Music to Spark the Imagination
-
This week in my lesson planning, I transition from POETRY ANALYSIS to SONG ANALYSIS. I will ask my student to bring in their most meaningful songs to share. We’ll look closely at the lyrics and the artists behind them. The can choose from Hip-Hop, Classic Rock, Musica Norteña. Whatever. They decide. We’ll be annotating once…
-
In English 002, I’ve asked my students to contribute songs to the Soundtrack of Our Reading. We dig deep into our musical archives to match lyrics with our text. This semester we read M. Butterfly. At the end of the play, Rene acts out his favorite scene from the opera Madame Butterfly. This is when…
-
When you read, do you ever tap your foot? Does music ever spark an idea in your head? Can you come up with a song or an artist that blends music and literature? Joyce Carol Oates wrote one of her most enduring works of short fiction after hearing Bob Dylan on the radio. At the end…
-
In a few of my classes, we we are reading a sixties novel. Along the way we discuss Cesar Chavez, Vietnam, The Moonlanding, The Women’s Movement. Our research papers explore civil rights, political upheaval, and drug abuse, among other important social and historical trends and events. Recently, I read to them something about the tragic…
-
This week, I’m having my students design and develop their writing blogs. I often regret that I didn’t have the same opportunity when I was their age. I was so shy. I didn’t talk very much. Late at night, I often put my thoughts down in a notebook but I certainly didn’t share them with…
-
When you read, do you ever tap your foot? Does music ever spark an idea in your head? Can you come up with a song or an artist that blends music and literature? Joyce Carol Oates wrote one of her most enduring works of short fiction after hearing Bob Dylan on the radio. This week, I’ve…
-
This Is What I Believe: Good teachers should know how to show a little solidarity with their students. I mean we should all value student experience. It’s not about asking students to write about their background in an introductory essay; it’s about asking them to utilize their background in everything they write. I know, I…
-
I live in Mexicali in a house full of books. When I’m invited over to my neighbors or friends, I don’t see too many. Books, that is. I have this sneaking suspicion that it might be that way for a lot of my students. I’m not saying they don’t read, but I don’t think they’ve…
-
In a year of political upheaval, I will encourage my students to explore complex social issues in their writing: civil rights, gay rights, gun violence, racism. In a few of my classes we are reading Sixties novels. We discuss Cesar Chavez and John F. Kennedy. We learn of the Moonlanding and the Vietnam War. Because…