Shakira’s new song, whether you love it or hate it, is too good to ignore! Now, I don’t think it’s very nice to rip someone apart publicly, but I can’t help but marvel at the stinging cleverness of her lyrics, and how much fun this song is to sing! My Little Darlings are already obsessed and we’re just getting started.

Kara Jacobs jumped in with both feet and started working her magic, doing what she does best, dissecting and comprehensifying authentic resources. You’ve got to check out her blog post: Shakira: chisme y un diss track, where you’ll find everything you need to catch your Little Darlings up on the Shakira-Piqué drama, the song, the lyrics, and because Kara is incredible, she created materials for your novices AND intermediates and shared everything for FREE over on her blog, so you’ve got to check it out.

Kara’s Shakira Diss Track Resources

Watching Kara dig in and create inspired me, so I did what I do best: make it a game!

After students have heard the song and know the premise, but before you’ve analyzed the lyrics, play:

Shakira’s Lyrics Game for NOVICES

Shakira’s Lyrics Game for INTERMEDIATES

To play:

• Divide your class into small groups, and give each group a mini whiteboard, marker and eraser.
• Project a slide, play the video snippet of the song, and give students time to read together as a group Shakira’s lyric and the interpretations of the lyric. They decide which interpretation Shakira meant, and write their answer on their board.
• Students show their boards, the teacher advances the slide to reveal the correct interpretation, all correct teams throw a dice to determine their points, and add their points to their score.
• Then the teacher advances to the next slide and the fun begins again.
• Since my Little Darlings LOVE singing this year, we’ll practice singing each line a few times until we have it down, before we move onto the next part of the song. If your Little Darlings don’t love singing, don’t make them…the game is supposed to be fun! Or…you could make it part of the game, practice a few times, then listen to them sing (with Shakira!) and award the best team (by best I mean loudest and most enthusiastic) with an additional dice roll. 🎲🎤

The difference between the Novice and Intermediate version is that the Big Kids have to read the line, then write their own interpretation, without the 3 options. Decide which version would be best for your Little Darlings 🙂

I can’t wait to play once we wrap up finals next week! Hope your 2023 is off to a great start!