Lesson Plan

Author
Amanda Murphy

Subject
English

Grade/Level
8/9

Time Frame
43 minutes

Learning Context
Predominantly white and middle class students. 3 African Americans, 2 Hispanic students, and 1 Asian
girl.

Background Knowledge/Skills
Students will already know how to closely read texts in literature and how to analyze and annotate for
deeper meaning. In addition to this, students will be familiar with colors and know that they are
symbolic in some nature. Students will also have a basic understanding of the changing seasons and how
the beautiful colors of autumn are lost with the arrival of winter. Students will have to know how to
analyze a text to find the inner-workings. Students will also have to know how to annotate, know the
literary devices and how they are used in literature, and be able to make connections within a work.

Essential Questions

How is mood portrayed in music?

What story is Taylor Swift telling? How is she telling this story?
What features of songs help to convey their message and the singers emotions?

Learning Objectives and Understandings

SWBAT:
Determine how writers use colors to convey their messages and to develop their themes
- Identify the symbolism of colors found throughout many different modes.
- Recognize that ideas and concepts are imposed, such as red means evil or love
- Assess that songs are similar to poetry, in that there can be many different
interpretations. Like poems, songs can be analyzed for underlying meaning.
Apply their knowledge of annotation to identify context clues that illuminate the symbolism
of colors
- Connect colors to symbols and meanings in the song.
- Demonstrate their knowledge of colors and the symbols that align with different colors.
- Analyze the literary devices in Red to get meaning and to understand how different
words and meanings influence the symbolism of colors in the song. metaphor and
simile.

Rationale
Its important for students to be able to apply the skills they learn in school to their lives outside of the
classroom. This color unit as a whole will be able to make that connection for the students, but this
lesson, specifically, will be able to show them how their analytical and literary abilities can be applied to
more than texts; they can use their skills to find deeper meaning and interpretations in songs, for
example.

Standards
Reading
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text,
including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.

Academic Language Needs (key vocabulary)

Tone, tempo, crescendo, decrescendo.

Procedure (sequence of activities)

1. Students will read the lyrics to Taylor Swifts song Red.

2. After reading through the lyrics once, they will highlight each color she mentions in her song.
3. Ask them to think about what she means when she says/sings Losing him was blue like Id never
known / Missing him was dark grey all alone / Loving him was red
4. Students will discuss the contrasts of red, blue, and dark grey. Going through the lyrics again, students
will be asked to underline the words that are associated with each color. (blue = losing, grey = missing,
red = love)
5. Play the song for the students while they follow along with the lyrics on paper. What is her tone
when mentioning these colors? How does the music, the drums, guitars, tempo and volume of the music
at certain points contribute to our perception and interpretation of what Swift is saying?
6. After the song is over, have a discussion about what they found and what theyre thinking.
7. Have students look back at these lyrics in the beginning of the song: Loving him is like trying to
change your mind once youre already flying through the free fall / Like the colors in autumn, so bright
just before they lose it all
8. Ask them what the colors of autumns are. Why is her mention of autumn significant when looking at
the song as a whole?
9. Write the song as if it were a story.

Differentiation for Students with Special Needs

Students with special needs will need more time to listen to the song more than a few times
before theyll be able to attempt discovering the deeper meaning of the song and isolate the
colors to determine what they contribute to the meaning of the song.
They might also need a list of the colors and the typical meanings associated with them, such as
red symbolizing love or evil.
A picture of an autumnal landscape will help enable them to visualize the beautiful leaves of
autumn and then trees becoming barren once winter comes. Being given this information
blatantly will help them to make the connection between this process and the relationship
Taylor Swift talks about in her song.

Materials/Resources/Handouts

Students will be given a handout with the lyrics on it from metrolyrics.com

The song will be played on youtube.com

Assessment/Rubrics
The students ability to rewrite the song as a story will demonstrate their understanding of what
happened in the songthe story. They will have to include specific emotions in place of the colors when
constructing the story. This will show their interpretations of the song and how the colors are portrayed
to represent certain feelings.

Reading/Writing Assignments
The students will read the lyrics and write the story the song tells after, including their own
understandings about the emotions being reflected through the colors used in the song.