Objective
Students will develop a working vocabulary of English-to-Math terms and practice using their new skills.
Materials
I will need one transparency of the lyrics to a popular song, 30 copies of the same song for distribution to students, and one blank transparency.
Procedures
- First, we will as a class discuss the different meanings that a song can have and what kind of skills we need in order to understand what the artist is trying to tell us. (10 minutes)
- Then, I will walk the students through translating several lines from the song into math, using numbers where appropriate and variables where appropriate. As I do so, I will keep track of what variables I substitute for each word and compile a list on the margin of frequently occurring words.(10 Minutes)
- Then, when students seem to be comfortable with the process, I will have them break into groups of 4 and give them copies of the song to work with. They will then, as a group, come up with their own translations, equations, and vocabulary list.(20 min)
- We will then rejoin as a class and I will have each group present its translation or part of its translation and as the students do so, we will add to the vocabulary list on the overhead.(10 min)
Homework
The students will select three more items to translate. The items can be songs, movie sceens, or books. They will have the option of getting these lyrics from wherever they like though I will also give them a list of such sites including The Hip Hop Circuit and The Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive . Each students will translate at least three sentences/ideas from each item, to be handed in the following day.
Assessment
Students will receive a grade on their homework assignment based on their use of our translation chart and on the effort put into coming up with a meaningful translation.
Literacy
The students will write in their journals about the activity. Did they find it difficult? Why or why not? Can they think of any reason they would need to do this outside of class? Moreover, the translation of the song itself involves literacy skills.
Debriefing
Students may find this activity frustrating. Try to make it low-stress so that they can have fun with it and feel comfortable playing around with the words.
