Parody Project

Good morning, everyone!

So, it’s that time of the year again-TESTING! In the public school I work for, we have district testing and standardized state testing throughout the months of April and May. There is immense pressure put on administrators, students, and teachers to improve scores from last year, so sometimes it can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. For specials teachers, such as PE, Art, Music, Library, this means that the schedule is very unpredictable during the months of April and May. Some students are taken out during classes for last-minute tutoring, and we may not see certain classes for 2 weeks in a row, etc. What I try to do during this time is plan for extremely flexible lessons that are more project-based. Not to mention, the kid’s brains are fried from all of the test prep, bubble sheets, and knowledge binging they are experiencing during this time. The lesson I will share today is primarily for 4th and 5th graders.

This lesson is:
-Fun and exciting!
-Encourages critical thinking skills
-Relevant and engaging
-Cross-curricular-(involves writing skills, and information recall from core subjects)
-Involves technology

During this lesson, the students will be composing a parody with a group of 3-4 students. This lesson last for 3-4 weeks.

Learning Objective: I can compose a parody.

Demonstration of Learning: Given the parody worksheet, I can compose a parody in a group with at least 80% accuracy.

WEEK 1:

• Step 1:  I teach them what the word “compose” means, which is “to create” or “to make”. Then I explain to them what “parody” means, which I explain as “a remake of something already existing, for educational or comedic purposes”.
• STEP 2: Then I show them this video, and explain that the song was created for education purposes. Specifically to teach students about the lines and spaces on the treble clef!
• And I also show them a parody that I created for this year’s STAAR test, with the teachers on my campus. I tell them to focus on how the words have changed to encourage them to take the STAAR test. 
• STEP 3: Next, I will explain that we will create a bubble map to help us brainstorm ideas for our own parodies. The bubble in the inside contains the main idea, and then the bubbles on the outside contain describing words. As a class, we create a bubble map about the topic of “STAAR testing”. Some describing words might be, “use your strategies”, “bubble in your answers”, “PEMDAS”, “show your work”, “Multiplication”. This is a fun way for the students to recall strategies, and to get them in the mindset for testing.
• STEP 4: After that, I pulled up the popular song called “Attention” by Charlie Puth, but the lyrics for the Kidz Bop version. By the way- during this project, KIDZ BOP IS YOUR BEST FRIEND!! They have a lot of popular songs that include non-explicit lyrics. After pulling up the song, we came up with alternative lyrics together-including: Chorus:  “You’ve got to pay attention, when you take the STAAR! Make sure that you show your strategies and do your best”

WEEK 2: I created worksheets that have the Kidz Bop lyrics on the left column, and blank lines on the other side. I gave the kids the option of about 6 songs including, but not limited to:

-Attention- Charlie Puth

-Best Day of My Life- American Authors

-Can’t Stop the Feeling- Justin Timberlake

-Havana- Camila Cabello

-Thunder- Imagine Dragons

And then I give them subject options, such as Math, History, Science, or Math. 

You can add any songs that you think your students will love. But just make sure you get the “kid-friendly” lyrics from Kidz Bop, or just choose songs that already have “kid-friendly” lyrics.

• Step 1: Get students in groups of 3-4
• Step 2: Tell the students they have 2 minutes to decide which subject and which song they’d like.
• Step 3: When 2 minute timer rings, I give each group their selected song (with lyrics already printed out on the worksheet). Then I give them 5-7 minutes to create a bubble map on the back of the worksheet.
• Step 4: When the 5-7 minute timer rings, I give each group an IPAD with their song-choice and Kidz-bop version already pulled up. Then I give them about 10 minutes to finish the first verse of the song.

WEEK 3:

• Step 1: Students get into their groups, and I hand out their worksheets from last week. And give each group their IPAD with song choice.
• Step 2: Give them the whole class to finish their parodies, and offer lots of help and encouragement as I walk around groups.

WEEK 4:

• Step 1: Give students the first 15 minutes of class to polish up their parodies and practice with the karaoke track on IPADS.
• Step 2: (Optional) Each group will come to my “recording station”. I will have garageband up on my IPAD, the karaoke track playing on my phone, and they will record into the USB microphone. This little USB microphone is PERFECT if you have an Iphone or Ipad, because the lighting cable directly attaches and instantly serves as a high-quality mic. Shure MV88 iOS Condenser 
• Step 2: (Optional) If you are not recording saavy, then you can just have each group perform for the class! All you will need to do is pull up the karaoke track for each song.  

I hope you have lots of fun with this project!!! Let me know how it works out in your classroom. Since this is a learning community, I am hoping to learn a lot from you, as well! Happy testing season! There is a light at the end of the tunnel, I promise!

Hope you are finding peace and rest today,

Paige Bell

–National Standards: 4-Composing and Arranging music, 6-Listening to, analyzing, and describing music, 8-Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

–TEKS: 4.2B, 4.4A/B, 4.5D, 4.6BB, 5.2B, 5.4A/B, 5.5E, 5.6B

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