Tag Archives: music

Cultural Literacy: Tin Pan Alley

Posted on January 18, 2024 | Leave a comment

While I fear it falls far short of the standards to which I like to think this blog conforms, here, nonetheless, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Tin Pan Alley. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences–the first a compound separated by a semicolon, the second a longish declarative sentence–and three questions. The reading presents the term “Tin Pan Alley” as metaphorical and notes that it is “not used as much today as it was a generation or two ago” to refer, generally, “to the popular music industry in the United States.”

My problem is this: Tin Pan Alley is a metaphor, yes, but it was also a real place in Manhattan. So, and I think this especially true for those of us who teach in the Five Boroughs, our students ought to know about the literal (to use an overworked adjective) Tin Pan Alley.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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William Walker

Posted on September 28, 2023 | Leave a comment

[It may seem unusual to find an Anglo name like William Walker as the header of a post observing Hispanic Heritage Month 2023. If you read on, however, you will see that Walker, a mercenary from the United States, played a substantial role in extending United States influence in Latin America, particularly Nicaragua. I became interested in Walker after seeing Alex Cox’s strange–surreal might be the right word here–film Walker, for which the late great Joe Strummer supplied the music.]

“William Walker: (1824-1960) U.S. military adventurer. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, he moved to California in 1850. His interest in colonizing Baja California developed into a filibustering (insurrection) scheme. He landed at La Paz (1853) and proclaimed Lower California and Sonora an independent republic, but Mexican resistance forced him back to the U.S. In 1855 he sailed to Nicaragua, where he effectively established himself as leader. There, officers of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Accessory Transit Co. promised him financial assistance in a plot to take the company away from Vanderbilt. Walker seized the company and turned it over to them, then made himself president of Nicaragua (1856). In 1857 Vanderbilt induced five Central American republics to drive walker out. In 1860 he attempted a filibuster in Honduras, where he was captured and executed.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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The Weekly Text, 30 June 2023: Free to Be You and Me

Posted on June 28, 2023 | Leave a comment

It seems to me that there are a lot of politicians in the United States, most if not all of them Republicans, who are belligerently opposed (I’m thinking of you, Ron DeSantis, above all others here) to the changing concepts of gender in our culture. Earlier in my life, these same troglodytes (is it fair to call them troglodytes? It seems to be a guy like DeSantis makes the average troglodyte look like Bertrand Russell) were exercised by Free to Be You and Me.  James Dobson, noted evangelist and right-wing scold, took particular offense and the changing gender roles in our society that this television show discussed–what a surprise!

This week’s Text is this short reading on Free To Be You and Me along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Nota bene, please, that the original sound recording for this television broadcast is available on the streaming music service I subscribe to, so I’ll bet it’s on yours as well.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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The Weekly Text, Friday 23 June 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 16, Concluding Assessment and Reflection

Posted on June 23, 2023 | Leave a comment

Alright, here, finally, is the sixteenth and final lesson plan of the History of Hip-Hop Unit. I use this Cultural Literacy worksheet on racism as a do-now exercise. The work of this lesson, which I have allowed to play out over two or three days, is this concluding assessment and reflection and this metacognitive assessment worksheet.

And that, gentle reader, is that. There are now sixteen lessons available on the History of Hip-Hop at Mark’s Text Terminal.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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The Weekly Text, Friday 16 June 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 15, Public Enemy Picks up the Baton

Posted on June 15, 2023 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text offers the fifteenth lesson plan of the History of Hip-Hop Unit, this one on one of the seminal groups in the genre, Public Enemy. The lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Marcus Garvey. This is a full-page document with a reading of four sentences, two of them relatively simple compounds, and seven comprehension questions. A bit longer, in other words, than the typical do-now exercise.

Because of Public Enemy’s importance to the genre, there are an inordinate number of materials to use with this lesson. I’ve tended to use them all, but obviously you can pick and choose. So, for starters, here is a reading on Public Enemy along with its comprehension worksheet. Secondarily–or primarily, if you prefer–here are the lyrics to “Fight the Power”, one of the group’s best known songs and the opening theme to Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing, along with the analytical reflection worksheet that accompanies it.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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The Weekly Text, Friday 9 June 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 14, The Message: Hip-Hop as Political and Social Manifesto

Posted on June 8, 2023 | Leave a comment

Don’t worry, after this, only two lessons remain to post in the History of Hip-Hop Unit. This week’s Text is lesson plan fourteen of the unit, on Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s seminal Hip-Hop recording, “The Message.” This lesson begins, after your class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a manifesto. The central work of this lesson is a reading, and a listening, for which I use this Official Video of the song on YouTube, and the lyrics to the song, to guide students toward completing these comprehension and analytical questions on these verses.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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The Weekly Text, Friday 2 June 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 13, Breaking into the Charts: Hip-Hop as Party Music

Posted on June 2, 2023 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text offers the thirteenth lesson plan of the History of Hip-Hop Unit. This lesson opens, after a class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Nation of Islam. The principal work of this lesson are the lyrics to “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang and “The Breaks” by Kurtis Blow, and the comprehension and analytical questions about those lyrics. You can find both of these songs on YouTube–and in the case of “The Breaks” a live performance by Kurtis Blow on Soul Train. I’ve shown parts of both–and nota bene, please, that “Rapper’s Delight,” depending on which version you land on, can be a long song.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Joruri

Posted on May 12, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Joruri: Originally a genre of popular song in Japan, accompanied first by the biwa (Japanese lute) and later by the samisen (Japanese banjo), it was adapted as the musical narrative for the Japanese puppet theater (Bunraku). The person who chants the joruri is known as the giddayu, Joruri is not a dramatic form, but rather is the chanted narration of tales often dramatic in nature.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

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The Weekly Text, Friday 28 April 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 12, DJ Kool Herc Steps Forward to Sample in The Bronx

Posted on April 28, 2023 | Leave a comment

Continuing with the History of Hip-Hop Unit, here is lesson plan twelve, on Clive Campbell, aka DJ Kool Herc. This Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) begins the lesson. The centerpiece of this lesson is this reading on Clive Campbell  with its accompanying comprehension worksheet.

And that is that for another week.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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The Weekly Text, Friday 21 April 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 11, Gil Scott-Heron: Black Power Griot of Harlem

Posted on April 21, 2023 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text, following in sequence, is the eleventh lesson plan of the History of Hip-Hop unit, this one on the late, great, Gil Scott-Heron. This lesson begins with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the National Association for the the Advancement of Colored People. The center of this lesson is this adapted reading on Gil Scott-Heron with its comprehension worksheet to accompany it.

This lesson also includes listening to two of Gil Scott-Heron’s songs, both of which are available on YouTube. Here are the lyrics to “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” and “The Bottle.”

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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