AP Language: Analyzing Anti-War Protest Songs

This lesson is designed to be a supplement for fiction or nonfiction anchor texts used in the classroom. This lesson would be appropriate for any text-pairings with the following thematic ideas: war, politics, music/musician, the influence of culture on artistic meaning, free speech, community, public spaces, etc. This lesson introduces students to anti-war protest songs from the 1960s, their impact on pop culture, and their reflection on different societal, cultural, and political values. 

Common Core Objectives:

9-10.RL.7: Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g., Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” and Breughel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus).

9-10.RI.7: Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.

9-10.W.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

• Apply grades 9–10 Reading standards to literature(e.g., “Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work [e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare]”).
• Apply grades 9–10 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., “Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning”).
  
  

Lauren Peterson (Master of Arts, Education) has been teaching AP^® English Language and Composition in a number of states for more than ten years, most recently at Highlands High School in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, where she is also the schoolwide literacy leader. Before this position, Lauren served as a curriculum and instructional coach in Duval County, Florida. Lauren worked for College Board on a pilot curriculum designed to both remediate common AP^® English Language challenges and also prepare students for Microsoft Office Specialist Certification. As an independent consultant for the National Math and Science Initiative, Lauren has written diverse curricula used by students across the country as well as training materials for beginning and experienced AP^® English Language teachers. Lauren served as an AP^® English Language Reader and continues to work as an AP^® English Language trainer for new and experienced teachers.