My teaching philosophy is to give a map and give tools to be able to read it, so that the student could understand where they are, where they want to get and what different ways they might want to choose and have fun in the process.
Our tools are coming up with the content (idea, concept, the title), communicating it efficiently (storytelling, logic, consistency of the narrative), as well as using the shape and technical parameters to work best for this particular song and story. These are the number, length and rhythm of line, and types and rhyme schemes.
We work with the language, meanings, sounds and with how comfortable the audience would be with listening to the song and understanding its meaning from the very first listen.