My students love music. They love everything and almost anything, so I try to use it in class as much as possible. Using music correctly is tricky, but I think I have it down. I have a few basic rules, some that apply to me and some that apply to them:
1. Always provide students with a complete copy of lyrics (if available).
2. Require students to mark up their copy of the text as the song plays – think “active reading skills.”
3. Listen to the entire recording of the song prior to class. Make sure it is the EXACT clip you plan on playing.
4. If the song is short, play it twice and have them free-write the second time through.
5. I will usually require them to write down two adjectives, two adverbs, two nouns, and two verbs that come to mind.
6. I will also usually ask students to write an additional verse. These can be great – I have a lot of “aspiring” MCs in my class. The additional verses to Take the A Train and the dust bowl ballads were only incredible.
7. Run through the rules and expectations before every song. I rolled out the rules the first time, and now I have students list them off.
8. One student always repeats the disclaimer: “There is no expectation that you are going to love this jam. You may hope you never hear it again. Very few of us are going to run home and download it, but, that doesn’t mean that we can’t listen respectfully and learn something from the song.”
9. Other rules include, absolutely no ‘mocking’ the song or disrupting class in anyway. You are welcome to tap your foot or sing along quietly, but as soon as you become the focus of the song and not the song itself, you will be asked to leave the class.
Below is an abbreviated list of songs I have used. Any other suggestions? Would love the song title and the subject matter.
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - The Band: End of the Civil War, Southern Pride, Reconstruction (Thanks Mrs. H. for this idea.)
Talkin World War III Blues - Bob Dylan: McCarthyism, the Red Scare, and the Cold War.
Blowing Down That Old Dusty Road - Woody Guthrie: Great Depression, Dust Bowl
A Change Is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke: Civil Rights Era
I used a ton of Duke Ellington and Bessie Smith, among others, for our unit on the Harlem Renaissance, but that is material for another post.
The end of the year is creeping up on me. There is a ton going on, but I am trying to stay focused on what is going on in the classroom. We are wrapping up our unit on the Cold War this week and doing a quick two units on Civil Rights and modern America before a week or two of review for state test. It is a necessary evil, but we have to spend a lot of time reviewing everything. We haven’t studied pre-Reconstruction since 7th grade and that makes up half of the New York State Social Studies test.
I am not completely thrilled with how I taught the Cold War. I am going to revisit all of the objectives this summer and come up with a better story to tell. One lesson I thought went particularly well centered around JFK’s June 26, 1963 speech in West Berlin. JFK spoke in Berlin to show America’s support shortly after the Soviets erected the wall dividing the city. Take a minute (well 10) and watch the whole thing. It’s one of Kennedy’s best and my students ate it up. They are now poking around the JFK museum’s website looking for any and all examples of him speaking. Check out the section on the Cuban Missile Crisis – it’s a great timeline with tons of original documents for use in the classroom.
And yes, this is the urban legend “I am a jelly doughnut” speech.
On a related note, any suggestions for good movies on the Cold War? We are going to have a history movie night soon and I could really use a suggestion or two. If not, I’ll just have to show Red Dawn and we can talk about propaganda. Wolverines! (Note: This is a joke. We will not be watching Red Dawn.)
While unrelated to teaching or music, it’s Bike Month in NYC and in celebration (well, not really), I’m doing the TD Bank Five Boro Bike Tour tomorrow. I’ll be doing it on my track bike, so that’s 42 miles without coasting. I hope it doesn’t rain.
