"Martha" by Tom Waits. SONG ACTIVITY

For this St. Valentines day I prepared a song activity for my two teenage groups. It is based on a beutiful song by Tom Waits and includes predicting exercise, correcting the lyrics and discussion.
I used this song after watching the short animated film Paperman and using lesson ideas from Kieran Donaghy website. I also asked my class to write two narratives describing the story from the point of view of the man and the woman. After listening to their stories I asked them whether they think these people are still together, which led us to a discussion of not so happy love stories.
Before listening to the song, I put 5 lines from it on the board and asked students to predict what kind of love story it is (happy, sad), what happened and whether the couple is still together. Here are the lines I chose: 
a) I love you , can't you see?
b) We were so young and foolish
c) Meet me out for coffee
d) You know that I got maried, too?
e) It's been so many years.
Students suggest their ideas and then listen to the song without lyrics and put the lines in the order they hear it. The correct order is: e, c, d, b, a

While listening. I distributed the lyrics of the song with one word in every line in italics. Students have to listen again and decide whether highlighted word is correct or not. In the latter case students have to correct it.
Worksheet
Answers: days-years
thirty-forty
speak - talk
better-older
boyfriend-husband
sensible-impulsive
think - guess
feel-see

After listening. I find this song perfect for discussion. First of all, the language is relatively easy, and then it has a clear setting, story and characters. There are many opportunities for discussion. I went over each verse with my class and asked following questions

Verse 1

Who is the main character? What's his name? (Tom Frost)

What is he doing? How does he feel? (He is calling on the phone, nervous, sad)

Who is he calling? (Martha) 

What is he afraid of? Why? (that she won't remember him, it's been 40 years)

What does he suggest? (meet for coffee)

Verse 2

Where are they? (probably, at a cofee place)

What do we find out about the characters? (they are both married, Martha has kids)

How does he feel about her? (happy for her)

Verse 3
What do we find out about the character's past? (He was impulsive, they split up)

How does Tom Feel about Martha now? (He still loves her)

Chorus
When is it set? (In the past as opposed to all the verses)

What do we know about their life in the past? (They were very happy, they had romantic relationships)

Can you guess what happened between the characters? Why did they split up? (Here students can speculate based on what they found out in the verses. For example, it might have to do something with his impulsive character, the fact that he needed to assert himself as a man. Also the fact that they lived "like there is no tomorrow" can contribute to the fact that their romance was short-lived.)

Students will need to speculate using the lyrics of the song.

In the end, we listened to song one more time.  I allowed them to sing and many of them happily agreed!

Homework options: 1) Write a dialogue that could have happend between Matha and Tom in the cafe. 

2) Choose an English song about love, find lyrics to the song and compose an exercise (similar to one we did in a class or just a cloze text). On the next lesson, distribute the exercises among students and ask them to listen to the song at home and complete the lyrics.

I hope you enjoy this song and activity too!