Analyzing Tone Through Pop Music Song Lessons

Teach students how to analyze literature with these engaging music activities!

Inspired by Nancy Dean’s Voice Lessons, Song Lessons uses pop music (country, rock, pop, and folk) to teach the impact of literary devices in literature. A perfect bell ringer or Friday afternoon activity, this section asks students to analyze music lyrics through the literary device of tone.

This activity is so easy and fun to implement with your students! Simply start by introducing the literary device with the provided definition, then use the copy/paste directions to create and then print any of the five provided song discussion activities. When students walk into their next class and hear a song playing over your speakers, they will be so excited to get started analyzing the lyrics with each worksheets questions and annotation activity. Once students are comfortable with song discussions, you can provide them with the opportunity to create their own! They will have a blast sharing the literary power of their favorite song!

Each Song Lesson section contains the following:

• - An introduction with lesson planning advice and the definitions of 5 literary devices (Detail, Diction, Imagery, Point of View, and Tone)

• - 5 short song lessons. Each lesson includes a pop song (music and lyrics available via included web link), an annotation activity, and three close reading analysis questions that ask students to examine the selected song through the lens of the literary concept of tone

• - An answer key for each included song

• A Create Your Own Song Lesson Assignment that allows students to share their favorite music while also demonstrating their understanding of the literary device of tone. This assignment worksheet includes a rubric tied to the ELA Common Core Standards CCRA.W.4 and CCRA.SL.2

LYRICS ANALYZED IN SONG LESSONS: TONE:

"Jenny Was a Friend of Mine," by The Killers; "Popular," by Nada Surf; "Burning Photographs," by Ryan Adams; "Sweetest Decline," by Beth Orton; "Twin Falls," by Ben Folds Five.

Although this resource can be fitted for any secondary Language Arts classroom, it has been carefully designed to work best in grades 9, 10, 11, and 12. The included activities and rubric are subtly but specifically tied to Common Core ELA Standards for Language (3, 4, and 5), Speaking and Listening (2), and Writing (4). This resource is provided as a Microsoft PowerPoint template file.

This resource contains 11 pages.