, and alliteration. Not to mention, it has a great message about being brave to be yourself! It could be a great topic for group and class discussions.

So how do you use task cards? Here are a few ways to use task cards:

1. Groups: Each group gets 1-2 task cards to discuss and work through.
2. Pairs: Each pair gets one task-card to think-pair-share.
3. Centers: If you are setting up centers for students to rotate around, one or two centers can be task cards!
4. Exit-Slip: Choose one exit slip for the entire class to answer before they leave class, or each student chooses one (if enough cards).
5. Whole Group: choose one or two to discuss as a class.

I like using task cards in groups or centers. When in groups, I like to give students a clear TIME limit for work. For example, groups will have 4 minutes to discuss and answer their task card. Then, they rotate cards around groups. This way, groups can answer more than one task card.

Usually I leave time at the end for a whole class discussion to review some of the task cards together.

These cards are FREE and on the Resource page under “Music Monday”!

Enjoy!