Education World
Black History Month Rap
Young scholars write a rap or hip-hop lyric about the life of a famous Black American. They explore famous Black Americans in history and explore how the rap form compares to other forms of poetic expression.
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Write a Rap Song
Students compose lyrics for a rap song. In this music lesson, students choose a topic, such as "Our School," and use rhyming words to compose a rap song. Students perform the song for their classmates.
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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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Troublesome Word Rap
Create songs and raps to develop an understanding of the proper use of common misused words and homophones. First, your class defines misused words and homophones correctly by utilizing the words in a rap or song. Then they use poetry...
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Class Rap
Students explore rap music and its components. They listen to examples of rap music and discuss their common features. After selecting a topic, they compose a rap with both words and the beat and sing it to the class. As a class they...
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Rap Music and Hip-Hop
Students explore rap and hip hop music. In this music and culture lesson, students experience the music of Will Smith in order to work on language and communication skills such as rhyming words, writing, and public speaking.
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Ice -T's Rap School
Young scholars 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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Scops, Rappers and You: Historians with Style!
Students examine the epic poem Beowulf. For this analyzing poetry lesson, student compare listen to the Will Smith song "Wild, Wild West" and read Beowulf. Students analyze the song and the poem. Students then research an influential...
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Poetry through Jazz, Rap, and Hip Hop
Students explore poetry through jazz, rap, and hip hop music. They discover the common threads that run through the poetry and music. Students design their own lyrics to a jazz, rap, or hip hop selection and share their songs with the...
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Boosting Rap's Rep
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.
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Folk Music
Students explore Folk Music in Iowa. For this folk music lesson, students discuss different types of folk music and how it relates to life in Iowa. They take the tune of a song and write their own lyrics to describe their life.
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VH1 Driven: Kanye West
Students watch a video excerpt about the life of Kanye West. They draw connections between his life and their own and compose a rap song in the style of West, using his song, "Through the Wire" as an example.
Shakespeare in American Life
"Strike a Pose:" Music and Vogueing in The Winter's Tale
After class members have read and discussed Act III of The Winter’s Tale, groups select one line from Act III, scene i that they feel captures the essence of the entire scene. They then create a tableaux that best depicts the scene’s...
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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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Music and Lyrics
Eighth graders analyze lyrics from songs from a variety of genres. In this musical analysis lesson, 8th graders write an essay about their life plans in which they discuss the lyrics of U2's song, "One." They tell how the writings of Dr....
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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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Fisheries And Songs
High schoolers view examples of songs that have the ocean and its life as their themes. After hearing and reading them, students write their own, having done research on the social and political issues of the ocean's environment.
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Broccoli
Students sing a song and figure out the rhythm notation for pharases while describing the benefits of broccoli. They compose a four-measure pattern using the rhythms of these phrases. They play the rhythm patterns with the recording.
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H1 Classic Presents: Paul McCartney: Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, Lesson 2
Students are introduced to the various songwriting techniques of Paul McCartney. They explore and compare the basic melodic, harmonic, and lyrical tendencies of the different types of pop music.
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Nutrition: A Thematic Unit
Young learners explore nutrition and the food groups in these two mini-lesson plan ideas. First, kindergarteners have a discussion about their health and how different foods contribute to it before making their own personal food pyramid....
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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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Children's Literature Across the Curriculum Ideas-Duke Ellington
Students read Duke Ellington by Andrea Davis Pinkney. They complete a variety of cross-curricular activities surrounding the life of the 20th century composer. Included are reading, art, math, science, writing, social studies, and...
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Keeping Time
Students compose lyrics to songs for a music festival to promote issues in their community. They write artists' statements explaining the issues they chose to write about.
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Soundtrack to War
Students discuss the important role of music in lives of soldiers stationed in Iraq. They identify and demonstrate skills in creating compositions with limited resources, similar in concept to the soldiers viewed in the documentary.