Time to step it up! We recently had a little practice writing a response to another short piece of student writing, so we have a basic idea of the correct format. Now, we are going to transfer and expand on that idea to respond to a different type of writing, the writing of song lyrics, more specifically.
On this page you will find several examples of songs that document a significant historical event in US history. Your mission is to choose a song (after listening to several of them, of course) and write an informed response to it using a literary response format that we will need to adjust a bit to make it work for a song instead of a piece of writing. There are tons of songs based on historical events; the ones listed here are just a sampling. If you have another song that you think meets the criteria, feel free to share it with me so I can add it to the list!
When you have found your song, look at this site and ask yourself some of the questions to help focus what you will be writing about.
Here are some more links to help you out:
Sample essays
How to...
Before writing your response, you will also need to become more informed about the topic of the song. Therefore, you will need to do some research so you can have an informed viewpoint to evaluate the song's accuracy, impact, and relevance. Please remember as you research that you need to pay attention to the validity of the sources. Not every source is accurate or credible, so stick to education sites, government sponsored sites, and others with valid sources of their own.
American Pie by Don McLean
Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton
Dustbowl Children by Alison Krauss and Union Station (Dan Tyminski)
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot
Sullivan by Caroline's Spine
North to Alaska by Johnny Horton
Sink the Bismarck by Johnny Horton
Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Where Were You by Alan Jackson
| Yikes! What do I do, Mrs. K? |
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| 1. Listen to several songs and decide which one you want to respond to. |
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| 2. Do a KWL about your historical event so you know what your first step should be in researching. |
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| 3. Research the historical event. |
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| 4. Do a TPAPT or RAFT and prewriting (in Inspiration) to organize your information. |
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| 5. Convert your prewriting to an outline and adjust the order, add details, etc. |
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| 6. Write your rough draft. Make sure you add in citations for where you got your info from. Use Easy Bib for your Works Cited. |
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| 7. Self edit/revise. |
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| 8. Peer edit/revise. |
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| 9. Make changes and save final draft. |
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| 10. Submit with a works cited to Edmodo. |
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| 11. Do a happy dance. |
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