LESSON PLAN Tom Thum: the Orchestra in My Mouth (11:38)

From How to Teach with TED Talks: A Practical Guide for English Teachers by Lewis Lansford

LESSON PLAN Tom Thum: The orchestra in my mouth (11:38)

This is a very accessible TED Talk. Although it’s nearly 12 minutes long, more than half of the talk is music. This gives us plenty of opportunity to engage with a TED Talk and bring loads of language into the classroom without having to do a lot of challenging listening.

Warm up Introduce the topic of music by asking some or all of these questions. • What songs are popular now? • When and where do you listen to music? • What type of music do you listen to? • Do you play an instrument? Listening 1 Tell the class you’re going to play some music for them. If possible, to maintain an element of surprise, don’t tell them it’s a TED Talk or show them the video. 2 Play the TED Talk from 8:35 to the end. This is the part of the talk where Tom creates an entire jazz band. Ask the students simply to note down what they hear when they listen: musical instruments, other sounds, the style of music – anything that comes to mind. Words that are likely to come up: jazz, concert, performance, drums, bass, trumpet, voice, audience, applause, people, person, song, etc. Really, any vocabulary that the students come up with is worth bringing into the class. 3 After you’ve listened once, get students to share the words they noted down. This is a good time to introduce some grammar, either explicitly, by writing sentence stems on the board, or implicitly, by modelling sentences, or repeating back students ideas using these grammar points. The grammar you introduce will depend on the level of your classes. Here a few possibilities:

Present simple It’s a (concert, band, jazz club, etc.) There is/are (instruments, a band, a bass, a trumpet, drums) Past simple It was …, There was …, I heard … Present continuous A band is playing. Some people are clapping. A person is playing the trumpet. Past continuous A band was playing. Some people were clapping. A person was playing the trumpet.

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Modals of It could be (a concert, a band, a jazz club, etc.). It might conjecture be …, It must be … (present) Modals of It could’ve been …, It might’ve been …, It must’ve been conjecture (present … perfect) Passives Music was being played. A concert was performed. The audience could be heard. Rather than focus too much on teaching or practicing grammar, you may also just notice the grammar that naturally arises as students talk about what they’ve heard. Watching 4 Now, tell students that they’ve been listening to part of a TED Talk. Play the talk and have the students watch it, from 8:35 to the end. If students don’t know the word, you can introduce beatboxing – the art of making music only with your mouth, and beatboxer – a person who does beatboxing. This could be a good opportunity to focus on adjectives: It’s surprising. I feel surprised. He’s talented. The music is amazing. I feel amazed by it. Again, your students’ own reaction to the material will guide the language that comes up in class. Notice what they’re saying – and perhaps more importantly what they’re trying to say – and give them the support they need to express themselves. 5 There are a couple of options now. It would be possible to do some traditional listening at this point, with the introduction to the talk, which starts at the beginning and ends at about 00:45. However, this part of the talk could easily be skipped. In it, he says he wants to come clean (tell the truth) about his work, which he usually does in seedy downtown bars (drinking places that aren’t very nice) and on street corners. He’s jokingly giving the impression that what he does for a living is somehow immoral. If you think it’s appropriate for your class, there’s no problem playing it. But if you’d rather not deal with that material, then I suggest playing the talk from 00:45 to 3:10. This is a further demonstration of Tom’s beatboxing. Pause at 3:10 and invite students to respond a bit more to the performance. The first piece sounds like electronic music, and includes a technique called scratching, that’s usually made by turning a vinyl record quickly back and forth on a turntable. 6 This is the best opportunity for more traditional listening. From 3:10 to 5:00, Tom introduces himself and describes his work. Here’s some key vocabulary that you could pre-teach: effects (electronic tools that change natural sounds), microphone (an electronic tool that makes your voice louder), stoked (very happy), innate ability (natural talent or skill), niche market (specialized area), cultural hub (a place that’s very important for the arts).

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What students should take away from this section: • Tom creates the sounds using only his voice. • This is his job/career, and he loves it. • His hometown of Brisbane is small and not very exciting. • He travels the world as a performer. 7 Now play 5:00 to 6:30. This is ‘a musical journey around the world,’ where he creates traditional Australian didgeridoo music, Indian music and Chinese music. As previously, ask your students to describe the sounds they hear, and discuss their reaction. 8 From 6:30 to 7:15 is the second opportunity for traditional listening practice. In this part of the talk, Tom describes the technology he uses to record some of his sounds and build up songs. The equipment he demonstrates are Kaoss Pads. Because of the matching modality, the meaning of following words is obvious from watching the video: reverb (an echo sound), unison (together), pads (the flat surfaces he touches to make sounds), sample (to record sounds), loop (to repeat sounds). He also says I’ve got way too much time on my hands, which means I’m not busy enough or I don’t have enough to do. What he means is that many people would consider his art a waste of time. 9 This brings us back to the point where we began. If your students would like to watch the final performance of the talk again, play it for them. Or you could suggest that they watch the talk again in their own time, outside of class. After watching 10 What you do next will depend on your teaching context. Here are a few ideas: • Tom described his job – travelling the world beatboxing. Prepare a short introduction of your job. • Tom clearly has talent. But is making music with his mouth art, or is it just entertainment? What’s the difference? • Some people would describe Tom’s job as a dream job. What’s your dream job? • Tom performed a wide variety of musical styles. What music do you most enjoy? What do you like about it? Who are your favourite artists?