I miss the Eras tour. Even though it hasn’t been that long. My daughter is requesting Wicked songs and Katy Perry in the car all of a sudden, instead of our usual Taylor Swift-a-thon.
But I haven’t forgotten the joys of the Swiftiverse. And today, I want to share a prompt you could use with any poem, short story, or novel that comes from Taylor’s music, specifically her approach to bridges.
What’s a Bridge?
Start by taking a peek at this video from The New York Times’ “Diary of a Song” series, in which Taylor Swift and producer Jack Antonoff talk about the role of bridges. Though I find the whole video pretty fascinating, you can skip straight to the relevant bit at 6:52. “I love trying to take the song to a higher level with the bridge,” says Taylor. Then Antonoff chimes in, talking about how it feels to be in beautiful scenery and then suddenly go into a tunnel before popping back out into the world. “You need that third element to take you away from where you’ve been so you’re so excited to get it back,” says Antonoff.
So there you have two ideas of what a bridge can be.
They can intertwine, as they do in Swift’s song “Lover.”
Or you can separate them.
Mixing Musical Bridges with Class Texts
Now comes the fun part – applying the idea of a bridge to whatever text you’re studying in class.
Let’s say it’s a poem. Is there a word that feels like a bridge in a line? A line that feels like a bridge in a stanza? A stanza that feels like a bridge in the whole piece?
Or maybe it’s a short story. Is there a paragraph that feels like a bridge? Or a moment? Is there a character who acts as a bridge, waking up another character to a new part of their story? Or an event that somehow galvanized the action, bridging it into a new place?
Or again, maybe it’s a novel. At what point does the novel go from before to after? From setting things up to unpacking something real? Is the climax the bridge? Is it is a single conversation? A one line realization?
For me, this mixing of mediums, this application of a musical concept to literature provides endless possibilities for prompts. And whenever there’s a chance to use a pop culture hook to help kids go deeper in ELA, I’m so in!
The Bridge Prompt in Action with Ken Liu’s “The Paper Menagerie”
Let’s look at a quick example of how you might incorporate this idea in class with a text.
Last summer I was working on a short unit for one of my favorite stories, Ken Liu’s “The Paper Menagerie.” If you haven’t read it, run don’t walk. It’s OK to cry.
I had recently seen this “Diary of a Song” and been thinking about the idea of bridges, so I created one day of the unit to revolve around it.
Students would look back at the story – alone or with a partner – and search out a bridge inside. Then they’d reflect on how that part of the story operated as a bridge, and if it was the only bridge in the story or just, in their opinion, the most important.
Finally, they’d need to somehow construct their concept of the bridge, using visuals, video, audio, or text, and show how it helps to move the reader to a new place.
Time to Riff
Ready to try it out? There are so many ways to spin this concept into a writing prompt, discussion, or project! I hope you feel inspired.
