Into the texts (Textual Anlysis)

As part of my lesson plans for the Textual Analysis, I include lyrics from music. The students deal with critical Analysis everyday of their lives, they just may not be aware that is what it is called. Anytime they justify a piece of music they like over another or even have to "talk up" a movie they may like but their best friend does not, they are engaging in critical analysis. This semester, I am going to try to go a step further and try to convey the importance of getting into the texts by all of us singing. Now, this may seem a little radical, but in other fields of lit this is not so different. Plays are meant to be heard, not read. Poems to be heard and read so why should we assume that music lyrics do not have the same qualities. They also have elements other than the words that aid in the message. So, I am going to provide an overhead of "Come Together" and use a recording of the version which appeared in Across the Universe. I feel this will help bring in a sense of inclusion to the text and may even get them to look at the text in a different way. Either that or they will all think I am nuts.