Protest songs : how humans use language and literature to connect, express, and explore universal human issues in a grade nine English classroom
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Date
2015-04
Authors
Paterson, Michelle
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Education
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Education
Abstract
This project is an attempt to create innovative and engaging curriculum resources,
including a comprehensive unit plan, for use in grade nine English Language Arts that
explore the issues of racism and intolerance. The aim is to foster tolerance and empathy
in today’s culturally diverse classrooms, through the examination of a cross-section of
protest songs, including those by current artists. These resources include background
information and social context for each song, detailed notes for implementation and
methods of evaluation and assessment. This project and the development of its
curriculum resources has been influenced by several educational scholars and theorists
who have informed my thinking around literacy and pedagogy. These include Michael
Cole and Paolo Freire and their exploration of Critical Literacy, Louise Rosenblatt’s
Theory of Transactional Analysis, the Critical Pedagogies of Henry Giroux, Michael
Smith and Jeffrey Wilhelm, as well as Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade and Ernest Morrell, and
the exploration of Multiliteracies by the New London Group. The lesson plans have also
incorporated Donald Leu’s New Literacies through the use of the Internet as a research
too, as well as the Visual Literacies of Janice Rahn, Jason Ohler and Joe Lambert. This
project provides teachers with an engaging, student-oriented, research-based, and
curriculum-focused option for exploring lyrical poetry, and the ways in which
(extra)ordinary people can create lasting social change through their words and music.
Description
Keywords
unit plan , racism , intolerance , empathy , tolerance , social change , lyrical poetry , social movements , literacy education