Saturday Songs: Allusions in Literature

A few weeks ago, two colleagues and I were discussing how to help our students recognize and understand allusions in literature.  I was lamenting the fact that students don't truly understand what an allusion is, as evidenced by the fact that many of them continually misuse the term allude.  For example, students will write, "William Shakespeare and Madeleine L'Engle allude to each other."  No.No.No.

One of the ladies said she used the song, "Someday We'll Know," by the New Radicals to teach this concept.  Right away, I thought of how many allusions Taylor Swift incorporates into her songs.  (If you've ever read my blog before, you know that I like to cite Taylor swift as an example of clear, concise writing.  In one line of her song, "Mine," we can make inferences about several different relationships.  "You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter."  We can make inferences about the father/daughter relationship, her relationship with herself, and her new relationship.)

Here are three videos of songs  that contain allusions.  I hope they will help students recognize allusions.  Now, getting students to dig deeper and understand why an author chose to allude to a particular work or event in history to make their point, is a different story. 

Happy reading,

Christine

New Reading Lessons for a New World

Recently, John Oliver did a funny bit on native advertising.  If you are not familiar with the term, native advertising is when companies and organizations make their ads look like editorial content in print publications.
As a writer, I know that the sale of ad space pays for the production of the magazine, and that the editorial and advertising departments each have their own separate, important job to do.  As a reader, I've noticed ads that look like articles, but since I'm an adult, and an avid reader I can distinguish between ads and articles.  But after John Oliver's bit, I put on my teacher hat and deliberately scoured magazines and newspapers for native advertising.  When I was consciously looking for it, I noticed that it was so prevalent, that I must address it with my students.  This year when we are reading informational text, I must plan lessons using native advertising from current issues of magazines and newspapers that my students are exposed to every day.
Take a look at the two examples below from the current issues of two popular consumer magazines available in any bookstore or at the check-out of any grocery store.

Happy reading,
Christine