Music is an integral part of my classes and I love when I learn a new trick to help them learn the lyrics and want to sing their little hearts out!

Every year we participate in Locura de Marzo and one of the best things about the music competition is the zillion Spanish teachers who share their ideas, talents and resources on the shared google drive and in Señor Ashby’s Locura de Marzo Facebook Group. This year Andrew Bentley shared a Chorus Flowchart, that totally blew my mind. After I tried it in class (and we loved it!) I reached out to Andrew asking if I could share his idea on my blogcito. He graciously agreed, lucky for you! Andrew teaches Spanish at Elizabethton High School in Elizabethton, TN to the best students in the world and if you’d like to reach out or have any questions for him, you can email him at andrewbentley1@gmail.com

Here’s the Chorus Flowchart that Andrew shared for the song Mejor que Ayer by Diego Torres (starting at 0:37). Students start in the top, left corner (I recommend using their finger for the first few tries and then their pencil once they’ve figured it out) and while they listen to the chorus, connect the lyrics.

Once they’ve connected the lyrics, it will look like this. Here’s the “answer key”:

The thing I LOVE is that it’s pretty challenging but students don’t get tired of hearing the chorus over and over again, because they want to figure out the puzzle. If the song is too fast, ask if they’d like the lyrics slowed down a bit. (On the YouTube video, click the gear icon at the bottom of the video, then select “playback speed” and change it to .75 to slow down the song).

I introduce some useful language to help us talk about the lyrics map as we figured it out. I write on the board Estoy perdido/a (I’m lost) and Casi lo tengo (I almost have it) and we listened to the chorus multiple times as they connected the lyrics. Of course, the High Flyers figured it out faster than the rest of the crowd, so I challenged them to sing along. By the time everyone had completed their Lyrics Maps, they had heard the chorus so many times, they couldn’t help but sing along! Thanks so much, Andrew! This is a real winner and I’ll be using it to introduce every new song!

So….the real question: how do I make my own?! I made a template for you. Once you’ve got the template and a song, figure out what part of the song you want, grab the lyrics and start pasting them in the spaces. Just be careful to put connecting lyrics next to each other. Don’t worry about formatting or sizing yet, once you have all the lyrics in place, you can highlight everything and adjust the font, centering, and sizing all at once.

If you’re having a hard time visualizing it, here’s a video of me making one, using the template:

You can make it as fancy as you want! I love Andrew’s clip art to aid in lyrics comprehension, but if you’re pressed for time, just lyrics work too! I’ve also seen other examples where teachers include the English translation below the lyrics in the same box, or gloss a few unfamiliar words so the Little Darlings can read the lyrics. You could even “comprehensify” the lyrics in simple Spanish under the actual lyrics for even more reading input.

If you want to try one in class before you create your own, here are a few ready to go: Lyrics Map for El mismo sol and here’s Camilo and Evaluna’s Índigo . As I create more Lyrics Maps, I’ll share them here.

Another neat trick is when the lyrics repeat, add in some arrows so the puzzle loops back on itself:

Try it out! I’m 98% certain this will become a winner in your classroom too! Hope everyone is doing well as we move into crazy busy time of the year!

How’s this for crazy busy? In the next 7 days I’ll chaperone prom, host our National Honor Society Induction Ceremony, coordinate AAPPL testing, bring Peruvian musicians to my school for two days and fly to Michigan for the Mitten CI Conference. Oh yeah, and my regular teaching job. Lord Jesus, help me!