I love using music in the
classroom to teach reading strategies and of course to ignite writing. "You Say" by Lauren Daigle is very
inspiring. Hand out copies of the lyrics and play
the song. Allow your students to listen
to the song as they read along with the lyrics.
Discuss what they think the lyrics mean.
Have your students divide a
page in half (in their Writer’s Notebooks) and label the left "You Say" and the
right "I Say." Have them list what the
lyrics say from both vantage points (example: You say I am strong, I say I’m
weak).
Then have students think of someone in
their lives that is close to them or knows them well (i.e. parent, friend,
teacher, etc.) They can jot what they
think that person would say about them under the "You Say" column and how they might counter this under the "I Say" column.
Model your own "You Say, I Say" so they feel more comfortable doing their
own. (example: You say I’m organized, I say it takes a lot of behind-the-scenes
planning to look that way)
Return to the part of
the song that is the refrain/chorus and have them put their ideas into the format
of "You say I am _____ when I ____." These
lines will become their poem. You can have
students use line breaks and some white space between the "You say __" and "I __ " parts
so it looks more like a poem. They can
close the poem with an "I believe" statement of their own.
"Most People Are Good" by Luke Bryan is another good song/lyrics to use to
get young writers to jot down what they believe about things in their world. They can write "I believe" poems using these lyrics as a mentor text.
Further Reading:
Chris Kehan is a Library
Media Specialist in the Central Bucks School District and a proud fellow of
PAWLP (PA Writing & Literature Project) whose passion is teaching reading
and writing to all grade levels and ages. Follow her on Twitter @CBckehan
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