Using Pop Music as a Springboard for Inquiry-Based Informational Literacy Instruction

SOURCE

Return to Front Page

Vol. 15 | No. 3 | August 2018 11

Using Pop Music as a Springboard for Inquiry-Based Informational Literacy Instruction

Higher education institutions struggle to find ways to adequately inform and prepare first-year students for the rigors of college research and writing. Adding to the challenge, today’s students enter college with vastly different academic backgrounds. Some have completed “college prep” courses that required scholarly research and focused on writing skills, while others simply have basic research skills and some composition/ writing experience. Still others have had little to no formal practice with evidenced based writing—finding sources, determining their credibility and relevance, or selecting and incorporating them into their writing. Therefore, colleges must be creative and flexible in their approach to helping first-year students acquire and use these skills—both in their first-year courses and throughout their academic and professional careers.

Marshall University, as a means to assist all first-year students, has identified three broad learning goals for our first-year seminar (FYS): integrative learning, metacognitive thinking, and information literacy. Specifically, students are asked to locate credible and relevant scholarly work, to cite such sources appropriately, to incorporate this information into written form, and to do so in a way that the reader understands the thesis statement and the resulting paper. Students’ abilities in these areas determine their success in subsequent coursework; if they cannot learn these skills early on, their performance in major-related and general education classes will suffer, not to mention their ability to enter and progress in professional or graduate programs.

Faculty design their own courses, identifying a topic or passion that can be correlated with the FYS learning goals. Through training, faculty learn how their courses can support those university-wide goals in ways that facilitate greater student learning.

FYE Course in Practice

One example of this creative approach is the course I developed focusing on the prevalence of social justice issues in popular music. Specifically, the course focuses on three board units/topics and their treatment in song lyrics: (a) racism and discrimination, (b) poverty and classism, and (c) war and international conflict. Parallels between the social justice issues highlighted in 1960s music and those in contemporary music are used as a springboard for students to discuss issues that affect them. I encouraged students to submit contemporary songs to include in the discussion. Their submissions made the course more personally relevant for them, which helped them connect with the outcomes for the assignment.

To assess students’ ability to demonstrate the information literacy learning outcomes for the FYS, I designed an essay assignment that required listening to music from one of the three units, developing a research question based on that unit’s theme, and researching the answer to their question. Specific learning outcomes focused on students’ ability to (a) find credible and relevant scholarly work, (b) cite such sources appropriately,

Erin Ruth Brumbaugh Assistant Professor

Marshall University

“Parallelsbetweenthe socialjustice issueshighlighted in1960s musicand those incontemporarymusic are usedas a springboardfor students todiscuss issues

that affect them.”

Return to Front PageCopyright © 2018 National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition, University of South Carolina

SOURCE

Return to Front Page

Vol. 15 | No. 3 | August 2018 12

(c) incorporate information from these sources into written form, and (d) do so in a way that develops the thesis statement in a three- to four-page paper. The assignment requires three primary resources (i.e., peer-reviewed scholarly articles) from at least three different fields (e.g., sociology, psychology, history) and two secondary sources in support of each primary resource, for a total of nine sources. Within the six secondary sources, the students must include one video, at least one popular news source, and at least one independent source. Students write a one-page summary of each primary resource and compile an annotated bibliography of the six secondary sources in preparation for writing the paper. They followed these steps for each of the three units.

Collaboration and Research

During the first iteration of this course, I noticed that when students began their first essay, they struggled to select a question that allowed them to do the research needed to generate an appropriate essay, nor could they synthesize information from their research to answer the question(s). To address this, I incorporated a class session in which we listened to music and practiced formulating research questions together as a class.

As an example, some songs in the classism/poverty unit appear to have literal meanings, while the meanings of others are more difficult to discern. The Beatles’ Taxman (Harrison, 1966) contains lyrics that are easily understood:

If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street. If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat. If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat. If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet. Taxman!

In this unit, where we investigate class tensions between groups such as “the 1 percenters” and “the other 98 percent,” students could then develop research questions based on the concept of excessive taxation and select supporting articles to help form their response essays.

We also invite university librarians to meet with the students during class time early in the semester to teach them how to search for, identify, and cite appropriate sources; find examples of the appropriate citation style (i.e., APA); and ask questions of on-call librarians through various campus media. Once the students had the tools to do the research, we practiced concept-webbing exercises, demonstrating how to synthesize the primary and secondary sources they found.

What I Learned

By the end of the semester, I was impressed with students’ ability to formulate questions, conduct research and find quality sources, and write essays that synthesized the information from class and their research. Their essays improved with each draft, and they not only developed relevant research questions but also found support for their inquiries. Moreover, they were able to incorporate these research findings to support their own ideas on social justice issues with much success.

I also learned that my students felt a sense of injustice about events brought up in music from the 1960s that still have relevance. I have been heartened by their level of thought and their insightful questions. The students showed some hesitation with the board

“By the end ofthe semester, Iwas impressedwith students’ability toformulatequestions,

conduct researchand find quality

sources, andwrite essays thatsynthesized theinformation from

class and their research.”

Return to Front PageCopyright © 2018 National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition, University of South Carolina

SOURCE

Return to Front Page

Vol. 15 | No. 3 | August 2018 13

units/topics presented at first, but after they saw that all comments and viewpoints were welcome, we had some informative and mutually beneficial conversations. By making the topic of research relevant, students were more engaged and apt to look for sources that helped support their own ideas on the topic. The idea that a focused course can help students learn important skills such as information literacy is promising.

Institutions that wish to implement such an approach to their FYS should start by training faculty on university-wide learning goals, allowing them to identify their own topic or passion in support of those goals, then giving them access to mentors who can help guide them through the course development phase. Periodic meetings with the mentors and other faculty during the planning process would help maintain academic integrity and adherence to the learning goals.

Examples of Students’ Research Questions on Social Justice Issues in Popular Music

• Is the level of discrimination in the world rising or dropping?

• Why do more people know about Bob Marley’s War than they do about the speech that Haile Selassie gave before the United Nations in 1963 that inspired the song?

• Are we born to be, or are we taught to be racist?

• What does it take for young African Americans to break out of the cycle of poverty?

• Does classism restrict an individual’s potential?

• How does Tracy Chapman’s song Fast Car help America realize its social class problems?

• Is war as a whole a good thing or a bad thing?

• Can peace actually be achieved through music?

Reference

Harrison, G. (1966). Taxman. On Revolver [CD]. London, UK: Abbey Road Studios (EMI).

Contact

Erin Ruth Brumbaugh erinrb60@gmail.com

Related Articles in E-Source

Deuink, A., & Goodfellow, M. (2005). Infusing and assessing information literacy in first-year seminars. 3(1), 3-4.

Ward, V. E. (2007). Why aren’t they using Griffith Park? Involving first-year students in field-based research. 4(6), 13-15.

.

SOURCE

E-SOURCE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

For complete guidelines and issue dates, see http://www.sc.edu/fye/esource

Audience: E-Source readers include academic and student affairs administrators and faculty from a variety of fields.

Style: Articles, tables, figures, and references should adhere to APA (American Psychological Association) style.

Please address all questions and submissions to: Todd Money, Editor National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition University of South Carolina Email: tmoney@mailbox.sc.edu | Phone: 803-777-1924

Format: Submissions should be submitted online as a Microsoft Word attachment.

Length: Original feature-length articles should be 750-1,200 words. Annotations of new resources should be no more than 500 words. The editor reserves the right to edit submissions for length.

Return to Front PageCopyright © 2018 National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition, University of South Carolina