Don Dishman

Educational Psychology

2-21-11

Lesson Plan Analysis

            The lesson plan I have chosen to analyze is titled Write a Rap Song. It is intended for Peru Junior High School and for grade levels 5, 6, 7, and 8. The subject pertains to music/arts. It is only intended to last 2-3 class sessions. The students are supposed to compose lyrics for a rap song. The goals of this assignment are in accordance with the Music Educators National Conference. One objective is that the students will be able to associate rhyming words that are used in their song. This lesson plan contains plenty of course concepts that relate to human development and learning.

            One of the first things I noticed was that the students go to rap about anything they chose. This put them in the position to do deep thinking about their topic and how to describe it. This put them in the position to do deep thinking about their topic and how to describe it. This deals with the formal operational stage of development. By thinking of a creative way to express their ideas, it forces the kids to think abstractly about the rap. Rap music invites them to understand and utilize analogies and symbolism. This concept supports Piaget’s findings about the formal operational stage in a child’s life. In the 5^th grade, the kids would have already begun this stage, and this would help them to continue to grow.

The students had the option to work with a partner or work alone. This brings up the opportunity for cooperative learning in the classroom. The students must first do research on their topic. If one group chose to do a rap about the Civil War, they would have to study about it. They could use the method of cooperative scripting to help each other learn the material. They would both read the material and practice orally summarizing the information. This could be a very effective payoff for the teacher if he were to focus on a certain theme to be leaned throughout the lesson. Cooperative learning is most effective when students realize that it is in their favor to help groupmates learn. It is also crucial that each person is held accountable for half of the work so as to improve the chances that all persons the material.

            Another way that working in pairs (cooperative learning) ties into this lesson is with modeling. Not only will the students jump at the opportunity to get this assignment done, but also there is a great deal of social desirability that can be attended to. Good role modeling by the students would work because it will improve the self-efficacy of the weaker student.

            If a student works on this individually, it is likely that he would display the coping model. Because he is by himself, if he has trouble he would have to figure it out by himself. Even though he would struggle, eventually he will figure it out and it will increase his level of self-efficacy and increase his performance.

            This lesson plan also deals with information processing. After they have done research on the topic, they wil have to construct their own meaning of the material. Elaborating will help tremendously when trying to give meaning to the information. They will have to make connections to the information and try to see how it would fit into the format of the rap song. They will have to rehearse the information to try to get it from short term to long-term memory. One of the most common ways to do this is by repeating the rap song continually by using maintenance. As easy way to help process the information is to attach association. The students will likely use odd example to display their meaning.

            The most noticeable trait of a rap song is that the words rhyme. The teacher explains in the rubric that rhyming is a crucial part of the assignment.  Although not all lines have rhyme, the students are expected to successfully display their ability to do so. The brain likes the idea rhymes because it helps to store and link information. It eases the process of developing schemas for topics.

            One of the things I found most interesting with this lesson was that the final product could be looked upon as potential inductive teaching. As with doing research, students would learn that the most effective and successful rap songs keep the reader/listener hooked. Unlike deductive learning, inductive learning does not start off by telling the main idea. The students can use examples throughout their song to describe what the subject is. An example would be describing how somehow describing how something flies, sings, has colors, etc. Then at the very end either tell the audience what the subject is or let them figure it out. In this way, the presenters could act as inductive teacher to the classroom.

            I feel that this lesson plan is consistent with the research of human development and learning. It deals with many different concepts that we have talked about throughout the term so far. Writing a rap song touches on the bases of formal operational development, cooperative learning, coping, information processing, rehearsal, maintenance, elaboration, rhyming, and inductive learning. For these reasons, this lesson plan is effective.