Senegal

One of the most in depth parts of being a Teacher for Global Classrooms is the globalized unit plan.  The attached unit incorporates student interest in music with French language and social justice. A more detailed description is below. 

 

Students integrate cultural and music studies with the unit on communities for French 1.  The  unit focuses on music as social commentary and a means of creating change.  American and Senegalese students discuss what they know about music genres and artists that comment on society in their lyrics.  The American students will spend time reading lyrics and listening to music in English, French, and Wolof, have multimedia mini lessons on various aspects of modern culture in order to build background on social issues in Senegal, and interact with Senegalese students via social media and webcam to discuss cultural perspectives and misconceptions.  They  spend time exploring the different artists and how their music describes society and culture in collaboration with Senegalese students. They consider the transatlantic slave trade and globalization as factors in music sharing. The final assessment is a multimedia collaboration to be shared with global studies/history classes in both countries.

 

The first week’s topic is communities.  Lessons include French vocabulary for community including places in the community and how to speak and write about where you are going and what you are doing there. They reflect on what they know about African cities and questions they have for the students in Dakar. We conduct an exploration of Senegal’s communities, youth, and geography/urban environment of Dakar; perspectives of the Senegalese about their city and how they perceive the United States; intro to African American music genres.

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The second week’s topic is modern music and social justice in Senegal and the US.  Lessons include a look at American and Senegalese hip hop artists and their work in social commentary. We also learn about the Senegalese music genre mbalax and the role of griots.  We watch video, listen to songs and interviews, and read about each of these topics using the hyperdoc.

 

The third week is be focus on collaborative work between the American and Senegalese classrooms.  The topics are based on our study of popular music and youth culture in their communities. Students create digital projects to share with their classes and schools.