So we are covering figurative language in my class right now.
It is interesting to me that my kids have the exact same reaction each year to the exact same things.
I don't know why this is. If it is just that all 8th graders are drastically different but essentially the same, but I think it is weird!
There is one song in particular that I love to use to teach figurative language. It is also one of my top five personal favorite songs.
The song is "The Lighthouse's Tale" by Nickel Creek.
It has a lot of great figurative language to identify and would be great for teaching plot as well.
Before I play any songs in my classroom I talk to my class about the fact that I choose songs from my classroom from a variety of genres and even if they don't particularly like something they need to try to find the value in it and be respectful.
However, Every. Single. Year. when I first start this song the students start to complain and mock because it sounds kinda folksy. By the middle of the song the entire room goes quiet and by the end there is a shocked silence that fills the room.
It is a really touching and pretty song told from the point of view of a lighthouse.
A man and his fiancee live within the lighthouse who loves them more than anything in the world.
One night the woman goes out to see and both the lighthouse and the man watch as she dies at sea unable to help.
The lighthouse then has to watch helplessly as the man buries his fiancee and then uses him to jump to his death.
The whole notion of the lighthouse having to watch all of this happen to the people he loves most in the world without being able to stop it and then has to stand alone stoically afterwards gets to me every year.
I guess it gets to the kids as well.
Check out the song for yourself below and let me know if it gets to you as well!
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