The Sound of Silence is a very powerful song and although it is from a very remote past for our teens, they love it when they hear.
When I do the song in the class, I choose images from the web. Just type ‘silence’ and choose the images you want to use in your lessons.
I chose the following photos;
A. Discussion Questions
- List the words or phrases that come to your mind when you hear the word ‘silence’.
- List the antonyms of ‘silence’.
- Compare the silence visualized in the pictures.
- Have you experienced a situation when there was deadly silence?
B. Guess the meanings of the underlined words:
- My brother came home very late and crept into his room so as not to wake dad up.
- He killed his victim by stabbing with a kitchen knife.
- Don’t dare to come home late again. Your dad will be furious.
- He bowed his head when he saw the principal.
- The concert didn’t start and the audience became restless.
C. Understanding the song:
- The singer says ‘hello darkness, my old friend’ What does he want to say?
- Is he alone in his dream? Does that make any difference? Why or why not?
- What does silence refer to in this song?
- Does the melody help you convey the meaning of the song? How?
D. Follow up:
You have to choose 2 of the tasks.
Write your own poem called ‘The Sound of Silence’
Summarise the song creating a comic. You can use the following comic creators: http://www.creaza.com/frontpage
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com
Make a presentation visualizing the song.
You can use powerpoint or glogster or photopeach/animoto.
My students’ responses to the follow-up tasks
