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Lesson 25: Songs and Poems

Context
This lesson is meant to prompt a discussion on the arts as knowledge. Each student will make
two judgments: as a participant, when he or she is involved in the creation of the song or the
poem, then, as a member of the class (a sort of art community), when the voting for the best
song or poem takes place.

Aims
y To investigate the different elements of a work of art through a practical and entertaining
activity.
y To create a work of art, perform it, and then judge it.
y To consider the bases of judgments on art.

Class Management
The lesson requires a total of 80–120 minutes for a class of 12–20 students. For task 1, each
group will probably take 25–30 minutes, not including the voting, which will take a further
15–20¬ minutes. For task 2, each student might need 5–10 minutes. The rest of the lesson should
be dedicated to open discussion about the exercise.

Focus Activity
Give the following words to the class: candle, nightclub, floor, all, people, ends, know, door,
going, emptiness, dance, try, again, breath, veins, New Year’s Eve, inside, burning, out, night,
winter, air, face, year, another.
Task 1: Students form into groups of four. Each group then composes a song or a poem,
using only the words above plus indefinite and definite articles, pronouns,
prepositions, and the verb “to be” in all of its forms. A further constraint is that each
group may only use a particular word a maximum of three times. Each group must
choose one of its members as a performer to recite the song or poem. The songs
and poems are then recited to the whole class. At the end, everyone in the class must
vote for the poem or song he/she considers the best.
Task 2: Each student writes on a small piece of paper a response to the following question:
Assuming that you have voted for what you thought to be the best song or poem,
how did you know that it really was the best?

Teacher Support Material—Theory of Knowledge Lessons from Around the World © IBO, September 2004 Lesson 25—page 1
Lesson 25: Songs and Poems

Discussion Questions
y Is there anything in one song, poem, novel or painting that makes it better than another? Is
there a difference between liking a work and thinking it is good?
y How can judgments on art be justified? Is it possible to prove a value judgment? If not, are
all judgments equally valid?
y Given variability in judgment, what is the basis of the familiar concepts of literature, music
and visual art?
y How do tradition, social trends, religion and morality influence a person’s perception of
artistic merit?

Links to Other Areas of TOK


y What is the main difference between our knowledge that “this is the best poem” and our
knowledge that “2 + 2 = 4” or “salt dissolves in water”?
y Can art be considered language?
y Can an Arab, a Chinese and an American equally enjoy a piece of Indian music?

From Other Times and Places


The same Homer, who pleased at Athens and Rome two thousand years ago, is still admired at Paris and at London.
All the changes of climate, governments, religion, and language, have not been able to obscure his glory. Authority or
prejudice may give a temporary vogue to a bad poet or orator, but his reputation will never be durable or general.
David Hume

Quotations

Art is a human activity, consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain
external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are
infected by these feelings, and also experience them.
Leo Tolstoy

To see something as Art requires something the eye cannot descry: an atmosphere of artistic
theory, a knowledge of history of art, an art world.
AC Danto

References
Danto, AC, “The Art World”. Journal of Philosophy (1964), p 580*
Grant, D J, A Short History of Music, Revised edition, (1965) Columbia University Press
Honegger, A, I Am a Composer, (1966) St Martin’s Press
Hume, D, “Of the Standard of Taste”, in Four Dissertations (1857)*
Rosenfeld, P, Discoveries of a Music Critic (1936) Reprint Services Corp, ISBN 0781291844
Tolstoy, L; Maude, A, What is Art? (1898; reprint, 2001) Replica Books, ISBN 0735102937*
*Full reference unavailable.

Teacher Support Material—Theory of Knowledge Lessons from Around the World © IBO, September 2004 Lesson 25—page 2

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