Many teachers of English Language Learners have used “jazz chants” (originally developed by Carolyn Graham) in the classroom, and I thought I’d put together a quick list of useful related resources:
Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto has written an excellent blog post, including a video, sharing the process Graham uses to develop these chants.
Celebrating Twenty-Five Years Of Jazz Chants is an article from New York TESOL.
Here’s a video of Graham explaining jazz chants:
This comes from TEFL Videos:
Using Jazz Chants for Teaching Language Functions comes from The University of Delaware.
Chants for Enhancement Activities is a blog with…chants for ELLs.
Play It Again And Again, Sam is from NPR and, I think, may help explain why jazz chants are effective in language instruction.
Aeon Magazine has a similar piece on that research.
Jazz Chants can be a very effective instructional strategy with ELLs, and repetition has a lot to do with it. Here is a video from TED-Ed about why we like repetition:
Additional suggestions are welcome.
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