As an English Teacher, I'm always striving to find ways to engage my students in poetry. It is not the easiest thing in the world and I always turn to music to show them the beauty of poetry in the world around them. As I listend to this song, I thought about the lyrics and wondered what the actual music video looked like. Did the video show an accurate representation of the song? The next thought was the lesson.
What if I had my students take songs they liked and create music videos based solely on the lyrics? I could have kids recreate the videos of their popular songs while focusing on the imagery the artists provide. I got really excited about this project and even came up with an alternative option for the students who do not have access to a camera to record their videos. Those students can create storyboards and draw out their video. I see these as group projects where students can dive into the language, look at songs as poetry and use these words to create visual representations of the the songs.
Lastly, I am big on modeling assignments when it is possible and I thought I might reach out to my PLN to recreate Call Me Maybe in a literal fashion. I might be sending out emails this summer asking for people to film parts of the song so I can edit them all together to show my students.
Thanks for reading and let me know what you think. Is this a good idea, or just a silly idea. Well, I guess it can be both.
I actually love this idea, it reminds me of the youtube videos where they recreate the song lyrics based on what is actually happening in the video. Totally hilarity ensues. This would be a wonderful way to peek into how the students react to certain songs and what they mean to them and I might just steal the idea and use it with my 5th graders.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous idea. Stealing and using this term. Hehe My y10s will love it!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! Maybe you could have them choose to make a video for a current song that applies to a book they are reading in your classroom. And the characters in the video have to be characters in the book and the video needs to portray action from the book. Justin Bieber''s "Boyfriend" song to represent Romeo and Juliet?
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea to teach meaning of words and the author's perception vs. the reader's. I would have them do a song that their parents pick for them.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! In addition, you could totally use this activity to practice inferencing or characterization. For instance-are Carly's actions indeed "crazy?" Why or why not? If you knew Carly personally and she told you the story about this interaction, what would you think of her? What possible motives does she actually cite in the song for offering this fellow her number? Based on her description of their interaction, do you think her feelings for this fellow will last? They'll probably have trouble separating the words of the song from the plot video, but I've always had good results with critical thinking and songs because there's not too much text to overwhelm them. Then, they could have such questions it in mind when they approach their own songs to make the videos. I think the video project has great potential. Good post!
ReplyDeleteSounds great. It also has the advantage of imposing a time limit in the length of the song so you don't have long looooong takes that go nowhere!
ReplyDeleteDid you know there's an app for that? My grade 4s created Earth Day videos using the free app Video Star. We were focussing more on the musical/ dancing interpretation but it would surely work for what you want to do. Check out our videos here
ReplyDeletehttp://kidblog.org/mrsgarciasawesomeclass/lgarcia1/earth-day-videos/
Kids had a blast and lots of learning took place.
Can't wait to see what older students can do.
I think it's a great idea.
ReplyDelete*like* can't wait to see how it turns out!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea...would have to find less sexually suggestive songs than this one for my elementary kiddos!
ReplyDeleteLove it! What a fun way to teach content and still allow them to get into technology. (Plus actually think about all of the lyrics they are inundated with but not even listening to!)
ReplyDeleteOf course it is not ridiculous. ;) Any time you can use popular culture, especially music, to engage students it's a good thing. Love it!
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