1) It's a wonder I haven't looked up music to help students comprehend concepts in my Language Arts classes before now. Because I tend to be a very conventional, by-the-text learner when it comes to reading and writing, I need to focus on expanding my instruction for students who may learn through kinesthetics...or music. Rhythm Rhyme Results offers teachers several links to songs that students can access in class or at home, dealing with content areas as diverse as physical education and chemistry. The particular link I've listed for this blog is actually a rap dealing extended metaphor and simile, giving students a brief session of levity while dealing with some of the headier subjects in the novel. Because the character of Boo Radley is an extended metaphor for the concept of a mockingbird throughout the novel, students comprehending these concepts is an important objective for the unit.
2) In addition to auditory learners, it may be helpful to lend understanding of literary devices to visual learners in the classroom. Scott McCloud, an award-winning cartoonist and semiologist, has written many books on the visual power of loaded symbols within comic books and cartoon strips. One of his most popular web-based comics, a visual adaptation of Robert Browning's Porphyria, can allow visual learners to link the extended metaphors within the poetry to visual concepts. Using this framework, I would allow students to make their own comics of different testimonies from the story, as well as linking Boo Radley to the mockingbird idea.
It definitely would gain interest of students if music was incorporated into their everyday learning. I loved the figurative language rap song! Students too would find it very helpful and not so black and white.
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