I chose to read two high-interest texts from the music content area, specifically musical theatre. I also had my neighbor read these texts. Afterwards, we sat down and had our own mini "book club." Our first text was the libretto from the musical, The Secret Garden.
My neighbor and I have very similar feelings on almost everything, so it wasn't surprising that we both had many of the same thoughts on The Secret Garden. We discussed what we did and didn't like about the books. We felt that it could have been clearer as to what was going on (a way to fix this with students is to provide some scaffolding before reading). I feel like staging would have helped solve this, and this particular libretto had no stage notes so we were left with just the dialogue (with occasional soliloquy). The ghosts seemed too present, we weren't sure if it was going for deux ex machina or not. We could have done with a little less from the dead people. In the musical, they sort of teach how to speak "yorkshire." We both felt that was pretty cool and it was a good way to separate the servants from the homeowners. We weren't sure by the end whether or not Dr. Craven actually wanted the house or not. The characters themselves were very round and dynamic. You can see a lot of growth in all the main characters. The servants were used as instruments to accomplish that goal.
The way to use this in classroom instruction would depend on the class, but for a music history class we could do a unit on American musical theatre. We could aslo use this as a style of music for music appreciation. And lastly it would fit perfectly in a musical theatre class.
Allen (my neighbor) said he enjoyed reading this literature, but he was burnt out by the end. He doesn't see himself reading again too soon. What was really nice about the libretto is that it allows the reader to get a story in a very short amount of time.
There are so many ways to integrate this into a classroom. We could do basic book reports, or we could chose a selection and perform it. Have students' write a character analysis. Compare their project with others while providing constructive criticism to peers. We could also put on a variety show, showcasing the student's hard work.
We also looked at the vocal selections from The Lion King. Things that excited us are: Rafiki has a song (and it's a really good song)! This particular setting of the musical is more geared toward adults as opposed to the movie. There is a wide range of difficulty that allows students' to push themselves. There are a few really grant african chant numbers. This production also has more focus on the ensemble than the movie.
This book could be used in classroom by letting students' search through it and pick their solo work. They could aslo use their songs to create a variety show which would could use as a fund raiser (as part of a dinner and a show type thing). They could also use this book as a means to find music for their bi-termly project (a self-selected project that they need to complete twice each term). This would also be great music to create a song analysis from.
As for reading for pleasure, this is definitely a favorite. As Allen said, "It was fantastic! Music is fun!" It was fun to see the similarities and differences between the book and the 90's film. Even the differences between the book and the original broadway cast! The characterizations that the choose to add are awesome!
While speaking with Allen, we discussed how fun and complex the rhythms were for The Lion King and we talked about how we could use those rhythms as dictations for the class. Since they are so difficult, I probably would keep them for extra credit until they are more used to rhythm dictations. But if they got comfortable enough with rhythm dictations to do The Lion King ones, it would be a great indicator as to how far they have come.
