I am a blogger, finally!!
We touched briefly on music, rap lyrics, etc. in class. I am beginning my unit plan for this class regarding how authors of lyrics convey meaning about a socially constructed experience and how this form influences student worldviews and how they understand themselves. As I proceed, I am running into a lot of research based on poetry and rap lyrics... How else can we incorporate them into an English Unit plan?
Also, as I go to youtube and look up songs, I am obviously going to watch the videos as well and I'm thinking to myself, "Wow my 17 year old brother watches this stuff?! Is allowed to watch this!? Look at that girl, what is she wearing!?!?" I am ultimately deciding if I should scratch the whole unit plan on lyrics and do a paper on how music videos portray gender roles and how we can use them in the classroom. What is your take on music videos? They are so widely viewed by our student population, believe me, my brother and his friends could watch MTV Jams all day if they were allowed.
I'm STILL not able to post my own topic, but can respond to others' posts!
ReplyDeleteEmily,
I'm sure you have already made your decision to either switch your topic ... or not ... but I think that studying gender roles and stereotypes in music videos is a fantastic idea. And a unit plan on those issues would be really interesting (Hey- You could even incorporate reality shows, if you were feeling very daring! There is a lot of research already done in that department and what our obsession with reality TV shows says about our culture).
After all, music videos are still what our teens watch (and us,too. Let's be honest). While they don't see them as often on MTV, they're always plugged in and finding them online. Music videos are incredibly influential with pervasive, deeper meanings: they show us the things we are supposed to value, think are sexy, and equate with 'coolness'(that alone sounds a bit unhip).
The big challenge I think for actually implementing the said unit plan into curriculum would be making sure to touch upon the issues and really delve into them-without showing too much. This I think applies to rap lyrics as well. I feel like this is more or less the same problem we ran into when discussing some sexier advertisements and how we'd like to deconstruct them with our classes. This issue is such a paradox: deconstructing hidden signs in advertising, music lyrics, videos and even reality shows is probably what our teens need to do/experience the MOST, yet we are sometimes afraid (and need to over-sanitize) because we're afriad of backlash from parents and administrators.
Interestingly, my unit plan is jazz and literature. Using poetry from Langston Hughes and James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" as examples of the influence of jazz music on poetry. As I was working on it, I began to think about doing a study on lyrics. Our students relate so much of their lives to lyrics. I remember parts of my life with lyrics.
ReplyDeleteI think a good way of introducing this aspect is to begin with the lyrics of songs. Treat them as a study on poetry. With this first step, maybe you can slowly move into the aspect of the negativity of lyrics.
I agree that we as adults sanitize our students lives where they expose themselves to everything when their parents aren't looking. I think we, as future teachers, have a responsibility to try to change this attitude towards this. If it can air on MTV and the parents allow them to watch, then why can't we discuss?
My friend Bucky who teaches young adult lit in Texas plays a song at the beginning of each class that somehow ties in with the themes of the work they will be discussing in class that day.
ReplyDeleteHere are some of his Facebook posts on this topic:
7/13:Can't decide between The Ramones' "I wanna Be Sedated" or Pearl Jam's "Life Wasted" as my lead-in to Tracy White's *How I Made it to 18" tomorrow.
7/12:Did you play "The Sounds of Silence" for "Speak?" What a nice idea the music is. A prelude ---- and how about a closer? hopefully, not an epitaph.
7/11:Been using music to open my classes lately. Avril's "Smile" for Smile; "Take on Me" and "Mad World" for I am the Messenger; The Pixie's song from Fight club for Refresh Refresh, and today, I think I'll open our talk on Slow Storm with "Frijolero:"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbAWT0peS0o
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI always use music as often as possible in my classroom...especially with poetry! Kids can really connect to it!