I got this idea from someone so I cannot take credit for it, but why not use music as a way to show students that they are exposed to poetry everyday? Survey a class about poetry and see if anyone can list places that they are exposed to poetry everyday then bring up music and ask if it's poetry. As an assignment have students pick their favorite song (keeping it school appropriate of course) and have them analyze it like they would a poem.
Then, have them present what they found in the lyrics or sound of the music after the song is played allowed for everyone to hear. For the listening part I recommend using a player such as spotify, which is a free internet radio in which you can create playlists. It has just about every kind of genre of music which would be great to create playlists for students to listen to while doing creative writing.
I think that this is a great idea, Janet! Students listen to music every day and feel a connection to it that sometimes cannot be explained. Personally, I know that music can effect my mood and my productivity. And sometimes music is the only thing that can bring me out of a bad mood. Plus music is a form of poetry that students don't even realize that they are taking part in. Why not bring that into the classroom and make the material relevenat and accessable to the students rather than just some stuffy and dull stuff in a book?
ReplyDeleteI agree that music is a powerful tool and that poetry can definitely be found in music. I personally have an obsession with song writing and lyrics, so I think that this would be a great idea to help students be less intimidated by the concept of poetry. After all, they are surrounded by it and are constantly enjoying it, without even realizing it!
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome that other people are picking up on this. I incorporated this idea into a lesson that I presented last semester for Teaching Writing. I passed out the lyrics to a hip-hop song, and then I played it on the smart board. I followed the viewing up with a group of questions that asked the students to identify certain poetic devices within the song. I found this an effective way to not only teach poetry, but also expose students to positive music, something that is needed in today's society. Thank you for blogging about this and keeping the struggle alive, poetry will never die, but it might change mediums.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea. It's definitely one that I see working very nicely with high school students. I see it as an especially good way of easing students into the often scary world of poetry. Also, it gives kids that sense of ownership when they get to analyze one of the songs they love instead of a poem by some long-dead poet.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you mentioned using Spotify in class, which I think is a great idea. I personally love Spotify. There's a great app on there called TuneWiki which will sync music lyrics to scroll down the screen while the song plays. This could be very helpful for this project.