Much of Latin American music owes its origins to the slave trade. Peoples from the Yoruban and Dahomean cultures brought with them the distinctive rhythms, time signatures, and eighth note patterns that now characterize Caribbean music....

Students consider the negative image that some have of rap and hip-hop music through discussion and reading an opinion piece from The New York Times. They create CD cover artwork reflecting these messages.

What really knocks me out about this project list is that when you're done reading about the projects, you wish you could do them all. I'm not kidding. There are 16 terrific ideas and that doesn't happen very often.

Students listen to a song in popular culture. Using the lyrics, they identify the theme and share their conclusions with the class. While listening to the song again, they complete a worksheet along with defining new vocabulary words. ...