One of my favorite things to do with my students is to find ways to use music in the classroom. More specifically, I like to use songs from the (typically indie) artists that I love and think everyone else should know about. If I can foster a good taste in music, I’ll know when the kids leave my classroom that they’re going to make good music decisions when they grow up.
This past year in 6th grade English we did a memoir unit centered around the themes of perspective and empathy. In the introduction to this unit, we did a few activities to better understand those two concepts. One of them was listening and reading the lyrics to Two Animals by Oh, Jeremiah. The lyrics to the song can be found here.
It’s the tale of two animals who are captured, kept in a zoo, then escape. The reason it worked so well for our unit is that it’s told from the perspective of one of the animals. After reading the lyrics, we had a good discussion as a class. We started with basic comprehension of the song. What happened, the points of the plot chart we could see in the narrative, inferences about the kind of animal the speaker is. Then the discussion turned to our themes of perspective and empathy. Students commented on the difference of having the story told in first person vs third and how it enhanced the empathy felt for the speaker. The students took it further and talked about how it raised ethical questions about zoos and animal captivity.
The students were engaged and understood perspective and empathy better. I was happy because the lesson worked, and I got to listen to good music all day. When I tweeted about the lesson, Oh, Jeremiah retweeted us, so obviously they were happy too. It was a classic, Michael Scott win-win-win scenario.
Here’s the video for Two Animals, and you can click here to see the band’s homepage. They just released a new album that has been playing in my car all week.
Nathan Garvin
6th Grade ELA
This past year in 6th grade English we did a memoir unit centered around the themes of perspective and empathy. In the introduction to this unit, we did a few activities to better understand those two concepts. One of them was listening and reading the lyrics to Two Animals by Oh, Jeremiah. The lyrics to the song can be found here.
It’s the tale of two animals who are captured, kept in a zoo, then escape. The reason it worked so well for our unit is that it’s told from the perspective of one of the animals. After reading the lyrics, we had a good discussion as a class. We started with basic comprehension of the song. What happened, the points of the plot chart we could see in the narrative, inferences about the kind of animal the speaker is. Then the discussion turned to our themes of perspective and empathy. Students commented on the difference of having the story told in first person vs third and how it enhanced the empathy felt for the speaker. The students took it further and talked about how it raised ethical questions about zoos and animal captivity.
The students were engaged and understood perspective and empathy better. I was happy because the lesson worked, and I got to listen to good music all day. When I tweeted about the lesson, Oh, Jeremiah retweeted us, so obviously they were happy too. It was a classic, Michael Scott win-win-win scenario.
Here’s the video for Two Animals, and you can click here to see the band’s homepage. They just released a new album that has been playing in my car all week.
Nathan Garvin
6th Grade ELA
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