In the last part of the lesson, each group was asked to make a short presentation to the class on that group's song. The rest of the class got a copy of the lyrics so they could follow along in the discussion. Finally, after each presentation, the song was played. That was the first time anyone in the class had heard the song. After the song was played, the students could comment on the song. How did it go? Well, although I was not present during either of the two 90-minute periods that the lesson took up, I heard some very good things about it. As you might expect, it took a little while for Joni to win them over. They did not warm up immediately to her singing and apparently weren't too taken with it on "The Last Time I Saw Richard". I think we all would agree that she often can be a "hard listen" at first, and I think that would especially be true considering what they are used to listening to these days. However, I thought that breaking them into groups to stud! y her songs and then make a presentation would give them some "ownership" in their song and get them to take a deeper look. That seems to have worked because by the end there were several who made comments on how much they enjoyed it. The two favorites were Little Green and Furry. I hear that in the group studying Little Green, one of the boys indicated he didn't care for studying the song lyrics as poetry, but his girlfriend, who also was in that group, told him in no uncertain terms that she did not agree, and for him not to try to force his opinion on the rest of the group! I don't know if any of them will follow up by listening to Joni's music, but I think they had a good time and learned something about poetry and about her. The teacher intends to use the lesson again next year. I'm just glad I didn't suggest that they watch the Grammy Awards to see her get the "Lifetime Achievement Award".
