Music in Propaganda
Teacher: Kayla Hanamann
Time Needed: 45 minutes – 1 hour
Target Age Group: 4/5 graders

Music Standards:
·         Standard 6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music; analyze the uses of elements of music in aural examples representing diverse genres and cultures
·         Standard 7: Evaluating music and music performances; develop criteria for evaluating the quality and effectiveness of music performances
·         Standard 9: Understanding music in relation to history and culture

Social Studies/Government Standards (MMSD):
·         Give examples of current and historical ways in which citizens may voice opinions and change government.
·         Give examples of the importance of multiple viewpoints for understanding people, events, and issues.
·         Explain how personal opinions and choices are shaped by one’s community.

Objectives:
·         With the forms of propaganda for Obama and previous discussion on this concept, the students will be able to describe the messages of support the artifacts are representing.
·         The students will write about their depictions of the forms of propaganda presented and how it changed or promoted their view of Obama.
·         With proper instruction, students will collect forms of propaganda throughout 2 days outside of the classroom to present to their peers.

Why is it important that students learn my lesson? What academic subject will I link to?
            As the students have already been introduced to propaganda, this lesson represents how music can affect the efforts of persuasion for a specific action or cause. The lesson is highly connected to a social studies unit that analyzes the effects of several propaganda techniques throughout our nation’s history. Further, it can be connected to a unit focusing on government and how various presidents of our past have advocated for themselves. The lesson also shows how various others have prepared propaganda to advocate for a cause or movement of some sort. The lesson presents propaganda that the students can relate to because of their experience and observations of the presidential election between Obama and McCain. The students know this president and this movement and will be able to observe how the various propaganda strategies used by supporters of Obama helped him become elected as president. In addition, this lesson introduces the importance of music in one’s culture, how it affects the feelings towards the subject being presented, and connects the students with another way in which opinions and voices can be heard through beats and lyrics.

Materials:
·         Obama symbol
·         Obama poster
·         Obama Debate Clip
o   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47MKGOPP4Zo&feature=related
·         “Yes We Can” by will.i.am and other celebrities
o   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY&NR=1&feature=fvwp
·         “We Are The Ones” by will.i.am
o   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghSJsEVf0pU&feature=related
·          Projector and speakers
·         Reflection sheet for the students to record

Background for Teachers:
            The students will be working on a unit focusing on propaganda throughout history. Before this lesson, the students will focus on several propaganda techniques made during significant times in history, such as recruitment of women to work during WWII. The students will have analyzed the various propaganda strategies for and against the Vietnam War. Other areas of focus will include presidential campaigns, global support, and civil rights. The propaganda presented thus far included posters, cartoons, speeches, pictures, and symbols that represent various stances on the movements and events in history we have covered. The student have an understanding of what propaganda is, but have not had the opportunity to reflect on propaganda familiar to them up until this lesson. Further, this lesson introduces the effects of music in propaganda for the first time to the students.

Steps in the Lesson:
Introduction/Building Background Knowledge:
·         Review of previous propaganda we have discussed.
·         Show various posters, cartoons, etc. and discuss it’s affects on society and people’s support or non-support of an event.
·         “Today we are going to be analyzing propaganda put out in support of our current president before he was elected.”

Body:
·         Begin by showing the symbol of Obama
o   Who recognizes this? Where have you seen it?
o   Ask students to record on their sheet how they feel, if anything, when they see it.
·         Show the HOPE poster of Obama
o   Again, who recognizes this? Where have they seen it? Have they seen other versions of posters? Describe them.
o   Ask the students to write a brief sentence about how they feel when they see the poster.
§  Prompt questions: Do you feel inspired? Do you feel indifferent? Do they colors move you? Do you understand the message? What does HOPE mean to you?
·         Build a T-Chart for following videos presented to the students.
o   One side representing the debate clip, the other side the music videos
·         Present the clip of Obama during a pre-election debate
o   Fill in the recording sheet on initial reactions.
o   Brief discussion: What did you get out of this? What did you understand? What was Obama saying? Was it convincing? How did you feel?
§  Write their thoughts in debate clip portion of T-Chart.
·         Present “Yes We Can” video
o   Record reflection
o   Discussion: Again, what did you get out of this? How did you feel? Did it affect your view of Obama? Did it inspire your support or negate your support in Obama?
§  Write their thoughts in music video portion of T-Chart
·         Present “We Are the Ones”
o   Record Reflection
o   Discussion: Did the talking in this song change your feelings about music in propaganda? How so? If not, why do you think not? Did the music move you? Did you feel inspired or more against Obama?
§  Write thoughts in music video portion of T-Chart
·         May have to create another section in the chart if the answers are quite different from previous music video.
 
Closure:
·         Reflect on the differences between the different types of propaganda and how they affect people’s opinions.
·         Ask the students if they know any other music in propaganda that has affected them. How did it affect you?
·         Stress that music can affect the feeling a viewer has of the cause or action that is being supported or ridiculed.
·         Ask students to observe their surroundings, whether in school, outside of school, on television, in stores throughout the next two days and bring back 3 examples of propaganda, one of which contains music.

Assessment (based on objectives):
·         Students will be asked to find forms of propaganda throughout the next two days outside of the classroom. One of the forms of propaganda must include music of some sort. The students must bring in the propaganda, pictures or recordings of it, or written descriptions. The students will then present their forms of propaganda to their peers and how it changed, promoted, or affected their view on the cause, event, or subject.

Adaptations/Extensions (for students with special needs):
            For students hard of hearing, the students will be asked to focus on the images they see in the video clips. The students will be asked to reflect on the expressions of the people presenting the idea or cause for Obama and will be asked to reflect on whether or not it changed their views like the rest of the class. Students could also be placed in groups so the others could support the students who are hard of hearing to relay the words. Subtitles must be provided.
            For students who struggle with writing due to a learning disability, they will be supported in writing and practicing their skills, but it will also be acceptable for them to record their reactions in a recorder or relay them to the teacher. When finding propaganda outside of the classroom, the students will be given a disposable camera or asked to record their data with a recorder provided for them.          

Next Steps/Connections to Other Subjects:
            The next steps would be for the students to create their own propaganda. They would find an issue, event, or cause and create ways in which they could persuade others to support their movement. The students could form groups if they wished and create several forms of propaganda including articles, posters, symbols, music clips, etc. The lesson could be connected to writing in language arts. During the language arts period, they could concentrate on writing poems, essays, or lyrics to a song about their cause they want to support.