Analyzing 1980s Lyrics: Developing New Critical & Deconstructive Reads Writing Workshop

Description

Based on my 20 years of teaching AP Literature, I believe that the College Board has a penchant for New Criticism and Deconstruction.

When students can ascertain a text’s meaning using these two particular lenses, couple with a good writing template – stand back … sky’s the limit.

In this video, I model how to perform these two reads and then I walk teachers and students through the process of crafting an entire essay while pulling the strings of my templates.

For the sake of “Bob Ross-ing” my instruction and providing plenty of models to demystify the process, I wrote essays on two songs:

1. “Karma Chameleon” by Boy George
2. “The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats

The cool think about nonsense lyrics is that kids really can only go with what the text means. This is great practice for more complex passages.