I love using music in my classroom, and that can be done
in a variety of ways. I most enjoy using music when I teach poetry. The Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame website has great ideas for incorporating music into
one's curriculum. When I was teaching high school, I taught a novel about the
Vietnam War to a sophomore English class. After reading the book and studying
the political/historical background of that time period, I had the students
work on power points in groups of three and four. Their assignment was to find
political protest songs to use in their power point presentations. When we were
reading something by Maya Angelou in our GED class last year, I told them how
even today, young people/performers are influenced by the works of authors,
even those no longer with us. I brought in Alicia Keyes song called Caged Bird.
That provided me the opportunity to share with them poetry by Langston Hughes,
poetry in which he writes about a "caged bird" and, of course, talk
about Angelou's autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Submitted by: Camille Johnson, Instructor/Coordinator,
Adult Education, South Suburban College
This is very interesting. As a teacher, I am also the eternal student and I find it refreshing when my teacher breaks up the routine with a song, dance or some sort of visual. My Spanish instructor brought us the song "Me gustas tu" so we could learn how to use the verb correctly. I was in Spanish 101, a beginner. I immediately used "Lemon Tree" in my class to teach Present Continuous. It happened to be on a CD in my car, and my Spanish teacher gave me the idea. I took out the verbs and asked the students to listen so we could all fill in the blanks together. It turned out great. I've also used "Born in the USA" at higher levels for critical thinking activities in advanced conversation courses.
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