LIGHTS...CAMERA,...Cher!? Using music, art, film and poetry to connect to students

I love music; I love poetry; I may not understand art, but I enjoy looking at it. Our students—and most of us teachers—are media-based creatures. We enjoy sound effects and pictures with our stories and go crazy when someone creates a new dance we can watch on Youtube and eventually re-create with our friends on the dance floor. Pardon my rambling observations on humanity, but, like a child trying to collect the perfect pebbles for a mosaic, I have been trying to gather and arrange my idea-pebbles concerning writing, music, art, passion and reading.

Cher + The Most Dangerous Game =
"Bang! Bang! He shot me down!"

Let me begin with some personal observations. Apparently even really cheesy music amuses a classroom. My CT, in celebration of short story involving hunting with guns, randomly played a snippet of Cher’s rock-mix version of “My Baby Shot Me Down.” Despite the giggles and cries of “What is that?” the class was jokingly singing along with the next chorus of “Bang, Bang!” Besides creating a new joke amongst this particular class, this music moment created a flow of interest and energy that carried into our discussions of the short story.

            Change setting and move into various college courses I’ve experienced and witness the many class discussions brought on by works of art, photos of architecture, or a piece of poetry read aloud. Though these “media moments,” as I call them in my head, usually have some relation to the day’s topic, I most often remember my sense of refreshment (huzzah! Something new to look at!)and renewal of interest (I wonder how a picture of a log cabin relates to Puritan Print culture?) Even as a college student who accepts that classes may not always be thrilling, I perk up when we begin to make new connections from literature to other media.  

            Last week in my Theory of Composition class we mused on our goals as teachers of writing. I found myself writing passionately about writing passionately. I want my students to want to write, and I firmly believe they will not choose to learn how to write expressively unless they have something to express. This train of thought brought me to the idea that the wider a student’s exposure to the world and all of the glorious forms that Ideas take in it, the more unique their conclusions will be and therefore the more ownership they will take of their ideas and their ability to express their ideas.

            Serendipitously, the assigned chapter for this week came along like a little girl with a basket picking up my swirling ideas and showing me how to fit them together.  Chapter 2 of Noden’s Image Grammar addresses art and film as ways to “expand the artist’s eye” when writing. Specifically, by “recognizing the appeal of media to students, teachers can use art and film as tools” to enrich the writing process and awaken students’ senses (43). One activity suggested by Noden focused directly on writing about artwork while giving students freedom to choose which work of art to write about as well as how to express their ideas “in the genre of their choice” (44)—an approach which one teacher found increased the depth and complexity of detail in her students’ work. I feel such freedom and a little facilitation to allay students’ doubts about “doing it right” would also create that magical sense of idea ownership I want my students to possess.

            So my essential questions for this blog revolve around creative use of media in the classroom. How might I tie various media into my literature lessons and yet keep it relatable and exciting? Will creating idea ownership heighten my students’ desire to write well? How can I incorporate more Cher into the classroom? (just kidding).

            I certainly intend to dig deeper into Noden’s text, but I also want to search the web. I did find one interesting website so far. The National Writing Project website is always a valuable tool, but one particular article by Judith Jester is on my “to read” list. The article is titled “Of Paint and Poetry: Strengthening Literacy Through Art,” and the link is: http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/958. Besides finding more articles on how to incorporate media, I would also love any recommendations on student friendly sites for art, poetry (I love Poetry180), or music.

            More than anything, I suppose, I want to make sure that my students connect to what we are learning. However, some gratuitous Cher in the classroom might not go amiss. I wonder how my freshmen would react to a few bars of “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves?”  I’ll let you know how that turns out in my next post!

Because what is Cher without Sonny?
(I just had to!)

 Cheers,

Ms. Iseminger

 

Resources

Jester, Judith. “Of Paint and Poetry: Strengthening Literacy Through Art.” The Quarterly 25.4 (2003). NWP Online. Web. 4 Septemeber 2014.

Noden, Harry R.. Image Grammar: Teaching Grammar as Part of the Writing Process. Portsmouth: Heineman, 2011. Print