Lesson Planning/Brainstorming:Protest Music

11:10-11:20

Before you attempt to fill in the outline below, spend some time in your group discussing how
you will structure this lesson—not as a linear sequence of outcomes you prescribe and toward
which you direct students, but as opening spaces for students to begin/continue their own
rhizomatic journeys. A refresher from Lauren Kapalka Richerme’s chapter you read: “Rhizomatic
practices neither occur in a set order nor move toward preplanned goals. . .Those undertaking it
search not for completeness, but for diversity and potential ruptures, each of which holds value
in its own right. Moving rhizomatically involves relishing the uncertainty of a middle that
overflows the boundaries confining and dividing everyday endeavors” (pp. 9-10).

Some questions your group might consider:

What are possible rhizomatic journeys you can anticipate students might want to go on? Asked
another way, how might students’ interests be rhizomatic (“freely shooting off in new directions
and burgeoning into new places”) rather than arborescent (“building up from foundations,
branching out from roots”)?

As you plan, how can your group balance (a) being prepared for those possibilities, (b) without
prescribing them, and (c) providing some sort of scaffolding/starting points that prompt
exploration and inquiry?

Please make some notes here for when our class comes back together:

- Discussion-based lesson? So that we can move into subjects student find interesting
(doesn’t ​have​ to be a discussion)
- Grouping together based on similar issues that cause tension: collaborating process
- Give examples of the protest music or examples of topics
- Give them their side even though they may not agree with it? (find ways to argue
your side)
- Don’t venture into topics that are too heated; especially when it affects the
individual themselves
- One-day vs. Multi-day lesson?
- What to do about low-motivation students?

11:20-11:30: Fill in your plan

Objectives
- Once the students are presented the Protest Music format, they will engage in
thoughtful, school-appropriate discussions and ideas
 - Students will write a protest song in small groups (or individually?)

Alignment with Standards

- HIB.8 The student will use music composition as a means of expression by:
- HIAR.22 The student will investigate aesthetic concepts related to music by
- 3. analyzing the value of musical performance to society.
- HIB.19 The student will explore historical and cultural aspects of music by
- 1. identifying the cultures, musical styles, composers, and historical periods
associated with the music literature being studied;
- 3. describing the relationship of instrumental music to the other fine arts and
other fields of knowledge;
- HIB.20 The student will analyze and evaluate music by
- 1. describing the importance of composers’ use of style, cultural influences, and
historical context for the interpretation of works of music;
-

Materials
- Examples of protest music
- Technology/instruments to help create compositions

Procedures (Preparation for different directions this could go)

● Choosing topics
○ List of different topics students could choose from (ex: travelling time between
classes is too short), or have them get their topic approved
○ Have students break out into groups and assign a topic area to each group

● Present examples of protest music in unbiased way (perhaps including multiple

viewpoints and a variety in representation)
○ Some videos of them used in live marches?
○ Some very uninflammatory songs examples

● Gather some protest poetry examples

○ Option to write music for a particular protest poem
○ Option to write lyrics/poetry for a protest song
○ Option to write lyrics that fit to an instrumental song

● Improvisatory/composition exercises
○ Students break out into groups and take 10 minutes to write lyrics about a given
topic (in the style Jarritt Sheel presented last year)
Assessment
In-class Assessment
- Having a discussion with groups and then a self-evaluation/reflection
- Reflecting on existing protest songs
- Participation in

End of class Assessment

- Listening to final project
- Listening to a description of the process they used to write their song
- Having students talk about their goals for the project
- Discuss their process
- Talk about the take backs they have from the project