Hip Hop Your Hero Here - Original Story Song Making Audio Rap Lesson Plan

Songs begin long before they can be heard: in the heart. To craft a song it takes first rhythm, then melody, then chord support and arrangement. This lesson plan will offer students a way to create an audio version of a rap essay on the hero of their choice and share it with students around the world on MY HERO Audio Studio.

Objectives:

Students will learn how to create and record an original rap song about their hero to upload to myhero.com/Audio.

Procedure

STEP 1 - Finding a Hero 

Students are invited to find a hero on MyHero.com, whose story they are inspired by, and recite the story to the class.

STEP 2 - Writing a Poem About Your Hero 

Students are then asked to write a poem about their hero, highlighting their hero's character, with specific attention to characteristics or events that focus on heroic acts or character development.

STEP 3 - Developing Lyrical Content 

Listen to any of the following songs. Tune out the melody and tune in closely to the words. Do they fit the beat? Do they convey the thought or tell the story? Do the words rhyme?

Heart Character of Any Hero

Friend Hero

Diversity in Hero Careers

Note: Teenage students may use cover tunes that may be more age appropriate to share with their class to complete this exercise.

STEP 4 - Finding the Beat 

Students identify their own beat from their own heart as instructed in Instructional Warm-Up Orientation exercises on www.myhero.com/ARISE. First they apply those beats to various percussion instruments or natural surfaces. Then they apply those beats to their original hero poems. Encourage students to explore where the beat works and where it comes out uneven. They can revise their poems or rap essays by considering different words to use that may rhyme better, or shorten or lengthen a phrase to fit the beat or better suit the rhythm. They may also explore more than one rhythm counting in beats of one-two-three-four, or, one-two-three, or some other configuration of a hip hop or rap beat or indigenous rhythm.

STEP 5- Finalizing and Rehearsing Your Hero Rap Song Story 

Students finalize their rap essay song and rehearse in front of the class. Invite students to exchange their stories and perform them for one another, so the songwriters not only perform their rap essay song, but also hear it performed to see if it needs improvement.

STEP 6 - Recording Your Hero Rap Song Story 

Once the hero story song rap essays are well rehearsed, students will individually record their own hero story song rap essays. This can be accomplished through various mediums such as GarageBand, Wave Studio, Audacity or some other outside source that is then transferred to CD and copied from disc onto the computer. Ideally, files will be in the form of mp3. Consult your computer tech team for the best format to upload to MY HERO Audio Studio.

STEP 7 - Uploading Your Hero Rap Song Story to MY HERO Audio Studio 

Follow the directions on MY HERO Audio Studio to upload your hero rap song story. Remember to identify yourself, your teacher and your school.

Special thanks to Music Arts Communication. Curriculum Content & Original Songs Copyright 2010 2009 SDGBunn & ARISEma

Assessment

Have students self-assess and peer-review each other's work by giving comments to a partner's work based on:

Lyrics: Do the lyrics address the hero's character?

Beat: Is it even with the lyrics?

Performance: Is the performance rehearsed and solid?

Ask students and their peers to assign a 1-3 scale to these three questions, 1 being unsatisfactory, 2 being satisfactory, and 3 being exceptional.