One for the books

[porcupinepie]

So I've spent the last couple of hours working on the lesson I'm teaching tomorrow. We're doing a poetry unit, and most of the students want to talk about rap, listen to rap, write rap... So I'm doing a short history and a lesson based on a Kanye West song (Family Business). I'll be curious to see if they'll actually take on writing something or

Comments

[esperanzazine]

that sounds like a great exercise! i used to do similar stuff in my classes, use music to introduce them to analyzing poetry, and i was teaching college kids! i would say definitely put it in your portfolio, and show how innovative and in-touch you are!

[rudbekia]

It might up your cred with your students. Or it might not. When I was in 9th grade my English teacher took this approach - lyrics as poetry. Here are some of the songs he selected:

"Dust in the Wind" (Kansas)
"Little Boxes" (Pete Seeger)
"Thirty Thouasand Tons of Bananas" (Harry Chapin)
"Cat's in the Cradle" (Harry Chapin)
"Stairway to Heaven" (Led Zeppelin)
and the one current song he used was "Kyrie Eleison" (Mr. Mister). This was in 1985. I want to say he also used "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," but I'm not positive about that. It sure fits though!

[porcupinepie]

Wow--the lesson must have made an impression if you still remember it so well. Hey, but those are classics!

I actually saw Mr. Mister in concert. The Bangles were the opening act! I believe it was 1986, at the Allentown fairgrounds. And, lapsed Catholic that I was, that song spoke to me!

[rudbekia]

Well, yes, the songs clearly stuck with me. But the only "new" (to me) songs were "Little Boxes" and "Thirty Thousand Tons of Bananas". Everything else was just so, well, dorky. And so true to the teacher (imagine if you will Grizzly Adams as a high school English teacher).

[24hourmama]

I'm sure this sounds very eighties, but YOU TOTALLY ROCK!!!