LEO: Bridges
BLUESONG GUIDE DESCRIPTION "Bridges" is a magical collaboration between folk-rocker Ani DiFranco and the spoken word poet Utah Phillips. DiFranco added music to Phillips' poem "Briges" that uses bridges and rivers as metaphors to talk about time, history, stories and other things handed down from generation to generation.
Mindblue's differentiated lesson plan is filled with thought provoking multi-disciplinary activities that link up nicely with the study of an epic poem like The Odyssey, Thornton Wilder's play Our Town or a film like Pleasantville.
The "Bridges" BlueSong Guide would also be an effective way to introducing the study of history and the challenges time, events and stories present to historians.
THEMES/SUBJECTS
Classification/Taxonomies
History
Intergenerational Communication
Life cycles
Memoir
Memory
Oral History
Past vs. Present
Time
Tradition
LIT TERMS
Figurative Language
Metaphor
LITERATURE LINKS
Oral Histories
Memoirs
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight In Heaven - Sherman Alexie
Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself - Judy Blume
The Things They Carried / In The Lake of The Wood - Tim O'Brien
1984 - George Orwell
Maus - Art Speigelman
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
Our Town - Thornton Wilder
POETRY LINKS
African Griots - The Kennedy Center has a strong lesson plan on legendary Malian king Sundiata Keita (The Lion King of Mali)
The Illiad - Homer
The Odyssey - Homer
"I've Known Rivers" - Langston Huges
RELATED LITERATURE RESOURCES
Cool online study guides for Night and The Things They Carried can be found at:
Night - http://www.chipublib.org/003cpl/onebook_night/night.html
The Things They Carried - http://www.chipublib.org/003cpl/oboc/things/things.html
MOVIE LINKS
Big (1988, PG)
Back to the Future (1985, PG)
Bill and Ted�s excellent Adventure (1989 PG)
The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957, PG)
The Final Cut ( 2004, PG-13)
Genesis (2004, G)
Time Bandits(1981, PG)
Pleasantville (1998, PG-13)
ARTWORK
Go to the Muesum of Modern Art in New York city's web archive of their 2002 exhibition "Tempo"
SCIENCE LINKS
University of California Berkeley Museum of Paleontology has a wonderful set of interactive of lesson plans designed to help students explore geologic time: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explotime.html
Check out the Wildlife Conservation Society's interactive lessons for the "River on the Rise" site at www.wildexplorations.com
Philadelphia's The Academy of Natural Sciences has an urban river awareness project that explains how rivers, watersheds, and pollution affect everyone on a daily basis. http://www.urbanrivers.org
PBS's American Expirence Made a Documentary on the Golden Gate Bridge. Free lesson plans for the show
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"Bridges" by Ani DiFranco and Utah Phillips $8.99 $5.99!