Ener­gize stu­dents

RRR’s music is a great way to get everyone’s atten­tion and perk up a class.

Tip: Start or end the class with music. Play it more than once at the so it becomes more famil­iar. Hand out lyrics. Begin the music before stu­dents come in so it can be heard as they enter. Con­tinue until every­one is seated. At the end of class play until every­one has left the room.

Details: Using the Orig­i­nal Track, most of the RRR songs are between 2 ½ and 4 min­utes in length. Use the Orig­i­nal Track to attract atten­tion and then play the Down­tempo Track, (which adds another ½ minute to the play­ing time) so stu­dents can begin to con­cen­trate on the lyrics. Hand out lyrics so they can fol­low along. Allow about 10 –12 min­utes for the music to be heard twice through and for reac­tion time from stu­dents. Let them get over the “wow” fac­tor before you begin to teach.

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Bring stu­dents out of their shells

Stu­dents who lack con­fi­dence with the sub­ject or their lan­guage skills may find the music a way of inter­act­ing with peers. It pro­vides a com­mon ground in which to share infor­ma­tion.

Tip: Encour­age con­ver­sa­tion and com­ment about lyrics and infor­ma­tion pre­sented in the song. Play the entire song so stu­dents get the big pic­ture, but focus on the parts that are part of the les­son. Make sure every­one has lyrics. Ask ques­tions: What’s the song about? What is the main topic or idea? How does it apply? Can you repeat the lyrics or put the lyrics in your own words?

Play the song again and let them lis­ten. Repeat the ques­tions, ask­ing dif­fer­ent stu­dents for com­ment. Give stu­dents time to inter­nal­ize the lyrics and the music.

Details: Check the length of the song on the track your using, usu­ally 2 ½ to 4 ½ min­utes. Play the entire song. Dis­cuss the over­all song con­tent and then focus on the topic and verse(s) that you are using dur­ing this class. Play the verse(s) again using Down­tempo Track if stu­dents are hav­ing dif­fi­culty under­stand­ing the lyrics. The verses within tracks are often 1 minute or even less, so allow 3–5 min­utes to repeat verses. Move into dis­cus­sion as soon as they are ready. Allow about 10–12 min­utes to play the full song once and then repeat the rel­e­vant verse a few times.

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Stim­u­late dis­cus­sion

As stu­dents become more famil­iar with the music, rein­force the lyrics and the infor­ma­tion or sub­ject mat­ter the lyrics address.

Tip: Copy a verse of a song that per­tains to the sub­ject being stud­ied, repeat the lyrics (with­out the music), dis­cuss the idea or prin­ci­ple pre­sented, repeat the lyrics again (with­out music) until every­one is com­fort­able and then play the music. Study lyrics for rhymes and mem­o­rable cou­plets. Here’s an exam­ple from the Lan­guage Arts Album, with rhymes col­ored below:

“Think of a comma like you think of a pause
when a con­junc­tion con­nects an inde­pen­dent clause.”
or…
“A comma’s like a breath expressed in writ­ten form:
“I like the sound of thun­der, so I love thun­derstorms.”
- Dots and Dashes (Punc­tu­a­tion)

When stu­dents can repeat the verse or cou­plet and under­stand its appli­ca­tion, go on to another verse, or play the song and let them get used to the beat and backup. There are many excel­lent rhymes to be found in RRR songs.

Details: Allow time for stu­dents to exam­ine lyrics care­fully and repeat lyrics with­out music. Ask stu­dents to iden­tify key words, phrases, or ideas. Allow 5–10 min­utes for this activ­ity and move on to another verse, or into another part of the les­son plan. If time per­mits, play the entire song before they leave to rein­force the phrases and words iden­ti­fied as key. This will take another 2–4 min­utes. Total time for RRR song and lyrics, approx­i­mately 15 min­utes.

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Reward good work or behav­ior

Ener­getic music is a ter­rific way of reward­ing a class.

Tip: Push away the desk and cre­ate some dance moves to accom­pany singing or sync­ing the lyrics. Stu­dents might even vol­un­teer to do this them­selves. If space is tight, let stu­dents take turns. This is great activ­ity at the end of a long day or just before vaca­tion when every­one is feel­ing a bit rest­less.

Details: Pick a famil­iar song. Use the Orig­i­nal Track to review, and then the Instru­men­tal Track for danc­ing or singing. If stu­dents don’t remem­ber the verses, use the Recall Track to help. Allow at least 20–25 min­utes. Stu­dents may be a lit­tle slow to start, but once they start mov­ing and singing, they won’t want to stop. If time per­mits, let them choose other songs to dance to.

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Intro­duce a new topic or help explain a dif­fi­cult topic

When intro­duc­ing a new or dif­fi­cult topic, stu­dents need to feel that the topic will be inter­est­ing and is one that they can under­stand. Music is a great way of break­ing down bar­ri­ers and fears in learn­ing, and is eas­ily incor­po­rated into indi­vid­u­al­ized learn­ing mod­ules.

Tip: As a class, read the lyrics to get famil­iar with terms and ideas. Answer ques­tions stu­dents have and ask them for key words, con­cepts or ideas pre­sented. Play the song (or the verses being used) only after stu­dents are com­fort­able with lyrics. Use the Down­tempo Track (slightly slower ver­sion) if the lyrics have new infor­ma­tion, and the Recall Track (miss­ing word ver­sion) once stu­dents become more famil­iar. Ask stu­dents to sing or say the miss­ing word or phrase. Vol­ume isn’t impor­tant, the words are. Allow a cou­ple of tries to get every­one com­fort­able.

Tip: Using the Instru­men­tal Track; ask stu­dents or vol­un­teers to write their own verse on the topic. This is a good extra credit project. Form small groups or bud­dies, and give stu­dents a few rhyming words or a subject-related theme to start with.

Details: This activ­ity can take up an entire class period, par­tic­u­larly if you are using the songs from the RRR Sci­ence or Social Stud­ies Albums. Use other mate­r­ial or resources from our song pages to accom­pany the song lyrics. Let stu­dents deter­mine which resources or activ­ity they will use to assist them in learn­ing more about the sub­ject. Share the var­i­ous approaches to learn­ing within the class.

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Use as an inter­ac­tive activ­ity

Most stu­dents will be famil­iar with hip hop music, and though a bit shy in front of their peers, will enjoy in the inter­ac­tive pos­si­bil­i­ties of RRR music.

Tip: Have stu­dents incor­po­rate lyrics, backup singing, rap­ping, or danc­ing into spe­cial projects or reports. Stu­dents less pro­fi­cient at writ­ing and orga­niz­ing their thoughts on paper may be able to cre­ate a dance, music, or art project that suc­cess­fully demon­strates their under­stand­ing of the sub­ject. The Instru­men­tal Track is espe­cially use­ful to writ­ers and dancers. This is a good activ­ity for small groups, “bud­dies”, and even indi­vid­u­als.

Details Spend 15–20 min­utes dur­ing sev­eral suc­ces­sive class peri­ods to let stu­dents work on their spe­cial project. This allows time away from the class­room to think, plan, review, and inter­nal­ize the music and the sub­ject being stud­ied. Allow at least 3–4 hours total time (includ­ing out-of-class time) to develop mean­ing­ful projects stu­dents will be proud of.

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Per­form for their peers

RRR music is a cul­tur­ally rel­e­vant art form that stu­dents can eas­ily learn and enjoy together.

Tip: Because rap and hip hop require min­i­mal vocal range and tech­nique, most stu­dents are able to sing or say the lyrics rhyth­mi­cally. Use the Down­tempo Track ini­tially, then use the Recall Track, and finally the Instru­men­tal Track. Let some stu­dents do the backup vocals or cre­ate their own hype track to add using sounds or words that relate to the song topic. Sug­gest top­ics for addi­tional verse writ­ing and help with the rhyme scheme.

Details: Stu­dents will take this activ­ity seri­ously. Give them enough time to dis­cuss the topic or sub­ject mat­ter thor­oughly so that their writ­ing and rap­ping really show their under­stand­ing of the topic. At least 15–20 min­utes of two or three class peri­ods will be nec­es­sary to develop sat­is­fy­ing results.

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Col­lab­o­rate with another group or class

RRR Music lends itself well to col­lab­o­ra­tion with other dis­ci­plines, espe­cially phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion, art, tech­nol­ogy, music, writ­ing, or the­atre. Using video and other expres­sive forms, the music takes on addi­tional mean­ing and rein­forces the learn­ing expe­ri­ence.

Tip: Find another teacher in another dis­ci­pline area and dou­ble up on cre­ative projects. Sup­port stu­dent efforts to com­bine tal­ents. Sci­ence Fairs, Open Houses, etc. are great places to exhibit such works. The Sci­ence and Social Stud­ies Albums are full of songs that lend them­selves to such projects.

Details: Since projects of this nature take plan­ning ahead, find a col­lab­o­ra­tor early on before sched­ules get too full. Allow plenty of time for stu­dents to dis­cuss ideas (have some of your own too) and all par­tic­i­pants to agree on a project to get max­i­mum par­tic­i­pa­tion and enthu­si­asm.

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Per­form at a School Assem­bly or Par­ents’ Night

RRR music is a nat­ural for per­for­mance or pre­sen­ta­tion venues both for­mal and infor­mal.

Tip: With the assis­tance of the music or drama teacher, allow stu­dents to cre­ate sim­ple cos­tumes, back­drops or other stage props that enhance the lyrics. This can be done with math and sci­ence con­cepts as well as social stud­ies. This type of activ­ity allows for addi­tional learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and rein­forces prin­ci­ples and impor­tant con­cepts.

Details: Plan ahead with another teacher or depart­ment, coor­di­nat­ing per­for­mance sched­ules with your inter­est area. Sug­gest themes or spe­cial cel­e­bra­tions to be included in the per­for­mance such as Cel­e­bra­tion of Pi Day (March 14) and per­form the 3 RRR songs from the Math Album that use pi in the lyrics. The same could be done for Earth Day using the songs from the RRR Sci­ence album, or any of the Amer­i­can hol­i­days, using RRR Social Stud­ies Amer­i­can his­tory or gov­ern­ment songs.

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Pro­vide a change of pace in class or a new approach to a chal­leng­ing sub­ject

RRR music offers many oppor­tu­ni­ties to restruc­ture a les­son plan or class period yet allows you to keep the focus on learn­ing.

Tip: Sur­prise stu­dents with a song and printed lyrics. Let them use the Lyric Word Scram­ble (see resources on each song page) to increase famil­iar­ity and use the Recall Track to assess progress.

Details: Time needed for this activ­ity can vary. To do the Orig­i­nal or Down­tempo Track, the Recall Track and have stu­dents work on the Lyric Word Scram­ble, allow 20 min­utes. 8–10 min­utes to hear the song twice, and 10 min­utes for the Word Scram­ble (Word Scram­bles usu­ally have about 20–25 words to unscram­ble. If time is short, divide the class and assign each verse and cho­rus to a dif­fer­ent group. This will take only about 5–8 min­utes for them to com­plete.