| Young Adult Literature and Multimedia--Resources |
Popular Music -- A Voice They Hear
by Marya Oft
UW-Stout: Young Adult Literature
My daughter, Tiffany, (15 years) has been a struggling reader all of her life. My husband, teachers, and I have tried many avenues to assist her. She participated in the Title I program but to no real avail. At one point her 4th grade teacher spent an extra half hour with her every morning and instead of testing higher at the end of the year, she tested lower. It seemed that any pressure for her to read only increased her resistance.
When she was 14, I came home to see that she had filled the black board (a large school size chalk board in our kitchen) with line after line of what I thought was poetry. When I asked her about it she told me it was words to a song- she had memorized every word. The song intrigued her so much that she transcribed it- not once, but repeatedly over a period of time. From that point forward I began to notice my daughter's form of literacy self education. She was practicing her literacy skills through an avenue that she found interesting and non-threatening. Through pop music she was experiencing what she hadn't been able to in her many years in classrooms. She felt comfortable reading and writing in a way that was relevant for her.
This experience with my daughter led me to begin thinking about alternative ways to teach literacy. Instruction that uses the interesting and familiar aspects of students' pop culture to bring educational lessons to them in a "voice" that they can hear. What better way to bring that voice then with music? It has occurred to me that educational settings seem to conflict with pop culture and some educators even demean the very aspects of life that many of their students admire. A better approach may be to walk students’ walk, talk their talk, and sing their song in order to gain their interest and respect.
Kubey (2001) proposes a new vision for literacy that is based on the necessity of democratic citizens to be “engaged in self governance, they must critically analyze and evaluate information and resources (p. 175).” Students can be engaged in the critical skills of questioning, analysis and evaluation by using the popular and media cultures. Kubey views the “aim of a reading/language arts teacher is to cultivate a learning environment where students bring their own naturally energetic exploration to the study of new ideas (p. 176).” Students who engage in the formal study of print and television media and popular culture including advertising, news, situation comedies, music television, popular music, video games, and cartoons gain authentic analytical and evaluative processing in order to interpret the messages around them.
Sue Fenton (2004) in her booklet, You played a song NOW what? A survival guide for using songs in a classroom, recommends using songs as a basis for enrichment activities, using music as a basis for classroom experiments, and developing and practicing language skills with songs.
I have since found that many teachers have indeed incorporated pop music into their lessons with great success. For example, the following websites are valuable resources:
http://www.songsforteaching.com - Many ideas for using popular music in lesson plans. One lesson plan uses pop lyrics to teach literary elements such as metaphor, alliteration, etc. Another uses pop music to spark conversation and to provide a forum discussion about controversial issues.
http://www.rockhall.com/teacher/sti-lesson-plans/
-This site has many lessons that use music from different times to teach important issues. Lessons such as "Keep on Pushing: Popular Music and the civil Rights Movement", "Using Music to Teach Personal Narrative: 'Snapshots' and 'Crossing-the-Border'", and "Scops, Rappers and You: Historians with Style" are some examples of lessons found on this site.
http://www.readwritethink.org - With lessons such as "Stairway to Heaven: Examining Metaphor in Popular Music", "Music and Me: Visual Representations of Lyrics in Popular Music" and many more. Sue Fenton (2004) in her booklet, You played a song NOW what? A survival guide for using songs in a class room, recommends using songs as a basis for enrichment activities, using music as a basis for classroom experiments, and developing and practicing language skills with songs.
A year has passed since I discovered by daughter’s writing on the blackboard. Tonight I asked my daughter for some favorite lyrics. She brought me words to “Teardrops on My Guitar” by Taylor Swift. The lyrics can be found at:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/taylorswift/teardropsonmyguitar.html
Tiffany read the words to me (reading practice and informal assessment) and then I asked her several questions:
Why do you like these lyrics? Because it is flowing and because of the word choice.
What is an example of a flowing line? “The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star.”
What do you think that line means? That without that one thing she can’t wish upon a wishing star.
Without what ‘one thing’? I don’t know- what ever she needs or wants
What is she wishing for? I don’t know
Tiffany showed confusion of what the lyrics were about.
I read the lyrics aloud (modeling good reading) again and we had a discussion about what the meaning might be. After our talk I asked her one more question:
Before we sat down and read/discussed did you ever really think about the message of the song? No
We then listened to the song together.
With this impromptu encounter I did experience the power of using music that interested my daughter in order to discover her interests, analytical and interpretive abilities, and her understanding of language and reading abilities. I also was able to use the song that she brought forward to direct a lesson that included reading practice, vocabulary study, and guidance with higher order thinking skills.
Looking back, I believe that had we approached educating my daughter using her popular culture as the avenue to her interest, her educational experiences would have been more positive for her. Instead of closing her world and expecting her to then perform within a narrow definition of academics, a better way would have been to speak to her in a voice that she could hear- through the music that was important to her. Our nations students need to analyze the world around them and discover the messages. A literate person needs the skill to read and interpret in an authentic way. Pop culture including popular music is bombarding our children every day providing a perfect opportunity for education.
References:
Educators' Circle, (2007). Songs for Teaching. Retrieved July 3,
2007, from Songs for Teaching Web site:
http://www.songsforteaching.com
Fenton, S (2006). You played a song. NOW what? A survival guide
for using songs in the Classroom. Madame Fifi Publications
National Reading Association, (2007).
Kubey, R., Ruben, B. (2001). Media literacy in the information age:
Current perspectives, volume 6. Transaction Publishers. Piscatawg,
New Jersey.
Read Write Think- All Lessons. Retrieved July 3, 007, from Read
Write Think Web site: http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc., (2007). Summer
Teacher Institute Lesson. Retrieved July 3, 2007, from Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Web site:
http://www.rockhall.com/teacher/sti-lessons-plans/
These lesson plans, guides, and other resource materials for young adult literature topics were created by participants in a professional development course in young adult Literature. Each resource is copyrighted by the individual educator who developed the material. The present course being taught is titled: Teaching Young Adult Literature in the Classroom from the University of Wisconsin-Stout (Sharron L. McElmeel, instructor)