"Taylor Swift in the Literature Classroom" will take place over Zoom from 10:00–11:30 a.m. CT on Monday, July 8.
This program for English language arts teachers will compare the work of one of today's most recognizable songwriters and performers, Taylor Swift, to commonly taught poetic texts and traditions (lyric, dramatic, and narrative) in the secondary-level curriculum. The program will provide strategies for finding ways to engage middle and high school students by showing how this pop-music icon uses traditional genres, motifs, and figures found in literary texts that seem remote from hers. Participants will also investigate the ways in which she uses fairly familiar middle and high school texts as the basis or reference point for some of her writing. Elizabeth Scala of The University of Texas at Austin will lead the webinar.