Seeds of Literary Analysis Planted at KHS

I gave this week's sibling assignment. I asked my siblings to think of a time in one of their Kellogg High School classes that really made an impression on them, and write about it.

One of my English teachers while at KHS was named Dale Bachman. When I was in high school, the English classes were set up when you could choose a different class each nine weeks. One nine weeks I chose to study Poetry. Mr. Bachman was my teacher.

One of the assignments we did was to bring a song we liked, and share the lyrics, showing how song lyrics were actually a type of poetry.

As an example, Mr. Bachman shared one of his favorite songs, "The Devil Went Down To Georgia". He talked about the song, and explained how this was a kind of story poem.




I chose a song from "A Chorus Line", titled " At The Ballet". This is a song about three girls and their troubles growing up, and how the ballet helped them out. I chose this version because Kelly Bishop from "The Gilmore Girls" sings it, and it sounds really good. Thesethree originated the roles on Broadway. If I remember correctly, we brought in the lyrics, and talked about what they meant, and analyzed them in front of the class.

This lesson has always stuck with me, and I still remember Mr. Bachman jumping around the room, acting out "The Devil Went Down To Georgia". I think it stuck with me, because my teacher was excited about what he was doing, and really got into this lesson.

I still love analyzing literature, whether it is poetry, essays, short stories or novels.

I love it and believe the seeds were planted right here in this class at KHS.