Rose said her class had been focusing on the “Making Connections Across Literary Genres” unit, and she needed to show them how relevant poetry was – so she reached out to see if the band could make poetry a little more “rock star.”
“One of our parents is the stage manager for the Eli Young Band,” Rose added, “and he was the one who initiated the Skype session.”
Prior to Monday’s Skype with the band, Rose printed out the lyrics to “When It Rains” (a song from the Eli Young Band’s album, Jet Black & Jealous) and the class dissected it.
“The students looked for poetry structure throughout the lyrics, which included figurative language, sensory detail, and poetic technique,” Rose said. “They followed up by writing three questions that they might ask a successful ‘poet’ and that could also be applied to their own writing skills.”
The band Skyped in around 10:30 a.m., and lead singer Mike Eli answered the students’ previously written questions. They talked about using figurative language, the difficulty of making lyrics “flow,” how the band gets ideas for songs, and how to turn those ideas into something meaningful.
“Mike did an amazing job communicating to the kids the importance of fully expressing themselves in a song or poem,” Rose added. “He also advised them to put the same heart and soul into their own writing.”
Eli also shared with the students how he has been inspired by a variety of things from his everyday life, including his family.
“It was such an awesome experience for the kids, and they absolutely loved talking with him,” Rose said. “We know how busy they are, so it meant a lot for the band to take time out of their busy schedule to talk to them. The students are still taking about it.”