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So, even though not one of my educational classes ever mentioned music, I infuse it anywhere I can, like in “The Song Project,” which you can find on this website. I also do what Mrs. Vignery did. I make connections.
A few weeks ago I connected Switchfoot’s song “Meant to Live” to John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” and Robert Burn’s “To a Mouse.” Lightbulbs came over my students’ heads as, a song that most of them knew, suddenly took on a new meaning. Natalie said, “I listened to that all the time and this was the first time I heard the line ‘or whether mice and men get second tries.’” Suddenly, for Natalie and others, a song they’d heard went to a new level. Natalie came back later and told me, “Do you know that’s (St. Louis Cardinal) Matt Holliday’s song every time he’s up to bat?” She’d connected the song even further, finding the reason behind that particular choice of song.
I use other songs as well. Since I don’t want my students to think T.S. Eliot is all doom and gloom, I taught Eliot’s “Macavity.” Then I played the Youtube clip of the song’s stage performance and told my students some of the background of the musical “Cats.” Only two of my 60 English III students had seen or heard of “Cats.” They were intrigued, and we began discussing Broadway shows like “Mamma Mia,” something the kids on the FBLA trip to NYC had just seen. The next day, after my lesson, Jack, one of my students, told me there was a local St. Louis band that had used T.S. Eliot and his poetry as the inspirations for almost all of their songs. Now, after learning about Eliot and his history with St. Louis, Jack, an aspiring musician himself, understood why.
There are many ways music can be tied into the teaching of literature. As one of their optional projects for “To Kill a Mockingbird,” my students can create 10-song CDs that represent 10 scenes in the novel and then create liner notes that explain why they chose the songs. My younger daughter had to do a similar project for “Romeo & Juliet” and she chose the band Receiving End of Sirens and chose its song “…Then, I Defy You Stars” to illustrate the scene in which Romeo says the same thing. In fact, the band’s album “Between the Heart and Synapse” is filled with songs based entirely on Shakespeare’s works. Other classroom activities can include picking five songs that represent the character’s character arc and writing paragraphs explaining why. You can also have your students begin searching their iTunes libraries for songs that use literary allusions.
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Using Music to Connect Literature
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/using-music-to-connect-literature/
(via englishteacheronline)
