Pop Poetry!

I AM still here!  Sorry, but I've been very preoccupied with some MAJOR changes going on at my school.  More on that to come when it's been finalized!

Anyway, I wanted to share with you something I did with my class to introduce poetry.  We usually always start with reviewing figurative language and I found this cool youtube video that plays clips of songs that include similes and metaphors.

No, I did NOT create this video, but big thanks to the teacher that did because the kids had fun with it!

I started by giving the kids an index card. On one side they wrote "simile" and on the other side "metaphor". We quickly reviewed similes and metaphors with a few examples.  Next, I played the video and stopped after each song.  The students had to hold up their card indicating if that was an example of a simile or metaphor.

The next day,we talked about how song lyrics are just poems put to music.  Similes and metaphors are not meant to be taken literally, but figuratively and what we refer to as figurative language.  

So, I gave the students a copy of the song lyrics to The River by: Garth Brooks.  I asked the students to highlight or underline any similes & metaphors found in the song.  Afterwards, we discussed the meaning of those similes and metaphor. What was the author really trying to say? What is the theme of the song?

Overall, they did a pretty good job!  I did have to remind one class that the song included figurative language and it really wasn't about a guy sailing his ship down a river.

If you are interested in a copy of the lyrics, please click here.

I've also included a video of Garth Brooks playing the song "The River".