The Media and Social Justice in Your Community
Date: Week 2, Day 9
Period/Class Title: English
Name: Karin Van Orman
# of students: 30
OBJECTIVE:
Label major themes and symbols seen in two different hip hop videos: Wyclef’s “Industry” and Ja Rule’s “Thug Luvin’”. Identify what the symbols represent.
MATERIALS:
VCR, TV, 35 graphic organizers, pens, paper
NOTES:
Students will be provided with lyrics to the songs to support what they experience visually and auditorily. Lyrics will be generated from the Original Hip Hop Lyrics website www.ohla.com which will be accessed through the Hip Hop Circuit website. Student desks must be oriented for optimum viewing of the television screen.
STEPS:
Anticipatory Set: Do Now: (while teacher takes roll and students get settled) Get graphic organizer from the front of the room. In your journal, write what you think these two videos will be about based on their titles and what you may know about these artists. (5 minutes)
1. Watch videos. Do not write anything on your graphic organizers. Simply try to identify symbols and their meanings based on the context of the images you see and lyrics you hear. (10 minutes)
2. Watch videos again. This time, record symbols you see in column one and the corresponding themes in column two. Give students time between videos to make notes.(10 minutes)
3. Watch videos a final time. This time, record what visual or lyrical evidence supports your symbols and themes in column three. Give students time between videos to make notes. (10 minutes)
4. Take a few moments to compare and contrast these two videos in the space provided on the back of your graphic organizer. (5 minutes)
5. Whole group discussion of findings. Add to your list of symbols from other students’ ideas. (15 minutes)
6. Clean up (5 minutes)
FOLLOW UP ACTIVITY:
Teacher will collect the graphic organizers to check in with students and determine how well they were able to collect symbolic information through this medium. Students will use knowledge of themes and symbols in weeks three and four of the unit.
LITERACY ASPECT: Comprehension of television medium, combining listening and viewing skills to synthesize main ideas. Interpret and discuss symbols and themes in music videos.
REFLECTIONS/RESPONSE: If students in the class have no knowledge of hip hop music, it may be difficult for them to complete this exercise. For this reason, this exercise must be tailored to the predominant music tastes of the students. If any students in the class have visual or auditory impairments, these must be taken into consideration before this exercise is attempted.
main points (started yesterday on butcher paper) to be used in tomorrow’s debate. (10 minutes)