June 28, 2009: Musical Themes

Thom sent us a quick e-mail relaying the profound impact that pop music has on society as a whole, evident in the response to the death of Michael Jackson. All around the world news stations, music channels, radio stations, internet sites and several other mediums covered the news of this tragedy and paid their own tributes to the icon in their own ways. Indeed pop music has influenced many arenas of our every day lives, at times dictating entire events that we may experience.

As I went through the list of musical themes on Wikipedia, the first theme that stuck out to me was “instructional dance songs”. I don’t think one social gathering from the time I can remember until just yesterday at my sister’s high school graduation party, passed without music being played. And almost always, there was someone doing some dace that went to some song that was being played. Yesterday the kids were trying to show the big people how to do the “stanky leg”, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mf2KL0sV98). My cousin was also on his i-phone youtubing how to do the “booty dew” a new dance that none of us knew how to do yet, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOCvtLFMzm4&feature=related). These instructional dances make up much of my memories with family and friends. I am sure that some other activity would replace these dances if not for them. However, as it stands, I owe much of the fond memories I have to them, embarrassing as some of these memories may be.

My family and friends aside, these instructional dance songs likely characterize many important events in general. Imagine a wedding reception without the electric slide or the chicken dance. What would roller skating be without people falling flat trying to do the hokey pokey and turn themselves about, or having hands extending in the air doing the Y.M.C.A.? These songs liven up events and give people permission to act silly without worrying about how they will look because everyone else looks just as silly as they do. On the other hand though, these instructional dances can be quite embarrassing if they call for difficult moves that not everyone can do. For example, Wikipedia lists “Walk it Out” as one instructional dance. A friend of mine was trying to do this a couple weekends ago at a bar and was laughed at by some bystanders because she was doing all wrong in the moves. We laughed it off, but I could tell she was embarrassed. I have attempted another dance Wikipedia lists, “Dip it Low”. Tragically, I met the same fate as my friend. Not everyone looks good doing all dances. This is why I hope I never try to do the “Booty Dew” among other reasons. I should maybe stick to the cupid shuffle.

A theme that was amazingly not included in Wikipedia’s list was love songs. There was a love triangle theme, but that did not contain any songs I would have expected to be in the list. Love songs could and possible does have an entire site to itself. There could be heartache songs, yearning for love songs, falling in love songs, getting married songs, love for your parents, siblings, children, etc.. songs, or any other number of songs in this category. The impact and presence of these songs in people’s lives has undoubtedly been tremendous and the category should definitely not be missing on this page. There is probably not one wedding performed according to customs of the United States without a love song devoted to the couple, I would guess. (Although my mom’s wedding song with my step-dad was “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins for one reason or another). Funerals usually involve some song thinking back to the love for or of a loved one. Many couples have “their song” that is usually a love song characterizing their feelings for each other.

Whatever the occasion may be, when music is present the event is likely transformed and takes on new meaning. When music that the people enjoy and touches people either to be inspired or to simply dance, memories are likely created that may otherwise may be missed. As I think back to special events in my life, I remember them much more vividly if music is present. Music has brought enjoyment and at many times, meaning to much of my past, in a way defining who I am today.

Assignment #6 June 25, 2009: Toddler Lesson Plan

*Disclaimer*
I had a lot of trouble trying to format this post. Sorry it is all over the place. I cannot figure out what is wrong with the formatting. Let me know if anyone has questions about it because I have the files in word where they can be read perfectly.
Sorry again:-(

Rationale:
Our child care center is part of a campaign to encourage parents to “tune out of the television and to tune into their children” through a program called MediaWise through the National Institute on Media and the Family. Because of this we do not use television under any circumstances in our classrooms and we limit computer use to programs with specific goals that meet Creative Curriculum objectives. However, many of our children take great interest in many popular television programs they see outside of school. One accreditation criteria for our center is that we incorporate children’s interests in our daily lesson planning. A way to incorporate popular media that children are exposed to on television in a way that meets Creative Curriculum and MediaWise expectations is to take themes and activities from these shows and create meaningful and quality experiences with them in the different interest areas. This lesson plan incorporates two very popular television shows geared towards toddler and preschool age children, “Dora the Explorer” and “Go, Diego, Go”. Large pictures of these characters and books about these characters help to initially engage the children while activities that these characters may engage in help to extend these interests into learning experiences while meeting critical learning objectives.

Theme: Exploring like Diego and Dora
Classroom: La Crèche Appletree Toddlers
Monday
Daily Topic: Who is Diego?
Language Arts: “Go Diego, Go”
Music “Rescue Pack”
-Use drums while singing
Large Muscle: Swinging on monkey bars like Diego swings on the zipcord
Practical Life/Experiments: Dress-up like we are going on an exploring adventure Manipulatives/Math: Stringing yarn through our paper plate masks
Arts & Crafts: Paper plate Baby Jaguar masks
Sensory: Giving Baby Jaguar a bath in the sensory table
Tuesday
Daily Topic: What does Diego do?
Language Arts: “Diego saves the Manatee”
Music: Mùsica Festival
Large Muscle: Climbing large muscle equipment saying, “Zuben”
Practical Life/Experiments: Sink/Float
-experimenting with various things found in the sea
Manipulatives/Math: Big/Little- Discuss sizes of sea creatures
Arts & Crafts: Decorating manatees with tissue paper
Sensory: Sinking and floating sea creatures
Wednesday
Daily Topic: Who is Dora?
Language Arts: “Dora the Explorer”
Music: “Come on Vamanos”
-use musical instruments
Large Muscle: Walk around the neighborhood like Dora
Practical Life/Experiments: Putting on backpacks with things that we will need on our walk, pretending we are Dora and Boots
Manipulatives/Math: “Count with Dora” -Use play fruit with counting book
Arts & Crafts: Free Art -provide children with cotton balls, yarn, glue, crayons, scrap paper, and pencils
Sensory: Play-doh -Molding fruit free hand and with cookie cutters
Thursday
Daily Topic: What does Dora Do?
Language Arts: “Dora’s First Trip”
Music: “Hola, Hola, Hello, Hello”
Large Muscle: Pedaling our bikes “màs rapido”
Practical Life/Experiments: Fast and Slow-watch as some items fall fast (bouncy balls) and some fall slow (feathers)
Manipulatives/Math: Matching pictures of interest areas on our maps
Arts & Crafts: Classroom Map -Gluing pictures of our favorite interest area on the map
Sensory: Shaving cream -Tracing map paths
Friday
Field Trip to the Minnesota Zoo where we can practice “rescuing” animals like Diego and exploring like Dora*As always, Parent volunteers are welcomed and encouraged to join us!

Rationale:
Along with taking children’s interests into consideration when creating lesson plans, it is also important that we are incorporating parents’ requests and wishes for their children as well, especially for infants, when going through daily activities and routines with our children. A recent trend in popular media has been the boom in “educational” videos such as Baby Einstein. We have had several parents request that we show such educational videos to our children such as these. However, due to our policy against televisions, we cannot show them. Further, a more effective manner of teaching the information that the videos set out to teach is through hands on experiences with our children. Taking the same information presented in the videos and creating real life learning experiences with our children can be effective in both following through with parents’ requests as well as meeting our Creative Curriculum learning objectives.

Theme: Baby Einstein Come to Life!
Classroom: La Crèche Appletree Infants/Mobile Infants
Monday
Language Development: “Baby Einstein’s Baby’s First Places-Around Town”-Name interest areas in classroom and places around neighborhood on a walk
Creative Activity: Mobile Infants: Painting rooms in a house to use as flash cards in call-response format
Physical Development: Move around classroom in various ways while teacher in call response format names interest areas visited. -Tummy time, crawl/scoot, stand, walk
Learning from the World: “Baby Einstein’s Touch and Feel Wild Animals”-Discuss the different textures in the sensory book
Tuesday
Language Development: “Baby Einstein’s Lullaby Time”-Nap time/ Quiet time singing or humming along with the CD
Creative Activity: Free Art: Mobile Infants: Practicing with paint brushes on the easel Infant A: Finger painting
Physical Development: Tummy Time:-encourage children to lift their heads to look at/reach for Baby Einstein materials inform of them.
Learning from the World: Finger Painting: Feeling the squishy and cold paint between our fingers
Wednesday
Language Development: “Baby Einstein’s First Orchestra-Musical Instruments”
Creative Activity: Baby Room Orchestra-encourage all of the children to play musical instruments to the Baby Einstein CD
Physical Development: Dance Party!-Practice moving our bodies in response to stimuli-Sway to soft music, bounce to upbeat music, etc…
Learning from the World: Cause/Effect table toys-explain what happens as children play with them.Ex) “the puppy popped up when you pushed the button”…
Thursday
Language Development: “Baby Einstein’s Water Water Everywhere!”
Creative Activity: Group Project: Finger painting blue on large paper to use as water background
Physical Development: “Standie-ups”-encourage children to pull up on the sensory table to see the water.
Learning from the World: Water in the sensory table: Mobile Infants: Stand up tableInfant A: Sensory buckets
Friday
Language Development: “Baby Einstein’s Baby’s First Sounds”
Creative Activity: Walk around the neighborhood listening for various different sounds-Puppies, kittens, cars, music, birds, the wind…
Physical Development: Making sounds with our bodies-Encourage children to clap their hands, stomp their feet and tap on their thighs by copying their teacher and each other.
Learning from the World: Sound tools:-Name the different sounds that the infants hear around the center and around the neighborhood.

Assignment #5 June 21, 2009: Lesson Plan #2

Rationale:
I liked the section in the Autrand article that talked about analyzing rap music. I had not really considered how we know something is rap and what the similarities and differences are between genres of music. I touched a little bit on the different political agendas of hip hop versus country in a previous post, but how do I know something is hip hop or rap or country and what the differences are between these. Exploring the similarities and differences between genres and in addition exploring the popularity of these genres amongst different age groups may help to shed light on students as to what youth are, in a way, requesting as a whole. The book for the class discussed how music is both a product of what people want and the people are a product of music, but more so the first. Billboard’s top ten would be full of songs about getting along and working together to build homes for the homeless if this is what the majority of people wanted to hear. Therefore, this lesson is to find exactly what the differences are in genres of music and what may be so appealing about popular music above other less popular genres.

I would personally love to see some actual empirical support around this question to see what actually entices youth so to hip hop and other popular music. The Mahiri article discussed how the youth chose a Kirk Franklin song to end their presentation with due to its inspirational quality. Kirk Franklin, and the song “Lean on Me” referenced in the article in particular, was very popular when I was in middle school. Everyone knew his songs and we even sang many of them in our school choir, which had no religious affiliation at all. Everyone just loved his music. But why did we love his music? Did we love it because of the message or because of the beat of some songs like “Resolution” or the melody like “Lean on Me”? Or, did we simply like it because everyone else did? I would be interested in learning just what it is about popular music that makes it popular. How do we decide what we want? I think it is also important to provide students with questions that may not have any answers, or to questions that require further research.

Lesson Plan #2:
Unit: What Defines a Musical Genre?
Objectives:
· Provide students with the opportunity to apply critical thinking skills in terms of analyzing different types of sounds and messages in music.
· Assist students in gaining appreciation for and/or awareness of the differences in musical genres
· Build awareness around the influence that popular music has over our daily decisions regarding dress, attitude, interpersonal interactions, behaviors, etc…
· Enhance team building and collective learning

Assignment:
1. Form groups of 4-5 students
2. Choose your top three musical genres that your group would like to research and hand this list to the teacher (each group must choose a different genre. These genres will be assigned by the teacher considering the genres of interest that are handed in)
3. Once your genre has been given to your group, each group member should be assigned to research each of the following for their musical genre:
a. 2-3 influential characters or other musical genres to this genre and why
b. 2-3 prominent musical instruments and/or technological devices most prominent in your genre
c. 2-3 topics/messages most relevant to this genre
d. 2-3 area of controversy surrounding this topic
e. One song that best represent this genre
4. Compile this information in a power point presentation of 5-7 slides to present to the class.

Presentations:
· Each group will present their power point presentation to the whole class while the class takes notes.

Discussion:
· The following discussion questions will lead the class in discussion around these genres:

1. What are the similarities between these genres?
2. What are the differences between these genres?
3. What is appealing about these genres?
4. Why would youth like some genres and not others?
5. How do these different genres influence young people?
6. What are the take-home messages about the similarities and differences in these different styles of music and their influences on society?

Assignment #5 June 21, 2009: Lesson Plan #1

Rationale:
One of the key attributes to growing as a person and making more informed life choices is awareness. Before an individual can make beneficial choices, they must first be aware that they are indeed making a choice; they have to know what their choices are; they must next understand the implications of such choices on their own lives and on broader society; and they must know how to access resources to assist them in making these choices. This is the premise behind my first lesson plan for this assignment.

The Autrand article detailed the importance of awareness about rap music in relation to teachers using it as a teaching tool in their classrooms. Without awareness as to its actual premise and overall influential potential in a positive light, teachers may stand the risk of unjustly denouncing it by its stereotypically negative image. At the same time, however, some popular rap music (as with all musical genres) may indeed serve to relay and encourage negative behaviors to their target audiences. It is important for teachers and students alike to be aware of these possible messages and to analyze them on a case by case basis. The following lesson plan serves to achieve this awareness about what youth are listening to by having them examine current popular music (the Top Ten on the Billboard charts for the week of the lesson plan).

In addition, I hope to help the students learn the effects that combining music with visual images has through the music video portion of the assignment. Chapter 3 in our book discussed how messages can change or can be enhanced through the addition of images or music videos. By the students watching these videos and analyzing them based on what they heard in the song and what they saw in the video I hope to help students make this connection.

This lesson plan is meant to be used within the context of a broader unit teaching students to be more informed consumers. They will learn about tactics that are used in the media to entice and influence potential consumers and will learn vital skills as to how to identify these tactics. They will also receive further training as to how to analyze the information presented in media to find their hidden or not so hidden messages. This lesson plan acts as an example relevant to youth to practice what they learned thus far in this unit.

Lesson Plan #1:
Unit: Thinking Critically about Media Messages and Becoming Informed Consumers
Week 3: What is popular music telling us to do and are we listening?
Objectives:
· Provide students with the opportunity to apply critical thinking skills in terms of analyzing messages in the media to music relevant to themselves as taught in weeks 1 and 2.
· Assist students in gaining appreciation for and/or awareness of the messages that they are subjected to within popular music
· Build awareness around the influence that popular music has over our daily decisions regarding dress, attitude, interpersonal interactions, behaviors, etc…
· Enhance team building and learning from each other through discussion groups.
Assignment:
1. Go to the Billboard Top 10 list and choose one song to think critically about. It does not matter if you know or have ever heard the song you choose.
2. Use the tools from week 1 and week 2 critically examine the following
a. the lyrics
b. the musical genre
c. the target audience
d. Specific messages being conveyed
3. Find and watch the music video for the song that you have chosen. And analyze the following again, now based on both the music and the video.
a. the lyrics
b. the musical genre
c. the target audience
d. Specific messages being conveyed
*Remember to look for both positive and possible negative messages
4. In 5 paragraph essay format, respond to what you found in #1, 2, and 3. Your Intro should briefly include why you chose this particular song and the conclusion should include the overall affect that this song may have on its target audience.
Discussion:
1. Break up into groups of 3-5 students
2. Go around the table and share which songs you have chosen and why
3. Share the most important message present in your song and say why you think it is the most important
4. Discuss as a group how each of these songs may affect their listeners
5. As a group, come up with three important things to remember when listening to songs and watching music videos that you learned from this project.

Assignment #4 June 18, 2009 Pt. 2: Chapter 7

Two of my favorite musical genres are hip hop and country. While these genres are clearly quite polarized, in terms of their delivery and major fan bases, the start of chapter 7 got me thinking about the divergent political undertones in these two genres as well. There are countless patriotic country songs praising the United States, even to the point in some country songs of demeaning other countries. America and all it stands for is the place to be as far as most of country music is concerned. (This is a very general statement and I mean it somewhat facetiously just to illustrate the differences). On the other hand, the premise of much of hip hop music is to fight against the oppressive systems of America and to live life according to one’s own system or the system of the streets. Some hip hop music surrounds hopes for a better America, but most does not praise the country for its current or past state. (Although I have heard several new songs commemorating Obama, so maybe there will be a shift in the political agenda of hip hop music.)

However, the chapter detailed the importance of understanding the influence that time, space and individual reality plays on the meanings of songs. What one country song meant in the 70’s for a 50 year old man is likely very different from what it means to me now. That does not mean that the meaning of the song changes altogether, but that interpretations and applications of those meanings are all relative and situational. Surprisingly, I had not considered this idea. It is beat into us in my psychology courses that everything is relative and that we all make our own realities, to an extent, but I never connected this to the interpretation of song. It is amazing what you never think of without being prompted to do so.

I personally loved the end of the book where the potential of music to be a “knowledge-producing, transformative, and communicative” property that uplifts a society was discussed. It talked about the need for inspirational music filled with hope and purpose in a “world in which pessimism has become common sense”. I have often been called by several classmates of mine an “extreme idealist”, some meaning it in a positive way and some choosing those words over “naïve fool”. I like to think that idealists are needed to give purpose to social change. Society can always improve and it takes hope for tomorrow to make that change. For many, ideas of this hope can be expressed through creative forms such as music which have the power to reach across the world. As the book so eloquently states, music can create “optimism, invigoration, and passion which are necessary for any struggle to change the world”.

I am having trouble deciding how I can include the information that I have learned about popular culture in these chapters to a classroom setting as I am still working hard towards removing my own opinions from information I present. Well, of course we will all have our own opinions on subjects, but I feel so strongly about some topics that my opinions and values are very salient and I risk teaching to my values versus teaching the information in general. Are there any suggestions as to how to remove values from being intermingled in lessons we are teaching? What does the field have to say about this?

Assignment #4 June 18, 2009 Pt. 1: Chapter 3

Chapter three took me back to psychology research methods and statistics. (Sorry for the continuous psychology references, but it is what I know. Curriculum instruction is still new to me. Thanks for bearing with me). When examining the influence that particular variables have on other variables, a common tactic in psychology is to examine whether there are mediators or moderators that affect the relationships between these variables. For example, a strong positive correlation has been found between ice cream sales and murders. That is, as ice cream sales increase, so does the murder rate of that particular region. One might look at this and conclude that eating ice cream causes people to commit murder, or they may look for a third variable or a moderator or mediator. What also happens while these two things go up is the temperature. So, heat is a moderator for the relationship between ice cream sales and murders. The relationship only exists because the third variable of heat exists. Without heat, there would be no relationship between ice cream and murder. If the relationship were to still exist between ice cream and murders as temperature changes, the temperature would be a mediator, meaning it influences the relationship but is not required for its existence.

I had never imagined the profound influence that popular culture has had on our society and on the world as a whole as both a mediator and a moderator before reading this chapter. If we discuss written song and radio transmission in terms of popular culture, this popular culture could be to thank for the great diversity of thoughts, ideas and interests that exist today. For example, as the chapter details, it was because of radio transmissions that White kids in rural settings knew anything about rhythm and blues. Without this, would everyone simply enjoy the same music because that is all they had access to? Further, these types of mediators created relationships where relations may have been banned from occurring, whether legally or by social norms. For example, groups of people from different races, regions or countries that could not or would not intermingle could share interests, ideas, experiences, similarities and differences through music or stories transmitted over the radio or written on paper. These are relationships that may have never existed had it not been for the spread of popular culture.

Another psychological concept that may come into play here is the contact theory. It could be the exposure to other people’s styles, thoughts or behaviors through popular culture that have helped to bring otherwise segregated people together. The contact theory states that the shear contact that conflicting individuals have with each other in any form can improve their understanding and appreciation for the opposing parties. Perhaps popular culture has helped to bring these conflicting parties together through this first step of mere exposure. The more they hear or read other people’s interpretations of life the more they come to appreciate their similarities and/or difference.

On the flip side of this however, as was discussed towards the end of the chapter, popular music and music videos in general can hinder understanding of and appreciation for other groups of people. In a response to a blog discussion surrounding the video, Tip Drill, I mentioned the importance of this video not being taken as an example of what hip hop music and music videos is defined as. Especially in this genre of popular culture, images and lyrics often serve as negative reinforces of stereotypical images of urban African American young people. Some viewers may look at a video like Tip Drill and say, “see, this is what I am talking about” defending their stereotypical views. These types of videos, while there are plenty of them, most certainly do not represent what hip hop is as a whole and should absolutely never be used to confirm who African American youth are or who they strive to be.

Although I firmly believe what I just stated, to play devil’s advocate against myself, the chapter also stated that images and music exist in certain ways as a response to their target audience. Audiences’ demands mediate how images are presented. If no one wanted or enjoyed Tip Drill it would not exist, essentially. There is plenty of good, clean hip hop gospel to choose from but it is not mainstream because it is not in demand on a whole. Therefore, it could be that the more raunchy versions of hip hop that are displayed indeed reflect those watching or listening because in essence these viewers create these images. I am interested in reading more on this topic to see just how much the viewers are indeed creating these images or vise versa.

Assignment #3 June 14, 2009: School of Rock

The students in Mr. S’s classroom ‘pre-Mr. S’ were high achieving, well-mannered and well-diciplined students who likely had bright academic futures ahead of them. They were not the dysfunctional students in need of saving that has often been depicted in many modern movies about teaching and schools. However, what these students did lack were original ideas and personalities of their own. This is where popular music stepped in to “save the day”. Through their rock band the found their own strengths and their own personalities were allowed to shine through. They found confidence within themselves about who they are. And perhaps most importantly, they found passion. They discovered what it is that they are passionate about and they were able to depict this passion in their roles that they played in their rock band.

The way that rock music was initially introduced to the classroom made it seem as though the students were not going to receive quality education, but were instead going to simply goof off throughout the duration of the quarter. However, they actually learned quite a bit about classic rock history and its influence on society; they gained an appreciation for this influence of music; they learned about hard work and dedication, working as a unit, and they learned how to fight for something that they believed in.

The film showed the incredible power that bringing something of interest to the students in the classroom can have on the outcome of one’s teaching. Currently my child care center is going through the accreditation process and one of the themes that we have to consistently show that we are doing is incorporating the children’s interests and ideas into our lesson plans. This is vital to the teaching process. Again I teach infants and toddlers so I can only speak to these age groups, but I would guess that its importance definitely carries over into K-12 as well. When students feel like they can relate to the information being presented they are much more likely to see its value and to retain the information than if they do not feel as though the information has any relevance to their own lives. Further, they may be more likely to apply the information they learn or the values acquired through learning this information to their daily lives and to the contribution of the greater society.

I do not think that this movie in particular was meant to display an accurate account of teaching by any means as much as it was meant to be funny and a little touching. Therefore, by stating that it was completely unrealistic and mystified teaching in general would probably be obvious. However, I must say that I have fallen prey to internalizing some messages that some movies about teaching display in terms of the overwhelming commitment the field requires. I have always wanted to be a teacher (I think I am the only one in the class not going through a program to become a teacher at this point), but the thought of not having a life outside of teaching has frightened me. This fear has been more due to the way teachers are depicted in popular media. ‘Good teachers work long hours at the school and spend sleepless nights grading papers and figuring out ways to better the lives of their students.’ Most of the good teachers are not parents themselves or if they are they are not attentive to their own children because they are so busy worrying about the children in their class. ‘Good teachers’ have definitely been robbed of having their own personal lives as they have been depicted in popular media. For myself personally, I really need to talk with more educators to grasp the extent to which this is true or false.

An aspect of the School of Rock movie that I did not enjoy was the way that it brought to life the stereotype that “those who cannot do, teach”. Not only was this explicitly stated in the film, but the entire plot was surrounded by this notion. Dewey was a failure when it came to running his own rock band, but an utter success when it came to teaching others how to ‘rock’. The Education World article discussed movies about teaching inspiring others to teach, and I would hate for an entire population of potential teachers basing their decision to become a teacher on the basis of their failure to be able to do anything else. In my opinion, some of the best teachers are those who can do and chose to teach, and I think that this describes most teachers. Also, this phrase carries the assumption that teaching is not “doing something”, as though it is not an important task that contributes to society. I would argue that it is the task that contributes to society. So, while this movie is entertaining and as much as it was enjoyable to watch Dewey and his students grow throughout the movie, I would not recommend it for its inspirational message as much as for its entertainment value.