Sharing Music with my Students

At the end of every semester, I add a postscript and an addendum to my online writing classes. The postscript reminds the students what exactly the class has stressed and emphasizes the importance of continuing to write and to read regularly. I also make recommendations of fiction to read, such as Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang and James Welch's The Heartsong of Charging Elk. My recommendations for nonfiction include Edward Humes' Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash, Elizabeth Royte's Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash, Kirsten Iversen's Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, and Charles Moore's Plastic Ocean: How a Sea Captain's Chance Discovery Launched a Determined Quest to Save the Oceans.

The addendum is somewhat more personal and contains about thirteen YouTube links to the kinds of music that I often listen to while I am grading their essays. This music includes things like Matthew Halsall’s "Together" and "Been Here Before," Soren Dahl Jeppesen’s "No Stars Without Darkness," Anouar Brahem’s "Stopover at Dijbouti," Sokratis Sinopoulos’ "Eight Winds," Tord Gustavsen’s "Where Breathing Starts," and John Surman’s "Winter Elegy."

My students have the option of responding to either the postscript and/or the addendum for a few extra credit points. One student, years ago, said that her father heard the music she was playing while he was passing by her room, came in, and wanted to hear all of the saxophone music. In that way, the music spoke to someone else. Another student said Jon Hassell’s music from his Last Night the Moon Came Dropping its Clothes in the Street album was interesting but mostly just weird. Some students aren’t ready for new experiences. More positively, a student who co-owns a gym in Lawrence said that the music is what he needs when he works out in the mornings. This semester, a student who listened to Skuli Sverrisson & Oskar Gudjonsson’s The Box Tree said that the music “sounds amazing.” That comment just warmed my heart.

Making this music available to my students is one thing that enlivens the end of the semester for me before I am overwhelmed with yet more essays to grade and only a few days to work through them before grades are due.