I thought I'd use this last bog-post of the semester to talk about an idea I have for my intro to poetry class this summer. Several weeks ago in class, we talked about ideas for getting students to show up on time, and some suggested showing some sort of youtube video at the beginning of class every day. Students might then not want to miss the daily clip. I'm thinking about taking this idea and combining it with the concept of "low-stakes writing" to get students some practice doing close-reading, but also create a fun beginning-of-class tradition.
Basically, either once or twice throughout the semester (depending on how big my class is) students will sign up to show a music video/recording of a song of their choice at the very beginning of class. They will be required to print out the lyrics to the song for everybody in the class. We will then all listen to the song/watch the video together, with the lyrics as a reference. Afterwards, the student will then have to present an explication or interpretation of the song based on some close-reading methods we've learned in class, and they'd have to do it in just a couple minutes. They could try to read the song through some sort of theoretical lens, or focus on an interesting word/phrase/theme/image, or connect the song to its social context and explain what the song says about culture.
I think this might work well for a couple reasons: first, it shows students that poetry is not some archaic practice that nobody does anymore and has little relevance for their lives. They are (likely) actually very interested in poetry. Also, it will give them a little extra practice close-reading and interpreting lyrics. Additionally, students might really enjoy getting to show off something they like and find meaningful. And of course, this would create a fun reason for wanting to get to class on time (maybe students don't mind walking in late on an instructor, but would be less willing to interrupt a peer).
I would most likely model the process for a week or two, and then have students sign up for the rest of the semester. There would be a small amount of points assigned, and students would basically get them no problem as long as they say something about the song that isn't just background info about the group or summary of the plot. I'd be really eager to hear any critiques or ideas people have about this. Any suggestions of contemporary songs that would work well for this sort of thing?
I think this might work well for a couple reasons: first, it shows students that poetry is not some archaic practice that nobody does anymore and has little relevance for their lives. They are (likely) actually very interested in poetry. Also, it will give them a little extra practice close-reading and interpreting lyrics. Additionally, students might really enjoy getting to show off something they like and find meaningful. And of course, this would create a fun reason for wanting to get to class on time (maybe students don't mind walking in late on an instructor, but would be less willing to interrupt a peer).
I would most likely model the process for a week or two, and then have students sign up for the rest of the semester. There would be a small amount of points assigned, and students would basically get them no problem as long as they say something about the song that isn't just background info about the group or summary of the plot. I'd be really eager to hear any critiques or ideas people have about this. Any suggestions of contemporary songs that would work well for this sort of thing?