Introduction to the Unit
Donald Trump once said that music is the most popular thing in the world right now. Judging by my own experiences and interactions with other people, I think he’s right—especially with adolescents. I coach a high school soccer team, tutor occasionally at a local middle school, and, of course, observe classes at my field placement. In general, there’s nothing the students I interact with in those various contexts talk about more than music. And when they aren’t talking about it, it’s because they’re listening to music on their ipods.
A major reason our group chose to focus our unit on music is because it’s so popular, and we figure it can be a really engaging meaningful unit for the students. The fact that music intersects so much with literature sealed the deal for us. From the narrative qualities of jazz and classical music to the poetry of rap music, students can learn a great deal about literature when thinking about the music they listen to critically. Actually taking that step to fully process the literary qualities of music and comparing them to various texts is the challenge we are posing to them. This unit would probably challenge students of all different ages. Because our unit is directed at an eighth grade class, we are discussing the following concepts at an introductory level. Also, because we are surveying a number of genres, our unit forces the students to explore and analyze unfamiliar styles of music.
Find an entire narrative of how we see the 4-week unit progressing here.
A major reason our group chose to focus our unit on music is because it’s so popular, and we figure it can be a really engaging meaningful unit for the students. The fact that music intersects so much with literature sealed the deal for us. From the narrative qualities of jazz and classical music to the poetry of rap music, students can learn a great deal about literature when thinking about the music they listen to critically. Actually taking that step to fully process the literary qualities of music and comparing them to various texts is the challenge we are posing to them. This unit would probably challenge students of all different ages. Because our unit is directed at an eighth grade class, we are discussing the following concepts at an introductory level. Also, because we are surveying a number of genres, our unit forces the students to explore and analyze unfamiliar styles of music.
Find an entire narrative of how we see the 4-week unit progressing here.
