Live Like You Were Dying ESL Music Lesson

One of my favorite types of lessons are the ones that are inspired from other things in the world: like music. Students love learning and hearing English songs in class, and playing songs breathes an air of fun and life into your classroom.

This music lesson is based off of Tim McGraw’s Live Like You Were Dying song. In the song, Tim McGraw sings about a man who gets bad news from a doctor, and dedicates the rest of the time he has left to living the life he’d always imagined. He goes skydiving and bull riding and spends more time with his family and learns to forgive. In the end, he says he hopes everyone gets the chance to “live like they were dying.”

It's a simple song with accessible vocabulary, but it lends itself to a lot of great discussion. My students always enjoy the idea of a bucket list or dreaming of the future.

Here’s the format I follow for the lesson plan:

1) Have students read the lyrics

I’ve found students are more responsive if they have the chance to read the lyrics before we listen to or discuss the song. You could print them out, put them on the board or PowerPoint, or my favorite, send it to them electronically. I encourage students to look up any words they’re not familiar with. Here’s a link to the lyrics:  https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/7168773/tim+mcgraw/live+like+you+were+dying

2) Discuss basic vocabulary

Depending on your students’ level, you might need to discuss or explain a few vocabulary words or phrases. This song also has a lot of native phrases that students might not make sense at the surface level. Here are a few words they might not know:

• Early forties

• Sank in

• Hit you

• Skydiving

• Denying

• Imposition

• Took a good, long, hard look

• Eternity

3) Listen to the song

In the past, I would play the official music video in class, but I’ve found that playing a lyric video works much better, since it’s easier to follow along and helps students not get lost in the lyrics. Before we listen, I challenge students to write down or remember a list of all the things the man did after he got the bad news. This helps students focus on the task and helps get them focused on the key idea of things you want to do in your life, which will come up later in the lesson. Here’s the official music video: https://youtu.be/_9TShlMkQnc and here’s the lyric video I use: https://youtu.be/N1NpRAYGC-k

4) Discuss what the man does

If students are at a lower level, I’ll usually give them a few minutes to discuss with each other about what they remember from the song. Once students have worked other to collect their list of all the things the man did, then I’ll ask the class to tell me what bucket list items they found. If students are at a higher level, then I’ll have the class tell me the advice they remember immediately after watching the song

Here's what the man did once he got the bad news:

• He went skydiving

• He went bull riding

• He loved deeper

• He spoke sweeter

• He gave forgiveness he’d been dying

• He was finally the husband he wanted to be

• He became a better friend

• He suddenly thought doing simple things like going fishing wasn’t such a hassle

• He finally read the Bible

• He took a hard look at his life

• He watched an eagle as it was flying

5) Conversation Activities

Now that we’ve heard and discussed the song, let’s give students a chance to create their own conversations and share their own ideas! Here are a few conversation questions I give students to turn into separate conversational activities.

• What things are on your bucket list?

• What things you do you want to do in your life?

• What would you do if you got bad news like this?

• How can you live to make each day more meaningful?

If you’re looking for more ideas for lessons based on songs, check out my Letter to Me lesson here: https://www.atlasteaching.com/lesson-planning/lettertomeesllesson