As Halloween approaches, it’s the perfect time to add a little eerie excitement to your classroom with some spooky songs to analyze!
For secondary ELA educators looking to spice up their lesson plans this October, we’ve curated a thrilling collection of three spooky songs that are ripe for literary analysis. Each song is a gateway to exploring rich literary elements like imagery, tone, and irony, all while engaging students with the fun, festive spirit of the season.
This blog post will guide you through using these spooky songs to analyze and dissect with your students, ensuring a lively, interactive, and educational experience. Get ready to turn up the volume, dive into the lyrics, and unravel the mysteries of these haunting tunes just in time for Halloween!
3 Spooky Songs to Analyze this Halloween
Listen…I am going to be real…I hate being a teacher around Halloween. Battling sugar-highs, even lower attention spans, & chaotic energy levels…I have learned to lean into the energy rather than fight it.
What helps? Implementing FUN activities, like finding spooky songs to analyze, that allow some excitement and engagement.
Let me know if you try any of the three picks below!
Billie Eilish’s “bury a friend”
🎃 From the perspective of the monster under her bed, this song is FANTASTIC for analyzing point of view, rhetorical questioning, and tone
🎃 The music video is SUPER creepy, so give it a watch to see if it’s appropriately spooky for your students. If not, opt for a lyrical analysis (here’s a lyrical site for teacher’s that might help).
Hozier’s “Eat Your Young”
🎃 There’s TOOOO much to analyze here. From the imagery to the allusions, you can choose just how deep your students analyze this song. Given the release date, you could extend this into a research on what war Hozier alludes to, etc.
🎃 The music video is far more subtly creepy, so students can analyze how mood is developed.
SZA’s “Kill Bill”
🎃 I LOVE SZA, and my students know it (and are annoyed by it lol). I think this song is hilariously ironic with an unreliable narrator who pairs nicely with Poe’s narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
🎃 I personally would NOT show the music video since it has some mature themes (i.e. violence); I just have students analyze the lyrics.
(Also, they could analyze the allusions to the film Kill Bill, but I didn’t find it worth the time, since many of my kids have never even heard of it…nothing like your students to remind you that you’re old lol).
Other Spooky Resources for Secondary ELA
🖤 TERMINUS – have your students solve a mystery and help Rania escape!
🖤 Abandoned Places – have your students read about REAL (creepy) abandoned places & write creatively about it
🖤 Maritime Mysteries – have your students learn about mysteries at sea…EERIE!!!
🖤 Halloween Drama Games – get your students up & ACTive this spooky season!
🖤 The Black Cat Inferences Challenge – power up your POE by making your students play detective
🖤 Burnbridge #3 “The Haunted Mansion” – have your students escape the haunted mansion in this found-adventure
🖤 Monsters research project – this project is PERFECT for middle schoolers!
So there you have it—three spooky songs to analyze that are sure to keep the Halloween spirit alive in your classroom!
Dive into these tunes with your students and watch as they uncover hidden meanings, dissect intricate lyrics, and maybe even get a little goosebumpy along the way. It’s a perfect opportunity to mix a bit of fun with serious literary analysis.
Enjoy the music, enjoy the discussions, and most importantly, have a spooktacular time teaching!
