CD Lyric Covers (6th)

As a way to really work on composition I developed this lesson using students favorite song lyrics and designing a CD cover for that song.

Students Learned/Practiced:
--Transferring words to pictures
--Brainstorming
--Abstract thinking
--Composition
--Layering

Students first picked a song of their choice. I told them the song could be any song they wanted at long as their parents would approve -- it could have bad words in it because those words will not show up on their cover. The idea that their song might have bad words in it and be okay was obviously thrilling to them. So, they printed out their lyrics and then we went through a couple of songs that I had picked for myself. One was called, Table for Two by Caedmon's Call. I choose this song because it has obvious picture words like, 'pancake, soccer, rock, window'. I read it to the class and we underlined all the picture words. Next I did the song Be My Escape by Relient K. I choose this song because there are no obvious picture words so the pictures were going to need some abstract thinking. The chorus repeats an idea of 'getting out of here, I feel into a rut that I feel into by mistake' So, I showed them how I took this idea of 'getting out' and thought about how do I get out/leave a place.

The students then looked through their songs and underlined ideas/picture words. They took these and made at least 4 thumbnail sketches. From these we talked about how to make their favorite sketch better -- composition -- how to fill up the space in a better way.

Once they decided on a composition they liked they received a final piece of paper in which they drew their sketch and then colored it layering 3 different colors of colored pencil. The students didn't exactly understand why I asked them to layer the colors until I showed them the different between one color and 3 -- they all agreed the color was much richer!

The students were not to put on any words from the lyrics, the song title or the artist -- as one of the examples shows -- not all remember that expectation. The Cd's above are for the songs Our Song By Taylor Swift and the other is Waiting on the World to Change By John Mayor