How to teach "Amor de mis amores" by Natalia LaFourcade
Any chance that you're feeling a bit intimidated by the thought of teaching music in the target language as a classroom warm-up? I know that when I first started this technique in my classroom, it seemed a bit daunting. But the rewards of a lively and musical start to your day with your students is well worth the work to try a new strategy in the classroom. In fact, it is the perfect bridge to help your students switch their brains to the immersive classroom experience in an engaging way.
So, where do you start? The first song that I ever taught in the classroom as a song warm-up was the beautifully simple song Amor de mis amores by Mexican artist Natalia Lafourcade. Natalia has since become a favorite artist of my students, for her beautiful voice, haunting lyrics, and the hip beat that she infuses into her songs.
Amor de mis amores is an ideal song to introduce students to the song warm-up procedure, as the tune is slow and the lyrics are clearly enunciated and simple.
This tune was originally written by Agustín Lara, and adapted in a beautiful, modern rendition by Natalia Lafourcade and Devendra Banhart.
I hope that you'll take a chance and try the song warm-up procedure! Perhaps, with this simple and engaging tune, you'll find the procedure not as daunting as it may have first seemed.
I have created a song resource, with instructions, for the tune which can be found by clicking this link.
To see a live version of Natalia performing the piece, follow this link.
Enjoy! Happy teaching!
The instructions for the song warm-up activity can be found here.