How to Teach “Auld Lang Syne”
Happy New Year!
We hope you had a restful winter break and are feeling ready to dive into the second semester of the school year. We’ve experienced the new semester in two ways: you come back and pick up exactly where you left off, or you come back and realize students are still being shuffled into new classes and you need to buy some time before diving into your next unit. In either case, sometimes it’s nice to start the semester with a lesson that’s both low-stakes and engaging. To that end, we suggest starting the new year with something very old: “Auld Lang Syne.”
*If you don’t want to teach the song, but do want to address the concepts in the song, we recommend John Green’s essay on “Auld Lang Syne” from The Anthropocene Reviewed, which he read for this video essay on YouTube.*
“Auld Lang Syne” dates back to the 1700s and it’s still sung around the world today. But what do the lyrics actually mean? Where did this song come from? And why do we hold onto it year after year?
Introduction:
Ask students what the point of a tradition is, and if they have any traditions (personal, family, etc.) that they follow.
Once you have a range of answers, ask if they have any New Year traditions that they follow. They might stay up late with family, go out to find fireworks, write resolutions, etc. They may also have a tradition of going to bed early and not celebrating New Year’s Day at all. Accept all reasonable responses, and write them on the board where everyone can see them. Ideally, someone will bring up singing “Auld Lang Syne.” If not, you may need to lead them there. Once the idea exists on the board, ask students to elaborate:
What are the lyrics of the song? Based on how the words are spelled, when do they think the song was written? What country do they think the song is from? Have they heard the song in pop culture somewhere? What is it about the song that appeals to people year after year?
Identify your objectives:
Tell students the goal of this lesson: to understand the history and meaning of “Auld Lang Syne” and to examine the themes of the song that contribute to its appeal to a wide audience.
Time for a hook!
Strange as it seems, some students may not care about a 235-year-old song. So it’s time to activate some engagement. We suggest watching two videos: a clip from the end of the film When Harry Met Sally when the characters talk about the meaning of the song (here’s a 27-second clip, and here’s a 2:57 clip from the film), and a performance of the song. We like the live performance from Pentatonix and their official audio version, and the performance by the Choral Scholars of University College Dublin.
Objective check in:
Ask: based on what we heard and saw, do you have any more information about where the song might be from or what the song is about? What themes and ideas did you hear repeated in the song? Why is this song so popular, especially on New Year’s Day?
Examine the text:
Option 1: Study the text itself (original version and an updated version), study vocabulary, paraphrase difficult to understand phrases, annotate for themes, etc. Have students do a Google search on the poem itself and the author, Robert Burns. You might also listen to the Guy Lombardo version of the song—the first performance to jump start the song’s popularity as a New Year’s Eve song.
Option 2: Watch this excellent video from Vox. Vox has a 6:34 video explaining “Auld Lang Syne,” which covers the writing and meaning of the song, why it’s so popular, and how it became so popular. We like this version best, especially if you’re aiming for a low-stakes, high-engagement lesson. If you’d like to kick the rigor up a notch, have students take notes while watching the video, looking for answers to the overarching questions they’ve been trying to answer. If you need a non-video option, Vox also has a full article on the song.
Objective check in:
Remind students that these are the questions they need answers to: Where is the song from? What is the song about? What themes and ideas are present in the song? What is it about this song that makes it so popular? Why is it the anthem for New Year’s Day?
Ask students if there are any lines of the song that they still don’t feel like they understand. They may need assistance with phrases like “a cup o’ kindness” and “seas between us broad have roared.” Paraphrase together and have students take notes.
Activity: Think, Pair, Share
Give students some time to come up with answers independently (this time may just be a minute or two, depending on your students), and then ask them to review their answers with a peer before you discuss them as a class.
Activity: Class Discussion
Go through the questions again, collecting answers from a range of students.
Activity: Written response
Pick one of the questions we’ve listed below, or create one of your own. Make sure students understand how their writing will be assessed before they start writing.
How does the diction (word choice) in the poem reveal the speaker’s attitude towards “auld lang syne” or “old-times’ sake”?
What concepts or ideas in “Auld Lang Syne” make it an appropriate song to sing on New Year’s Eve?
Describe the relationship between the speaker in “Auld Lang Syne” and the person to whom he is singing (“my dear,” “we two,” “my trusty friend,” etc.).
Choose one of the music videos in which “Auld Lang Syne” is performed and explain how the visual imagery in the video connects to the themes and concepts present in the lyrics.
Here’s a list of some of the performances of “Auld Lang Syne.” There are more, but these are the ones we like the most: