My cousin Grant is a second grade teacher and has managed to work my music into the vital curriculum. He is teaching his students about all sorts of concepts, vocabulary and thought processes through the deconstruction and analysis of my lyrics.
Below is an email I got from Grant today… he explains the lessons being taught and the children’s input. It’s really quite fun to read what a group of second graders gather from my lyrics and it warms the heart to know Grant is brainwashing them early!
1) Wyoming: When we talked about inference, I had them read the lyrics over a few times. Then I played your youtube clip for them. When it was over, I said, “Raise your hand if you think Tyler Stenson likes Wyoming.” They all did. “But he never said he liked it. How do you know?” They said, “Because he wrote a song about it.” Then I said, “People write songs about things they hate, too. If you think Tyler Stenson likes Wyoming, prove it.” They pored through the lyrics, and the big selling points were the sweet smells, the cities roses were probably pretty (they kinda missed the point there, but I let it go), the explorers thought it was pretty, and God made it perfect.
2a) The Bus: This one is used every day. During our group work (small groups doing drills for a short amount of time), the students know it is time to change groups when a song plays. My computer has a timer on it, and when the time is up, a new song plays. I use short little songs since I don’t want the transitions to be too long. I use Walkaways (Counting Crows), a riff from Moby, a song by Barenaked Ladies (I pray the students don’t ask me who sings that song), some Mozart…anyway, you get the idea. The Bus works great. It is simple and short.
2b) The Bus: When we started talking about symbolism, I used The Bus because it is a song they already knew, and because there aren’t many lyrics. I pretended to be in love with a light bulb. When they freaked out at this, I said, “What’s the matter? Tyler Stenson is a rock star and he’s in love with city lights. Why can’t I?” Eventually, we got around to the idea that you were using a symbol. With coaching, the students have concluded the following about The Bus: You love being a rock star, and you love unloading the bus and starting a new show. You like when the people scream at you when you are in concert.3) Big Hearts: As we continued to explore symbolism, I taught them about similes and metaphors. I played Big Hearts for them and had them underline every metaphor they found. When it was all over, one little girl said, “Wow. The whole song is just one big metaphor.” After a hearty congratulations, we broke up into small groups of three or four. Each group chose one metaphor from the song and prepared a translation of what they thought you meant with it. I took some notes, but I wish you could have heard them. It was amazing.
[Big Hearts] lie beside me forever more: “He wants to keep them close by because sometimes they can make bad things look good by looking at them from a different perspective. (Perspective is one of this week’s vocabulary words.)
Big Hearts are freight trains: “They coax him to do stuff. They encourage him. (Coax was a vocabulary word from a few weeks ago.)
Big Hearts are warming up the coldest years: “There’s these guys who get together and have a meeting because they really care and they want to take care of the earth.”
Big Hearts are…Northern Lights: “People can be like warm homes, nice, and lots of friends. They can help you feel loved, warm, and calm.”
[Big Hearts] are growing every day: “More people are getting nicer and nicer.”
Big Hearts are…godlight beams: “People that care and godlight beams both flash.” I asked them to explain what they meant, and they said, “They just can’t help it. Some people just give away some love and they still have more to give.”
There is more to come from Mr. Bushman’s second grade class as the term progresses. One thing is for certain, these students are sure to be the finest citizens this world has ever seen!