Ideas for a lesson on Ray Charles?
 

Hello :)

I'm a language assistant in a french lycée and my teacher has asked me to do a lesson with the secondes to tie in with her current topic of civil rights. She's going to be doing a lesson with them on Ray Charles and will show them some of the film 'Ray'. She's asked me to base my lesson on any one of his songs so that I can discuss with them the lyrics, meaning, etc.

I'm just having a little trouble choosing a good song to do, as I don't know Ray Charles' music that well...does anyone have any suggestions for a song of his that could provoke some good conversation/debate ideas?

Thank you!

S.

Re: Ideas for a lesson on Ray Charles?
 

Hello,

A great song by Ray Charles is Hallelujah I Love Her So. This song is a great example of his gospel roots. He took an old gospel song and put in his own lyrics about a woman he loves.

For the conversation you could talk about where Ray Charles came from and what the racial climate was then. He was an African American kid from the south, so there are all sorts of things you could go into in terms of US history and race relations. Good luck and have fun with this.