I ain't no fortunate son...

I believe I've mentioned my music project with my class before, and I wanted to update you all on something pretty cool that happened last week.

Last week my song was Fortunate Son, by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and the kids were really enjoying it. (They've enjoyed the music a whole lot more now that we're (mostly) done with classical music, but that's ok...:) ) Anyway, in Social Studies we were finishing up the beginning unit on the Civil War. We were talking about all of the events leading up to the Civil War, the strengths and weaknesses of both sides during the war, and the attitudes and behaviors of both the south and the north during the Civil War. One of the issues we addressed was the fact that civilians in both the south and the north were able to evade the draft by either owning a certain number of slaves, or by buying your way out of the war. We discussed whether or not this was fair, what it meant to the poor and underprivileged, etc. Well, in a flash, like a...uh, (ahem) surge, it hit me...the song fit perfectly with this aspect of American History. I printed off the lyrics to the song, had my class read them as I played the song, and watched as they began to make the connection between the song and our discussions of the Civil War. Some kids asked if the song was written about the Civil War. I explained the connection to the Viet Nam war, and the correlation between the song, and both wars. Then, to culminate that particular part of the class, I sat back and reveled in what I was seeing...20 ten, eleven, and twelve year olds singing along with CCR and really getting it. It was truly something special.

Oh, and for those of you who don't know, I allow my students to get my attention when I'm unable to attend to them by saying "O Captain, My Captain". One of my students had checked out a book on Civil War poetry and songs. She found the Whitman poem (O, Captain! My Captain!) about Lincoln, and excitedly showed it to me, as if I didn't already know about it. I read the poem to the class, we discussed what it meant, and for the first time, my students smiled just a bit deeper when proclaiming, O Captain, My Captain!

It's been a good couple of days in class, to say the least.

Anyway, I've been working on my playlist of songs for "Music Time". I know I asked for suggestions before, but...any new ones?

And, as always, thanks for stopping by...

Tommy