Music to Spark the Imagination
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Recently in my English classes, we have been examining the lyrics to our favorite songs to use in our writing. To my surprise, many of my students are coming back to me with lines from such diverse sources as Pink Floyd and/or Marvin Gaye. When I ask them where and how they found these songs,…
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As I write this post, various news reports have Joni Mitchell slipping in and out of consciousness in an L.A. hospital room. How sad for her friends, family and fans. Our prayers are with her. One of my classes is currently finishing T.C. Boyle’s The Tortilla Curtain, and they now will have to select a…
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Wait! I just asked to my students to scour Girl, Interrupted for scenes, characters, events, conversations that would make the basis of a their soundtrack selection. They are going to match their music with meaningful ideas from the book. I’ve already seen students make use of the Red Hot Chile Peppers song “Porcelin” to represent…
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To finish our semester, we are writing compare and contrast research papers. This time to coincide with the novel we are reading – Motorcycle on the Sea of Tranquility – I’ve asked my students to compare a Sixties topic to a Present Day topic. Some of the work I already have seen features the struggles…
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I just read that Taylor Swift was named after James Taylor. At her Madison Square Garden stop on her Sparks Fly tour, Taylor invited her namesake on state to sing a duet of “Fire and Rain.” How cool is that? Sweeter than fiction. We’re matching up our music with our reading. Here we choose Taylor…
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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 semester I…
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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. In English 009,…