Today, we wrapped up an intense analysis and debate about a mummy. Sounds deep and meaningful, right? It was. It was also really awesome and fun! We used the talented musician Josh Ritter as our poet this week to study his song, "The Curse".
Students used poetry analysis strategies (a version of TP-CASTT) to really dig into the possible meanings, figurative language, vocabulary, and theme of the song as they read over a copy of the text. Then, they listened to the song and tried to infer what was happening. Finally, students watched two different music videos of the song, which confirmed or refuted their original ideas. It was a nice way to introduce poetic techniques with a subject that students found engaging.
After digging into the meaning of the song, we also extended the learning into a spirited debate about whether the main character (a mummy) was truly in love or just sucking the life out of a victim. Mr. Garvin and Mr. Pettijohn made videos of themselves to model the art of using text evidence to support opinions. I think this was really key in helping our students understand how intellectual debate is supposed to occur. If you have a student in our classes, chances are, you have ALSO been subjected to some deep discussion and contemplation about the mummy in this song. Good times.
The 7th grade English department all agreed that this was some of the best debate we've ever had in our classes. It was really exciting to see so many students caring and having opinions about poetry. If you're looking for an interesting lesson to introduce poetry and figurative language, check this one out for sure! I don't think it could have gone any better. The students have even been tweeting and messaging the author to see if we can get his take on the mummy!
If you want to decide for yourself about the mummy, check out the the song above and the video below.
Students used poetry analysis strategies (a version of TP-CASTT) to really dig into the possible meanings, figurative language, vocabulary, and theme of the song as they read over a copy of the text. Then, they listened to the song and tried to infer what was happening. Finally, students watched two different music videos of the song, which confirmed or refuted their original ideas. It was a nice way to introduce poetic techniques with a subject that students found engaging.
After digging into the meaning of the song, we also extended the learning into a spirited debate about whether the main character (a mummy) was truly in love or just sucking the life out of a victim. Mr. Garvin and Mr. Pettijohn made videos of themselves to model the art of using text evidence to support opinions. I think this was really key in helping our students understand how intellectual debate is supposed to occur. If you have a student in our classes, chances are, you have ALSO been subjected to some deep discussion and contemplation about the mummy in this song. Good times.
The 7th grade English department all agreed that this was some of the best debate we've ever had in our classes. It was really exciting to see so many students caring and having opinions about poetry. If you're looking for an interesting lesson to introduce poetry and figurative language, check this one out for sure! I don't think it could have gone any better. The students have even been tweeting and messaging the author to see if we can get his take on the mummy!
If you want to decide for yourself about the mummy, check out the the song above and the video below.