Name___________________ Artist’s name:___________________

Song title:__________________________________

Assignment: To provide a reader response to the lyrics of one of your favorite songs and present your findings to the class. This is a THREE part assignment.

1. Provide a 2-3 page reader response essay to the lyrics of your chosen song. This should be done similarly to what we did together in class with Mary J. Blige’s Just Fine.
2. Embed the music video and post your essay to your blog.
3. Give a 5-7 minute presentation in which you will be able to show a clip of your selected video and explain your analysis of the song lyrics.

Instructions:
Choose your favorite music video/song
a. Your song/video must be appropriate to view in a classroom setting.
b. Find the lyrics by conducting a search on Youtube.com, Mtv.com, BET.com, VH1.com or any other reliable source that you are aware of.
c. Print the song lyrics (double-spaced)

No vulgar language, nudity or depictions of drug use will be allowed. If you are unsure please see me to discuss your choice.

Some questions to consider:
What does this song mean? Is the title appropriate for the content?
What or who is this song about? How do you know? Why did you choose this song? How does it speak to you? Is there a certain message being conveyed? What is the mood or tone of the song? What genre of music is your selection from? Does it remind you of a special person, place or thing? How do the actions in the video measure up to the actual lyrics of the song? Do they seem to make logical sense? Why or why not?

*Please correct any grammatical or punctuation errors or deletions. Think about how this may have an effect on the overall tone, style and meaning of the song.

*Look for the use of literary devices as studied in our unit on poetry. If you are unsure of what these are, please refer to the poetry handbook that was given to you at the beginning of the unit. (metaphor, simile, alliteration, etc.)

You will be graded on:
Class participation 10%
Reader response essay 50%
Oral/video presentation 40% Written assignment due: 1 week from today (Fri)
Oral presentation: Begin Monday after the written
assignment is due

Grade: Ninth

Subject matter: This lesson will be taught in direct correlation with our unit on poetry.

I am a true believer that students will only read or learn what they are truly interested in. As such, adolescents are quite interested in their music and MP3 players these days. Relating all song lyrics as poetry is a concept that some students may indeed not be aware of. There is indeed poetry in music! Perhaps students may not have ever looked at poetry in that regard. This lesson will show how modern music—hip hop, R&B or rock (or other genres) can be used to mirror poetry and teach the fundamentals of what makes a poem a poem through the use of literary devices, meter, verse, rhyme, etc.. It is my hope that students will come away from this assignment with a better understanding and appreciation of how poetry (as music) really does play in important part in our lives.

At the point of this assignment, my students will have been studying poetry, literary devices and grammar and should be able to have fun with this assignment while composing the essay since they will get to choose a song that they personally feel a connection with for one reason or another. We will have conducted a reader response as a group of the lyrics to Mary J. Blige’s Just Fine.

Mary J. Blige is an artist that most students either have heard of or are familiar with the name or her music. This is a very positive song in that it is all about self-love, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-acceptance and having a positive attitude no matter what problems or circumstances may come our way. Adolescents are so self-centered and self-conscious and can greatly benefit from the message in this song.

Some possible challenges would be students choosing inappropriate song lyrics or video due to explicit content. I will combat this challenge by assisting those students in choosing a more appropriate song for classroom purposes. Another possible challenge might be that students do not have internet access at home. I will allow time during class for these students to go to the media center to print their song lyrics and search for the accompanying video for the song.

Georgia Performance Standards:

ELA9RC4 The student establishes a context for information acquired by reading across subject matters. The student
a) Explores life experiences related to subject area content.
b) Discusses in both writing and speaking how certain words and concepts relate to multiple subjects
c) Determines strategies for finding content and contextual meaning for unfamiliar words
or concepts.

ELA9RC2 The student participates in discussions related to curricular learning in all subject areas. The student
a) Identifies messages and themes from books in all subject areas.
b) Responds to a variety of texts in multiple modes of discourse.
c) Relates messages and themes from one subject area to those in another area.
d) Examines the author’s purpose in writing.

ELA9RL2 The student identifies, analyzes and applies knowledge of theme in literary works from various genres and provides evidence from the works to support understanding. The student
a) Applies knowledge of the concept that the theme or meaning of a selection represents a universal view or comment on life or society and provides support from the text for the identified theme.
b) Evaluates how an author’s choice of words advances the theme or purpose of a work.
c) Applies knowledge of the concept that a text can contain more than one theme.
d) Compares and contrasts the presentation of a theme or topic across genres and explains how the selection of genre affects the delivery of universal ideas about life and society.

ELA9RC2 The student participates in discussions related to curricular learning in all subject areas. The student
e) Identifies messages and themes from books in all subject areas.
f) Responds to a variety of texts in multiple modes of discourse.
g) Relates messages and themes from one subject area to those in another area.
h) Examines the author’s purpose in writing.

Sharon Draper is quickly becoming one of my favorite author’s of all time. Ms. Draper has been a professional educator to middle and high school students for over three decades. My admiration for Ms. Draper began early this semester; as I learned more about her, not only as an educator, but also as a writer. Since I endeavor to be a teacher of the language arts and already consider myself a writer, I admire Ms. Draper from both angles.

Draper is a master of her chosen crafts and as such, has encouraged and motivated students and educators throughout the United States and abroad with her wisdom and expertise. As an award-winning author, educator, speaker and poet, it is perhaps most impressive that Draper has been named The National Teacher of the Year, is a four-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Literary Award and is a New York Times bestselling author.

Draper was one of the first teachers to be granted National Board Certification in English and Language Arts. Additionally, Draper was named as an Ohio Pioneer in Education and has been honored at the White House on numerous occasions by Presidents Clinton and Bush for her literary accomplishments. Draper has previously served on the Board of Directors of The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and is presently on the Board of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.

“The Touch of a Teacher” is an award-winning essay, written by Draper that has been published by the National Governor’s Association and is being used in order to inform Governor’s throughout the country what they need to know about education for society as a whole and their state specifically.

I share the same vision and hope that Sharon Draper does when it comes to being an educator and presenting young adults with interesting, engaging novels that they can easily relate to. I want to be able to give my future students the gift of the language arts that will last a lifetime.

Some of Draper’s novels are fictional accounts of important historical events, such as Fire From the Rock, which is the story of a young African-American student who is asked to consider being one of the first black students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in the 1950’s. I am a firm believe that students will read what they are interested and can easily relate to.

Sharon Draper captures the candid emotions and fears of the children and families who were chosen to integrate. This book gives insight to an important historical time and event in our country. Draper has a way of captivating the young audience and making them feel as if they are on a journey back in time with this very realistic depiction of The Little Rock Nine.

All of Ms. Draper’s young adult novels deal with real-life issues that adolescent students can identify with. Although Romiette and Julio is an excellent book to use in combination with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, it is certainly strong enough to stand alone as an excellent novel about teens in society today. I like the concept of teaching a modern text, such as Romiette and Julio in tandem with a classic work such as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

My absolute favorite young adult novel written by Sharon Draper is Romiette and Julio. The story of Romiette and Julio is an updated, hip rendition of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This version of the tragic love story is fun and easy for secondary students to relate to. Romiette Capelle is African-American and Julio Montague is Mexican-American. The two meet on an Internet chat site and begin to get to know one another. Eventually, they find out that they attend the same high school in Cincinnati and start spending time together at school and online. Their feelings for each other are revealed and grow strong, although they are met with dismay by The Devildogs.

Watching the interactions that Romi and Julio have with their peers and with their parents is presented realistically in throughout the book. Romiette and Julio and most of the main characters from Draper’s other young adult novels are faced with issues that teens today are faced with themselves. The situations that arise are those that adolescents and teens will be able to relate to either through personal or family experiences or through friends or associates.

In Tears of a Tiger, Andrew Jackson plays basketball for the Hazlewood High School Tigers and is dealing with the everyday hassles of being a black male in white society. Andy’s life is changed forever after he accidentally kills a teammate in a fiery car crash while driving drunk. Andy finds it difficult to move past his friend, Rob’s tragic death and discovers that the accompanying guilt is unbearable.

Sharon Draper has perfectly captured the lives of adolescents using real feelings, language and situations that they can relate to. Draper draws the
young adult reader in and holds their attention with this passionate novel as she addresses the issues of teen suicide and death in society.

When Draper writes for young people, she deals with topics that are current, in hopes that by reading her novels, young people will be able to apply some of the messages and situations to their own lives. Topics such as abuse, death, racism, prejudice and gangs Abuse are all topics that need to be discussed by young people.

“I am a creator, an educator, a visionary, I am a learner and a seeker of knowledge, and I take my students along on my journey. I smile often, and laugh easily, and I weep at pain and cruelty. I l love what I do, and I’m good at it. I learned to dream through reading, learned to create dreams through writing, and learned to develop dreamers through teaching. I shall always be a dreamer.” ~Sharon M. Draper

Sharon Draper is well-respected and admired in the field of language arts. I aspire to be as motivating, fresh and knowledgeable to my future students as she has been and continues to be to her students. I too am a creator, an educator and a visionary. My motivation is giving students the gift to appreciate the language arts for a lifetime, not just for a semester in my class.

Works Cited or Consulted:
Sharon Draper. 2007. 10/21/07 []

Draper, Sharon. Romiette and Julio. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004.

Jago, Carol. Classics in the Classroom: Designing Accessible Literature Lessons. New Hampshire: Heinemann, 2004.

Romano, Tom. Writing with Passion. New Hampshire: Boynton/Cook, 1995.

Although I have not had a blog of my own until this course, I have blogged in the past and continue to do so. The fact that I can read an opinion or point of view (oftentimes from a virtual stranger) and then can share my point of view or opinion on what I’ve read is something I never would have conceptualized let’s say 10 years ago or so.

The Internet has certainly opened up a whole new world. I can recall being enrolled in Dr. Crovitz’ summer English 3310 class. During the course Dr. Crovitz would share interesting websites, blogs and the like with the class. It was at this time that I thought, “Hmm, secondary students are into the Internet, etc. What better way to reach my future students?” I always looked forward to learning more about how I could utilize these Internet tools in my classroom.

I want my future students to not only perform well in my class, but also to perform well in life and to be positive, productive members of society. Since we live in the computer age, we as teachers (and parents) must learn to communicate with our students (and children) on their “level.” I currently send my adolescent son emails reminding him of certain days or events or things that need to be done around the house. The fact that I have taken an interest in what interests him is appreciated more than I ever imagined.

It is my belief that if teachers begin to utilize blogs and other web-related tools in their classrooms, that students will be encouraged to take more interest and excel. As stated by Richardson, when people blog, they tend to pay more attention to the details of grammar, sentence structure and the like since they know their blog is open to the public.