On Friday we kicked off our next literacy unit: Poetry, Lyrics and Media Study. This unit essential involves investigating song lyrics of modern times, poems from olden times (with comparisons between then and now) and modern day visual representations of both (on youtube and as music videos). It is one of my favourite units and so much fun to teach.
We started with Stereo Hearts by Gym Class Heros. This was a perfect song to start with, especially given it was a Friday before a long weekend: peppy, happy, everyone sings along...and the lyrics have surprising depth. The song is essentially one giant example of figurative language..we studied 6 metaphors/similes specifically, explaining and interpreting them.
That lead us to 'main idea' suggestions: I put 5 on chart paper, that students suggested (most ideas had to do with: 'wanting to love' but also 'wanting to be loved', especially 'for who they are'--even though they are heavy and old like a boom box, and have scratches like an old record').
Then we looked at the music video. Students had to 'judge how effectively the visual representations portrayed the main idea of the text'. To do this, of course, they must interpret the images.
I encourage students to jot down every image they see in the music video...then choose the top 5, the five that seem most important.
We realized the video seems to involve a lot of shadow, it is quite grey in tone, and very 'real world'...the pavement is cracked, for example. Also, why is he so alone? Random people walk by...but where is the romantic interest? He is singing this song to someone, asking if he can love them and asking to be loved in spite of flaws. So...where is this person? Why isn't the video 'more romantic'?
At the end, students had to decide yes or no...was this an effective representation? Most students said no, primarily because it seemed at odds with the idea of love and romance. But a surprising number said 'yes', it was an effective representation...because he is asking to be loved 'as is'...and reality involves shadows and cracked pavement. It's 'not fake'.
Very clever!
Of course, there is no right or wrong answer. It all depends how how well you can justify and explain your opinion, supporting your opinion with evidence from the text.
But it certainly draws forth some interesting conversations!
One reason why I enjoy this unit is because we take such 'mundane' elements of 'pop culture' and realize their intrinsic power. As I told the students, the lyrics they hear on their MP3 players etc are modern day poems. Every time they listen, they are connecting with and interpreting poetry. And the music videos are 'visual poems'.
The idea of 'poetry' often seems so old fashioned to students...when I say we are studying poetry, there are always a few groans. Its like they think that all the poets are from a hundred plus years ago and thus must not have relevancy. Oh, but they do! One particular aspect of this unit I enjoy is taking poems from yesteryear and comparing them to modern day lyrics, such as when I contrast Coolio's Gangster Paradise song (1995) with Percy Shelley's Ozymadias (1818)...and then we look at youtube interpretations of Shelley's poem, created by modern readers...
I truly can't wait to see what my class thinks of that!
PS. I enjoy this topic so much I created a website out of it...see lyrics.poplit.net
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