To plan a good lesson, sometimes the devil’s in the details. Well we’ve taken care of all of that for you, with this song and lesson plan to teach American idioms. The lesson is especially helpful for English Language Learners who often struggle with the cultural or non-literal meanings of idioms.
Lesson Objective: Learn to identify and define idioms.
1. Play the free Flocabulary song, “.” Before you begin, tell students that the song includes strange types of phrases. Ask them to think about what these strange phrases have in common while they are listening.
2. After the song, display the following sentences on the board.
Ask students to write down or discuss in small groups what they think these sentences mean. Before the students start, explain that there is something special going on with the underlined parts of the sentences, and ask if they can figure it out. Ask students to share their responses, and then discuss what these phrases have in common. Explain that all of these phrases include idioms. You may wish to group ELLs with native-English-speaking peers.
3. Define idiom: An idiom is a word or group of words where the meaning is not the same as what the words actually or literally mean. For more advanced students, you can introduce the terminology of figurative and literal language. Otherwise, replace those words with “idiom meaning” and “word meaning” to limit confusion due to difficult terminology.
4. Go through the examples on the board to show the difference between the idiom meaning and word meaning. You can project or distribute . Choose one or two idioms from the list, and draw—or call on students to draw—an illustration of the correct meaning and of the wrong meaning. Highlight the absurdity of the wrong meanings. The worksheet includes the example to “keep an eye on” someone.
5. Replay “.” Ask students to choose one or two idioms that they like in the song, and add them to the idiom dictionary. They can click on the idiom to learn its true meaning.
6. Review student knowledge of idioms with the Challenge Questions on the “” page.
7. Extend the lesson. You can:
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