Making Connections: “People Like Me” – K’NaanChorus:Heaven, is there a chance that you could come downand open doors to hurtin’ people like mePeople like me? (4x)

Is it fair to say that I am stressing out?I'm stationed in Iraq and they won't let me outMy homeys said I was stupid for even joiningMy counsellor said that my decision was disappointingHow she had good (?) for good state collegesAnd with my good gradesIt wouldn't have been a problemBut they don't understand the power of significanceMore than brilliance And certainly more than dividendsAnd if you ask me now, would I repeat it?Would I fight in a war I don't believe in?Well, the answer is it’s not me where the cancer isThey’ve been doing this before Jesus of NazarethAnd after all this time it is still deadly hazardousAnd Bush isn't really being all that inaccurateWhen he says we're winning the war ‘Cause it’s staggeringBut that’s ‘cause we're killing everybody that we seeAnd most of us soldiers we can barely fall asleepAnd time and time again I'm feeling incompetent‘Cause my woman back home, We're constantly arguingAnd I must be crazy ‘cause all I’m obsessing with isHer Myspace and Facebook and who's commentingI swear to god if she's cheatin' I'm doin’ her %@# inI can tell with one look and it came to me sounding like something from a song hook…

Chorus

Meet Sarah, the proud mother of young SebastianSuburban professional went to college in MassalinIn self pity she suddenly cried,“Would my life be important if I suddenly died?”Neighbours saying what a nice women she wasKeeping mostly to herself ever since the divorceAnd with the company downsizin’ in the Fall and allShe really shouldn't take it that personal at all

It wasn't her boss who had his eyes on her thighsAnd got a rise from her risin’ off the desk thoughAnd despite remembering saying “no” plenty of timesIt was still a $&#* surprise being let goAnd now stuck with a mortgage she can’t affordAnd too educated to blame the corporate worldShe got on welfare and hated it, Case worker power trippin’And generally being degraded. If……nothing else she was treated sickAnd ineffective which is the worst thingThat she'd been left with, &*%$ No magic from David BlaineNo painter to paint this pain,No Morgan Freeman to narrate the shameSo she took refuge and prayerKind of like finding God in the phonebookAnd it came to her sounding something like a song hook

Chorus

I guess I told you about myself to a degreeJust by telling you about people like meBut people like me they speak politelyThey don't start no beef over a piece of white meatEverybody got to eat but everybody doesn'tWhich is why I want to tell you about my favourite cousinHe and I grew up where the sun shinesAnd we both partook in the gun crimesAnd we both liked American rap rhymesEven though we didn't understand one lineIf you remember my liner of notes off my last albumI talked about a close call with a grenadeI think we both must have been about 7th gradeBut don’t panic---we both survived without damageBut we developed a bond like we survived the titanicBut when the country became franticMy mother tried to get us out, planned itTo the last detail except the plan got derailed‘Cause there wasn't enough Money for the plane ticketsHow bitter when my mother had to Choose who to take with herSo my cousin got left in the war And that’s just hard to recallBut now I take refuge in prayer,Kind of like finding God in the phonebookIt came to me sounding kind of like something

from a song hook…

Chorus x 2

ENG 2PI Grand River Collegiate Institute

Making ConnectionsPurpose: learning in your brain is based on making connections between things so making connections helps with your thinking, understanding, and memory. It also helps you care about what’s going on in what you are reading because you can see how what’s going on matters outside the story.

“People Like Me”Note: this song contains mature subject matter and some offensive words, but it is also strong example of someone making meaningful connections.

1. Content Questions:a. How are the Americans winning the war according to the soldier?

b. Do the soldier and his girlfriend have a strong relationship? Explain your answer.

c. What is the “worst thing” that Sarah has been left with?

d. What happens to bring K’Naan and his cousin closer together?

e. What ends up separating K’Naan and his cousin?

2. What connects the three characters---the soldier, mother and K’Naan---in this song? In other words, what makes the soldier and Sarah “People like” K’Naan?

3. Use the following chart to make meaningful connections with this song and the story “I’ve Got Gloria” (170). Work on the song first and then read the story in the textbook so that you can complete the right side of the chart.

Note: to make the connection meaningful, you need to first explain what the connection is and strong it is in some detail. In other words, talk about what works with the connection you've established, and what doesn't work as well.

For example, a meaningful text-to-self connection for "People Like Me" could go something like this: K'Naan say he and his mother left his cousin behind in Somalia. I've never been involved in something as hard as that because where I live is a much safer place to be, but I understand a little bit about being separated from family members since my parents divorced when I was five years old.

For a different example, this time of a meaningful text-to-world connection, read this: The first section of this song is about a soldier stationed in Iraq. The conflict that I hear about more of in the news now is in Libya. America is still involved, but it is different. They are not on the ground fighting as soldiers. Plus, many other countries like Canada are involved in Libya.

Type of Meaningful Connection

Your Connections for“People Like Me”

Your Connections for“I’ve Got Gloria”

Text to Self(Make a meaningful connection between the text you are reading and something in your own life or about you. It could be something that happened to someone close to you)

Text to World(Make a meaningful connection between the text you are reading and something else that is going on in the world or has happened in the past in the world--think of anything you've heard in the news or learned about history)

Text to Text (Make a meaningful connection between the text you are reading and some other fictional story you have read, watched, or listened to--that is, short stories, books, movies, television shows, or the lyrics to a song)