Lesson Plan: Song Collage

Synopsis: This lesson compliments the previously posted Chinese poetry scrolls lesson. I use it as an introductory activity and a bridge between my "song as poetry" unit and my actual poetry unit. In this lesson, students analyze the lyrics of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" and work in groups to create a collage for each verse.

Supplies: Copy of "Redemption Song" lyrics, "Redemption Song" mp3, chart paper, scissors, glue sticks, magazines for students to cut up.

Time allotment: 1-3 class periods, depending on depth and length of discussion and what is assigned as homework.

Procedures

1. Pass out copies of "Redemption Song" lyrics. Ask students what they know about Bob Marley. (Biography here)
2. Play song for students. As they listen, ask them to highlight words, phrases or images that stand out to them. (You may need to clarify vocabulary like "redemption" and "emancipate.")
3. Questions for whole class or small group discussion:

• How can a song redeem people? What are the limits of this redemption?
• Who are the pirates? What are the merchant ships? (answers: white slave traders - students may need some prompting about Marley's race and African history)
• What is the bottomless pit?
• During Marley's lifetime, what types of "mental slavery" might have existed? What mental slavery exists now?
• Who are the prophets? What specific historical figures might they represent? Who in modern times might be considered a prophet? What are the benefits and dangers of viewing contemporary or historical figures as prophets?
  
• What "book" does Marley refer to? What actions would people take to fulfill the book?

Creating the collages

1. Divide students into groups of 3-4. Assign each group one verse of the song and distribute chart paper, magazines, glue sticks and scissors.
2. Tell each group they must find (or create) images to illustrate their assigned verse. They should write the verse in the center of the chart paper and surround it with images. Next to the images, or on a separate sheet of paper, students must explain how their images relate to specific words or lines from the song.
3. Hang finished collages around classroom.

Extension Activities

1. Listen to Johnny Cash's cover of "Redemption Song." Discuss: how does each singer present the song differently? Do their choices alter the meaning or impact of the song? What is the effect of hearing Cash sing in a Caribbean dialect ("old pirates rob I")? Should he have changed the lyrics to better suit his American speech patterns? What audience would each singer reach the best?
2. M.I.A's "Paper Planes" is a more challenging song and could be used to introduce satire. Students discuss how the lyrics satirize typical gangster rap as well as Western attitudes toward immigrants and terrorism.
   

Lesson Plan: Chinese Poetry Scrolls

Synopsis: Students develop an appreciation for Chinese art and world poetry by selecting a poem, an image to compliment the poem, and creating a name stamp for themselves. These will be used to create a Chinese-style poetry scroll. Students will circle the room, discussing and writing comments for the selected poem.

Time Allotment: 1-5 class periods, depending on how much you have students do in class or as homework.

Materials (for poetry scrolls): 1 piece of chart paper per student, glue sticks, scissors, crayons or colored pencils. Students need 1 copy of their poem, 1 copy of their image, and copies of their name stamps.

Procedures:

1. Show students Chinese hanging scrolls like Blossoming Plum by Wang Mian or Night Shining White by Han Gan. Ask them to speculate on what the stamps and writing might mean.
2. Explain that poems were often written next to paintings to create a unified work of art. Artists, owners and their friends then stamped their name and wrote poems or comments on the completed products.
   
3. Discuss: If you owned a valuable painting, would you write your name on it or invite your friends to do the same? What might be the value of this tradition in China?
4. Focus students on this black name stamp and ask them to speculate on the meaning of the color. (As explained on the website, it is black because the owner is in mourning.)
5. Tell students they will create scrolls like the ones they have just seen. As a first step, they will design a "name stamp" of their own. The stamp must have a border in a color that symbolizes them somehow. Additionally, whatever they draw inside the border must symbolize them as well. The illustration should be simple to draw as they will be signing one another's scrolls with them later. As an assessment, have students draw you a larger copy of their stamp and write 1/2 page explaining how these symbols are appropriate for them. (Teachers note: this turned out to be an excellent way to warm my students up to the challenging concept of symbolism, and I learned a lot about them in the process.)

This usually gets me through one 50-minute class period. Some students finished by the end of class and others completed it as homework. Depending on your class schedule, you can take students to the library to find poems for their scrolls or assign this as homework. I preferred to help them find poems during class time because many students needed help choosing between several poems while others needed guidance for choosing appropriate poems. Many had to be steered away from excessively short haikus or children's poetry. Students browsed the top 500 poems at PoemHunter.com as well as library books to find their poems.

I also devoted 1 class day to helping students analyze their poems before choosing an image. We worked toward identifying themes in their poems and writing lists of emotions the poem evoked. Students used the list of feelings and themes to help them select an image to match their poem. We did this in the library in one class period. Students were instructed to bring money for 1 color copy of their chosen image.

Part II - Assembling the Poetry Scrolls
1 100-minute block class period

1. Distribute chart paper, glue sticks and scissors to each student. Chart papers should be long. Ask students to affix a clean copy of their poem and image to the chart paper. Then they should write an introductory comment about why they have chosen these poem and image.
   
2. When students have finished creating their scrolls, have them circle the room, writing comments about each other's poems and images. Comments should be signed with a copy of the symbol students created earlier. Tell them that any comments are acceptable. They can comment about what they liked (or disliked) about the image or poem, or what meaning they found in them. You may choose to assess students based on the quality of their comments.
   
3. Divide students into small groups of 3-4. Members should discuss the comments found on their scrolls -- were they surprised? Did they agree or disagree with the comments? Did they see any other students' poems they particularly enjoyed.
4. Groups share results of discussion.
5. Assign assessment: Tell students to imagine they are art dealers who hope to sell their scroll for the highest possible price. They must write a 3-page letter justifying the merits of both the poem and image on their scroll, including interpretations of specific lines of poetry or aspects of the image. Variation: As a pre-writing exercise or alternative assessment, have students divide a sheet of paper into 2 columns. Labe one column "text" and the other column "meaning of text." Students write specific lines from the poem (or describe parts of the image) in the "text" column. Next to it, in the other column, they write an interpretation of those lines of poetry. I find this really helps them focus on analyzing key words and phrases from the poem, or key features of the image.