Northern Nevada Council for the Social Studies
What Are the Origins and Influences of Rap Music?
Considered an American art form, rap has its roots in places from Jamaica to the Bronx. Using a series of readings, comprehension questions, and videos, scholars explore the history of rap and its connections to the African diaspora....
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Write Your Own Rap
Third graders create a rap using basic AB form composition. Evaluation of performances are based on rubric formed during the first lesson by all students. This three to four day lesson culminates in student performances and evaluation.
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Classical Music Connection-Popular Music - Connecting Pachelbel, Beethoven, and Mussorgsky to Disco and Rap
Young scholars examine classical music and the "Art Rock" of 1967. They review classical themes in their original genre and discuss/analyze how pop musicians incorporate theses themes into a variety of pop music genres.
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The Element of Color
Eighth graders study and analyze the elements of color by creating an personalized color wheel. Emphasis is placed on constructive criticism of student work by others for assessment. Students create short poems for their color wheel...
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Epic Improvisation
Really? Rapping The Odyssey? Really. A discussion of the oral tradition of story telling and its links to Epic poetry sets the stage for a series of activities that encourage improvisation to integrate music into other classrooms....
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Understanding Story Elements-Who, What, Where
Students create a rap using story details. In this creative writing instructional activity, students examine the use of rap lyrics to list important details of stories. They view a video example, and use their notes to create...
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Ice -T's Rap School
Students research the history of rap and gain an understanding of the components of rap music. They experience the correlation between Shakespeare's poetry and rap music of today.
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VH1 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll Lesson 3
Students examine female artists who perform in the genres of rhythm & blues, jazz, soul, and hip-hop/rap. They compose lyrics and melody in one of these genres.
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The 'Language of Dance'
Learners choreograph dances. In this dance choreography lesson, students evaluate musical selections, then create a dance that capture the emotion of the music.
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VH1 AIDS: A Pop Culture History Lesson 2
Students examine messages in popular music, and observe the musical elements of the Rhythm and Blues and Rap genres.
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VH1 Driven: Kanye West, Lesson 2
Students compose an original rap. They discuss the career and music of Kanye West, discuss their pre-writing worksheet, and write an original rap using a Final Draft Worksheet.
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Back in the Day
Students identify the genre of music called Hip Hop, analyze its elements, and formulate a definition of the Hip Hop culture.
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VH1 And You Don't Stop - 30 Years of Hip-Hop
Students examine the origin and elements of Hip Hop music and the associated culture. They visit websites and listen to examples of the music.
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VH1 Driven: Kanye West, Lesson 3
Students compose a beat in the style of Kanye West. They listen to and analyze the song, "Through the Wire" by Kanye West, compose a beat, and complete a worksheet.
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Songs that Bring Us Together - Lesson 5
Students compose song as a classroom effort. They write a one-paragraph essay about "message" songs in 100 years and include three ideas for topics along with the style of music (such as folk, rock, blues, rap, etc.) that would match.
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Digable Planets, K.B.'s Alley When Jazz Meets Hip-Hop
Students explore the musical style of jazz and identify its elements while listening to hip-hop recordings. They select two styles of music and fuse them together in this lesson.
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Words and Music - Lesson 2
Students analyze the relationships among cultural values, freedom of artistic expression, ethics, and artistic choices in various cultures and historical periods.
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And You Don't Stop - 30 Years of Hip-Hop, Episode 2, Lesson 1
Students discuss Public Enemy's lyrics and compare and contrast them with songs popular during the Civil Rights Movement. They write their own rap song that expresses feelings of oppression or freedom from oppression.
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Haring Inspired CD Covers
Students create CD covers from their music-inspired drawing sessions. They compare what they drew while listening to classical, punk and rap music. They scan their drawings into Adobe Photoshop and design their cover.
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See What I Hear
Learners examine relationships between music and color, emotion and imagery, listen to different passages of music, and visually depict what they hear.
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Percussion Family Lesson Plan
Students gain an appreciation for percussion instruments. They can identify the instruments by sight and sound and associate them with different musical styles. Using Microsoft Musical Instruments, students hear other percussion...
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The Japanese Empire: The Beginning
Ninth graders explore empires by researching Japan's history. In this Japanese research lesson, 9th graders discuss the history of Japan and the elements of World War II that caused Japan to become an enemy of the United States. Students...
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See What I Hear
Students investigate the link between music and visual art by applying principles of design to convey the emotions/expressions in different types of music.
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Creative Book Reports Make Reading Fun
Giving students a variety of options for reporting on chapter books is simple to do.