by Seth Parker
This exercise is a great way to get students to interact with a non-tangible “text.” Bring in four or five samples of music. They should range in emotion and style—classic, rap, country—it’s your choice. Ask the students to take notes as they listen to each selection (Their initial reaction? What emotion is the artist trying to convey? What does he / she use to convey such emotion? Is this attempt successful?). After they have had their initial interaction with the music, ask them to go a step further. Play the selection again, only this time, ask them to construct a short story based on the music. This is more interesting if the music varies greatly song to song, forcing the student to piece together an erratic composition.
After this activity, bring up the idea of interacting with a text. They may have already read an essay from The Text Wrestling Book, so this is a great way to remind them that they have the ability to interpret and analyze text.
