Analyzing The Beatles’ song “Blackbird” with 4th graders…
Us (after listening to the whole song): “The lyrics repeat ‘blackbird fly’ over and over. What do you think this song might be about?”
Kid: “Freedom!”
Us (excited that for once, a kid is inching towards a non-literal interpretation…) “Ohhh, interesting! Explain!”
Kid: “BLACKbird. Like black people. Black people weren’t always free. So it’s saying black people should be free.”
That is what the song is about though!
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Yup. It sure is. We just googled it and that is EXACTLY what the song is about (we were just going for a general “overcoming obstacles/being brave” theme but apparently The Beatles meant the blackbird to symbolize a black woman during the civil rights movement.)
#arewesmarterthanafourthgrader #no
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And then the teacher becomes the student….. I hate when that happens.
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