Every time I drive to the eastern shore of Maryland to visit my grandson, I get a head full of lesson plans and creative units.
This past weekend, my wife and I headed out from Upstate New York, and she set Spotify to a 1980s station.
Holy goodness ... those lyrics are confounding as far as meaning making is concerned!
And a few things occurred to me:
- The College Board has a penchant for New Critical & De-constructive reads
- Most kids only know how to perform Reader's Response
- Couple critical theory with a killer template ... stand back!
So my wife and I began the game of analyzing lyrics while exclusively employing a New Critical and/or De-constructive lens.
Bingo ... this is a phenomenal way to teach kids close reading skills!
In today's writing workshop video, I do three things:
- Model for students and teachers how to perform these two types of reads with a couple of classic 80s tunes.
- Write a literary analysis of Boy Geroge's "Karma Chameleon" while demonstrating how to incorporate the critical reading skills and my templates
- And because I was having so much fun, I wrote more models and exemplars for Men Without Hats' infamous song, "The Safety Dance."
The cool thing about this exercise is that students must create meaning only based on the context provided.
Every year, I have to really skill-and-drill this concept (stick with only what the author provides).
To wrap up, my students - for their essay - could choose any nonsense lyric of their choosing.
Surprisingly, they are familiar with a lot of 80s classics, but a few stayed within their 2020's wheelhouse - either way, it worked.
If you'd like the slides to use in your instruction, just give me a holler.
Happy teaching and happy writing!
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