English Language Arts With Taylor Swift- An Exploration of Her Inspiration MS

Taylor swift has been in the spotlight since the age of sixteen. In the past couple of decades, she had built an empire. She has been named Time's Person of the Year, won fourteen Grammys, forty American Music Awards, thirty-nine Billboard Music Awards, and twenty-three MTV Video Music Awards, and much more. She is an icon, admired by many.

     As Swifties know, her albums are divided into eras, each with a unique sound and thematic focus. We will dive into each, exploring her songs and their literary influences. Learners will read and analyze the texts that inspired her while looking for their influences in her lyrics. We will also take a biographical approach by considering some the life events that influenced her work. Class will be divided into her eras. Most of the content does not build on previous lessons, meaning learners can join at any time. The eras with building content have been noted below.

This class mainly relies on other texts, and will cite Swift's lyrics at times. Learners will be reading what she has read and loved. How exciting! Throughout the eras, we will have novel and poetry studies, as listed below. We will discuss the texts in class and complete various activities in regards to them. We will write at times, and have other activities such as trivia (on Gimkit or Kahoot), but most of the class will consist of preplanned discussion questions to help us think more critically and dive deeper into the literature. 

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SCHEDULE:


Taylor Swift (2006)

Week of September 9: 
Swift Trivia- How well do you know the pop star?
Short Story Study: The Myth of Cupid and Psyche
Songs: The Outside
Focus: Author's purpose, message, making connections between texts, real people, and oneself. 

Week of September 16:
Study: "The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant" by W.D. Wetherell
Focus: Literature Elements & The Art of Lyrical Storytelling
Songs: Tim McGraw, Teardrops on my Guitar, Our Song, Picture to Burn

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Fearless (2008)

Literature: Poem- Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet 43, Short Story-The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
Songs: Love Story, The Best Day, Fifteen

Week of September 23: Love Story, Sonnet 43 and Mama Swift, Snow White* (bonus if time allows)

Week of September 30: To celebrate the official first week of Spooky Season (if we're being honest, the first week for me is the first week of September!), we are going to deviate from Fearless for the week. We will read "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe and make connections to Evermore.

Week of October 6: The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, White Horse, Today was a Fairytale


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Speak Now (2010)

Novel Study (2 weeks): Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine* Learners read outside of class for homework. 
Focus: Plot Development and Story Elements, Themes of Exploration and Obedience/Expected Behaviors
Songs: Enchanted, Haunted, The Story of Us, Mean, Back to December, When Emma Falls in Love

Week of October 13: Discuss Chapters 1-15
Week of October 20: Discuss Chapters 16-end, complete novel project in class. Choices include a soundtrack, review, or an analytical essay on one theme in the novel. 

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Future topics, dates TBD

Red (2012) 
Taylor deemed Red a breakup album, with songs about the end of a romance, but she was also experimenting and beginning her transition to pop. This album is also about healing and support. 

Focus: Tone, mood, Symbolism, word choice
Songs: Red, OG All Too Well, All Too Well (Taylor's Version), album prologue, State of Grace

October 27: Poetry Study: Pablo Neruda" "Tonight I Write the Saddest Lines"
November 3: Short Story Study: Legend of Achilles


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UPCOMING


1989 (2014)
“This moment is a reflection of the woods we wandered through and all this love between us glowing through the darkest dark.” -Taylor
In this era, Taylor officially rebranded as a pop star, and began to accept that, no matter how hard she tried to maintain a good image and show she truly cared about her fans, the media would try to tarnish her name and people would try to tear her down. She embraced what was said about her and turned it into songs. This album is about self-discovery, love (of course), and becoming an adult in the public eye. 

Short Story Study: "Rules of the Game" by Amy Tan (discussing the game of life- respect for tradition v. the pursuit of individuality)
Songs: Bad Blood, Blank Space, Shake it off, Style, Wildest Dreams, Out of the Woods, Welcome to New York (Symbolic of her transformation)
Activities: Study the cinematography in "Bad Blood," 

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Reputation (2017)

Novel Study (? weeks): A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger 
Short story: "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes or "Raymond's Run" by Toni Cade Bambara, "Hearts and Hands" by O. Henry
Songs: Look What you Made me do, Are you Ready for it, 

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Lover (2019)

Literature: Nonfiction article about Roy and Silo, two male penguins that were given an egg another couple could not hatch. They successfully hatched it and raised the chick, named Tango. 
Songs: Me!, You Need to Calm Down

Write: love letters! These don't have to be romantic, Taylor did say this album was a A "love letter to love," after all. 

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Folklore (2020) Era

Novel Study: Peter Pan
Songs: Peter (TTPD), Cardigan, Seven

Autobiographical Study: "Names/Nombres" by Julia Alvarez 
Songs: The Last Great American Dynasty, Clara Bow (TTPD)
 
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Evermore (2020)

Novel Study (2 weeks): Coraline- The Graphic Novel
Songs: 

wk 1 Song Study (mood & tone) & Coraline Pre-reading 
wk 2 Chapters 1-7, Setting, plot development, tone, mood, 
wk 3 Chapters 8-13, Conflict, climax, theme

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Midnights (2022)

Independent Study: Learners will research the myth of King Midas and create a presentation on it. Each learner will have a different question to answer in regards to the myth. 
Songs: "Bigger Than The Whole Sky"
Activity: Presentation & write two paragraphs, one to summarize the story, another to answer the given question. 

Short Story: "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
History: Salem Witch Trials
Songs: Out of the Woods (1989),  Willow (Evermore, what if the 90s trend line was in reference to the 1690s and the Salem Witch Trials?), I did Something Bad (reputation), Mad Woman (Folklore)... I know, the songs are from everywhere but Midnights, this just seemed like a fitting place for it. 

Songs: Dear Reader
Activity: Write an opening to a story where you begin with one character directly addressing the audience, and then switch to first person without the direct address, only bringing it back at the end of the story.


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Tortured Poet's Department (2024) Era

(I have a bit of analysis and listening to do since this was just released and is a MASSIVE album, so this may change. I am really just getting some ideas out here and will get feedback from learners before finalizing these plans.)

Literature Study: The Thing About Cassandra by Neil Gaiman
Songs: Cassandra

Novel Study: A Wrinkle in Time
Songs: So High School

Short Story Narrative Study: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Songs: The Albatross

Poetry Study: Wild Nights – Wild Nights!, Poem by Emily Dickinson
Song: My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys

Novel Study: Little Women
Song: The Manuscript