Duranie Homework Changes?

There are many aspects of my job as a teacher that I love. For example, I get all excited when I come up with a cool way to share information about a topic that really matters. Another part of my job that interests me is the problem solving involved. Sometimes, it is large scale like how can I get my students to analyze documents better. Other times, it it all about one kid. How can help this kid to stop doing x behavior? Of course, problem solving can extend beyond my classroom to the campaign trail to even what Rhonda and I do here and with fandom.

A few weeks ago, I assigned some Duranie homework. Here was the assignment:

Assignment:  Determine the best Duran Duran lyrics! List 15 Duran Duran songs that you believe have the best lyrics. It is up to you to determine what best means. Could a song have great verses and a terrible chorus or vice versa? That is up to you. Could it be a side project song? A solo song? Again, that is up to you. Could you pick a song that has just a really great one liner? Sure. You may decide to put them in order of the best, second best, etc. but you don’t have to.

The assignment is due today! Unfortunately, not very many Duranies turned in the homework. Here is where the problem solving comes in. Why? I ask. Is it that I didn’t explain the homework well enough? Is it that the turn in procedure was not clear? Is it that I didn’t remind people enough? Something else that I did not even think of?

I think I explained it well enough. Is it something else? Is that the assignment is too hard? Maybe. Is it too hard to pick just 15 songs that have the best lyrics? Would it be easier if I made a list and had people pick 15 from there? If so, I would be happy to do it. I could also put the list into a poll of sorts. Of course, both would require some time but I would be happy to do so for more participation. If I turned it into a poll, people would not have to turn anything in. I could also easily see what songs were determined to have the best lyrics.

Of course, it could be a situation in which people forgot about the assignment or just got too busy. I know that I have been feeling like I have been on a runaway train which I’m barely hanging on. This means that I need some more time to get the assignment done myself. So what do I do from here? Seems to me that I have three choices:

  1. Look at the lists that were sent in and go from there.
  2. Change it to a list or a poll to make it easier on people.
  3. Give people an extension so more people can participate

What do you all think? I’m happy to do whatever. 🙂


9 thoughts on “Duranie Homework Changes?”

      1. I compiled a list, but the hardest thing now will be trying to whittle it down from 22 to 15. I just don’t want to give any of the up. Any chance to allow for more than 15? I can maybe trim a few, if necessary, but cutting 7 will be tough.

  1. I am here to make you notice that we all voted for the “Best lyrics” in one of the awesome “Daily questions” run, not long ago.
    A list of 15 songs, some time later should not spoil our choices, in fact I did forget what I voted first!.. LOL! .

  2. I have been struggling to identify what songs I wanted to include in my list. I think I misunderstood (or overthought) the assignment as I have written the specific lyric and identified the song- not just the song. This is sill in my notebook and I have 6 more to choose. I would appreciate an extension of this thought provoking assignment please, Teacher. I’ll blame Duran because their entire catalog is full of great lyrics!

