The Soundtrack Inspires The Script

At the ripe old age of 15, Michael Gange got the opportunity to be a teen voice on the radio. It was nothing fancy, just basic broadcasting equipment and a room full of LPs, but he could pick whatever he wanted to play.

When he became a teacher, he immediately remembered the skills he honed in his radio days - communicating clearly, sharing knowledge, being persuasive - and realized that he could put them to good use in his classroom.

Now, everyone in his journalism class, including his special needs English students, write reviews of books, records, movies, whatever interests them.

Music is a great place to start, says Gange, because teens "all have their own soundtrack." And, they love to talk about it, and other aspects of teen culture. By writing a review of something, they get to do that, learn how to argue, think critically and take a balanced look at something - in addition to learning how to craft sentences and paragraphs properly.

Gange has the students prepare what he says is essentially a five-paragraph, persuasive essay. He teaches them how to make a case for something in a way that reflects how people learn, taking them through six steps: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

This approach allows his young writers to develop their own style and to know that there is no "right" way to write a review. "I can't tell you that there's a definitive process. I tell them to trust what they are saying and let it come out."

He also has the students compare their work to reviews in mainstream publications, such as daily newspapers and Rolling Stone magazine. The students can easily see that what they are doing is what professional writers do, and they can achieve that level of quality, too.

Another real world touch is that Gange entrusts the students to take responsibility for meeting deadlines. At the beginning of the year, he sets the due dates for assignments, and the students have to make sure they get things done, "just like in the real world."

The beauty of this type of writing assignment is that, because it is an opinion piece, it forces students to think critically, answer the "because" question, and make an argument for something. For example, for one assignment Gange had students listen to a variety of music and ask themselves why they liked or didn't like particular styles of music. One student said that although he didn't like country music itself, he realized that the poetry of the music appealed to him, which he then wrote about. This also allowed Gange to remind students of earlier lessons on symbolism and poetry.

Another aspect of the assignment is getting the finished pieces published. The school has an on-line magazine, which published many of the pieces, as does the Fredericton daily newspaper. Pieces have also been published in compilations of student journalism and in broadcast versions on the local radio station and cable channel. Publishing immediately increases student confidence (particularly when the writing gets noticed by CNN, which happened one year) and students are interested in writing more.

Becoming a published writer means that they have to be gracious and careful about what they say, Gange notes. This allows him to focus in class on the importance of critical thinking for any type of journalism or writing in order to curb teenage tendencies to see the world in black and white.

Even rejection letters provide a teachable moment. "The biggest compliment of all," says Gange, "is that they read your writing, whether they liked it or not." Gange puts his own rejection letters up in the classroom so that students can see that even professional writers don't succeed all the time.