Bay Area music critic Chuy Varela writes for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Bay Guardian. He's also the music director for KPFA Radio in Berkeley. We've developed these suggestions with the help of students and teachers, along with our reporters. We're even more interested in learning how you use the piece. Click here to share your ideas .
Students can then write their own music reviews, based on their individual tastes.
For suggestions on writing music reviews and researching musical genres, see an example from the New York Times Learning Network . Working individually or in groups, students can research the history, culture, and production of popular music, and the lives and achievements of musicians. For specific classroom strategies, browse more than 50 lesson plans from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum . Many different genres of music are mentioned in Chuy's piece. Ask students to examine how music is classified, and to research the history of a specific genre, like salsa .