I originally introduced Stromae's Alors on danse as a flashmob dance for students to learn and present at our school's annual French fête. If you haven't tried it before, starting class with 3 minutes of dancing in the target language is a huge win: you've got a brain wake-up, happy vibes, and student-student connection all balled into one.
After a week or two of dancing, it dawned on me that this song, about life's stresses and the role of dance as a release, was a natural fit with our current unit on les loisirs et la qualité de vie. A mini-unit was born. My resources for the unit can be found on my Pinterest board: the official music video (not appropriate for my students as it features excessive drinking), the how-to choreography video, and the flashmob being performed at Disneyland Paris. There's also a remix with Kanye West and a translated rhyming version in English. My favorite is the spoof of the song's making-of featuring Stromae and Jamel Debbouze. |
Interpretive & Presentational Activities
My packet of interpretive and presentational activities include a simple biography of Stromae with comprehension questions, adapted from the TV5 lessons about this song. I prefer to give interpretive tasks in English, as you will see, in order to get at students' best understanding of the text. There's also an interpretive activity with a hilarious video of Stromae and Jamel Debbouze that skewers the song's writing in a way that even my beginners could understand. Once they start to hear the song's sound effects as those of a thirsty dog and a sick duck, you've won them over! We watched an M6 interview with Stromae and completed an interpretive activity about it that introduces students (albeit fleetingly) to some of his other songs.
I particularly like the conclusion of this mini-unit, which brings students into the presentational mode with some creative work.. Students first wrote an optimistic version of the song, which really pushed them to dig deep for lots of vocabulary. Next, students wrote their own versions of the song in which they described their own life stresses and how they seek release. Here's one example, warts and all:
Qui dit bus de l'école dit réveil
Qui dit études dit examen
Qui dit examen dit notes
Qui dit notes dit stresser
Qui dit stresser dit devoirs
Qui dit devoirs dit travail
Qui dit travail dit fatigue
Qui dit fatigue dit reveil
Alors on achete
Qui dit amour dit les gosses (brother)
Dit toujours et dit problems
Qui dit problems dit fâché
Qui dit fâche dit cri
Qui dit cri dit lance
Qui dit lance dit les parents
Alors on achete
I particularly like the conclusion of this mini-unit, which brings students into the presentational mode with some creative work.. Students first wrote an optimistic version of the song, which really pushed them to dig deep for lots of vocabulary. Next, students wrote their own versions of the song in which they described their own life stresses and how they seek release. Here's one example, warts and all:
Qui dit bus de l'école dit réveil
Qui dit études dit examen
Qui dit examen dit notes
Qui dit notes dit stresser
Qui dit stresser dit devoirs
Qui dit devoirs dit travail
Qui dit travail dit fatigue
Qui dit fatigue dit reveil
Alors on achete
Qui dit amour dit les gosses (brother)
Dit toujours et dit problems
Qui dit problems dit fâché
Qui dit fâche dit cri
Qui dit cri dit lance
Qui dit lance dit les parents
Alors on achete