Strategy 4: Ocassional Paper

An Ocassional paper is using a paper about things that happen in students' lives apart from school that is not graded on grammar or mechanics.  This  would be very appropriate for a homework assignment to get students thinking more openly about music.  I could give this assignment to students getting them to use it to think more critically about the music in their lives.  The students then could read their papers to the class and the entire class would gain more insight into how music affects the lives of others.  This would then be a great way to engage students of diverse cultures in class and a way to validate the musical tastes of all students.