music education: r-e-s-p-e-c-t

Every Friday I play a song for my students. They are supposed to respond to the lyrics and the music. They have to write about how the music makes them feel and what they think about. All week we've been talking about respect and what it means to respect friends, family, and teachers. Well. I played an Otis Redding song called "Respect." Take a listen right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo3aeXZFZkg (go ahead - listen to it).

By the 5th time I listened to it, I was trying to figure out the connection between Otis's song and Aretha Franklin's song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DZ3_obMXwU&NR=1 (take a listen to hers) and I did. I found a wikipedia article (always dependable you know) about how Otis wrote his song in 1965 and Aretha wrote her song in 1967 as a woman's response to that song. I'm proud of myself for finding this link. The words are slightly different. :) Yay for music education (I'm all about it).