Pop Music as Lessons

Rationale

            Why is it so difficult for us to think outside of the box? When it comes to teaching new things in schools today, there is always a form of resistance. Sometimes it may be major sometimes it may minor but there is always some form at any given point. In the first blog post I did, I talked about the importance of teaching/utilizing music in the classroom. Today I am going to be suggesting two possible assignments using popular music to back up my theory. These assignments will display that one can use experiential learning methods to cover the basic subjects that schools place so much time and efforts into teaching. The subjects that will be covered in these assignments will be: history, writing, reading comprehension, social studies and help build presentation/public speaking skills. The purpose of these two assignments will be to show that traditional learning can take place in an experiential way by utilizing popular music and by the end of the post it will be visible to you.

Objective

            The objectives of these two assignments are to get the students to dissect music and find the world that is within them. The students will learn about history and social issues by studying songs and the concepts behind them. By the end of the assignments, the students should know about history and social issues outside of their own lives.

Assignment 1: Music History 101

            The assignment focuses on world history through the lens of a musician. The class will be divided into groups of 3 to 4 people. The students will be given the option to pick who they want to work with. This is key because you don’t want to place people in a group who don’t work well together. After the students pick their groups they will be given assignment as followed:

1. I will be given them a song. Each group will have a different song by a different author. The songs will vary across genres, dates in time, themes and country. The purpose for this is to give the students as much diversity as possible to allow them to further explore different types of music as well as issues that are not of their own.
   
2. The next step will be for the groups to take their song and digest/dissect it. They will be responsible for finding out the meaning of the song, what is the song talking about?  They will also be charged with finding themes and issues or hidden meanings in the songs.
   
3. Third the groups will have to do some research. They will be responsible for finding put how that song applies to what was going on at the time in that particular region. For example if the song was “Image” by John Lennon, the students would be expected to figure out what was taking place in Britain during that time to make the artist want to write that song.
   
4. The next step is for the groups to apply the song worldwide. They will take what they learned about what was going on the place of origin of the song and compare that to what was taking place in the world as a whole (was there a war, depression ect…).
   
5. The last phase of this assignment is for the groups to apply the song to today. The groups will be posed with the question “if that artist were to write that song today, what would it sound like?”  After they would have though about the question, they will have to re-write the song in relation to today.
   

This will be a project that the groups would have some weeks to work on to give them adequate time to research and prepare. After the projects are completed, the groups will be responsible for sharing/teaching this information to the rest of the class. They will also have to perform their songs as well.  At the end of the presentations, the groups will evaluate one another and the final grades will be based off their evaluations and the presentation.

Assignment 2: Music as a Social Influence

            This next assignment is similar to the previous assignment but it focuses more on social issues. This time around instead of picking the songs/topics for the students we will do it as a class. Students will be asked to throw out some themes, these themes could be things that are personal to them, things they see in their neighborhoods or just things that they have heard of or watched on television. Once we have collected a fair amount of themes, the students will then choose their groups by the themes. So if sexism is one of the topics all the people that have signed up for that topic will be one group. There will be limited space for these groups, so again 3-4 people. Once the groups have been formed, the assignment will be as followed:

1. Students in their groups will be responsible taking their theme and displaying how it is reflected in the world of music.
   
2. The groups will be responsible for finding 2 songs and breaking them down. They will be responsible for letting us; the audience know what both artists are talking about in each of their songs.
   
3. Next they will have to do a compare and contrast between the two songs. Is there similar language? Is the message the same? How are they trying to get their points across? What is the perceived emotion behind the song?
   
4. Next the groups will have to relate this to the world we live in today. How do these songs affect the lives of the listeners? Do they affect the listeners? How does the song resonate with them as the listener? Do these songs have positive or negative affects on a community? If so then what and how? This portion is designed to really get the groups to think about the role music plays in our everyday lives.
   
5. The last step is for the groups to choose one of their songs and create a video for it. This will allow them to actively reflect and voices their thoughts/opinions about the song they chose. After competition of this final step, the groups will present their work to the rest of the class.