Resistance is futile! Seems like an aggressive stance to take, especially when it comes to teaching. Yet, as a read Kevin Leander’s “Composing with Old and New Media: Toward a Parallel Pedagogy” I realized I’m guilty of “Resistance.” Leander describes resistance as “taking a position squarely with conventional print literacy practices…” Although I think we as teachers are (to various degrees) motivated to adhere to the constraints of standardized testing, this is not the main reason I gravitate to using conventional literacy texts in my classroom. I feel that this is an area, especially in regards to technology, that I need to improve.

For this week’s post I modified a previous lesson using conventional text and digital media to come together to be the center of my students’ learning. This past semester my 6th grade AC students read Frankenstein , which proved to be a very challenging text. Looking back and thinking of ways that I could have made the text easier for them to comprehend I think of music. If I could use songs as juxtaposition it may help broaden my students perspective of the novel and the tone that Shelley is trying to convey.

Using Spotify (another first for me…I’m beginning to see a theme among many of my posts) I created a soundtrack to serve as a parallel composition to the novel. The soundtrack consists of 6 songs that can be paired with key moments in the novel, click here to view the soundtrack. Obviously, this is a soundtrack that I created using my interpretations of the tone/meaning of the highlights and character motivations in the novel. However, if I asked the students to create their own soundtrack we now have the means to have an interesting discussion.

By having the students create their own soundtrack for the story allows for them to demonstrate their interpretation of the story. For example, I felt that “Safe and Sound” by Taylor Swift was a fitting song for when Victor is talking to Henry and Henry is trying to convince him not to leave. The song for me conveys both sadness and hope. However, students may not agree with my comparison or interpretation, which provides the opportunity to discuss differing points of view.  

Spotify is a free app/website (there are options to upgrade for a monthly fee) and it is very user friendly (which as I have stated on multiple occasions is crucial for me). I admit that one of the constraints for me was that figuring out how to add songs to my playlist was tricky. I created the soundtrack on my computer, so I am not sure if the app version is different. When I clicked on my playlist the only option to look for songs was “recently added songs” and since none of the songs that I wanted to add were on that list I was stumped. It took me pulling up Google and typing in “how to add songs to your playlist on Spotify” for me to figure it out. So now that I have built the anticipation, are you ready to hear how? It’s a drag and drop…yep. That’s all there is to it. There wasn’t a special search bar that I was missing, just a good old-fashioned click on the song that you searched for on the “regular” search bar and drag it to your playlist. Mindblowingly easy!

Some tips for teachers who want to use Spotify in the classroom:

• If you type the word “clean” after the title of the song you don’t have to worry about reviewing the song for explicit lyrics. (Although this is not always available for every song)
• If you are using the free version you will have to endure listening to ads.

What are some other types of digital media that you can use for parallel composing besides pictures?