Flocabulary Lora and Emma Date: October 16, 2012

agenda What is the technology? Educational tools? When, How, Who would you use it? Example use/Demo Pros and Cons? Assignment

What is Flocabulary? Flocabulary is an online learning platform that delivers educational hip-hop songs and videos to students in grades K-12. Founded in 2004 Used in over 15,000 schools and reaches a weekly audience of 5 million students Provides a free trial, but not a free program

Educational Tools It starts with a song and video Important content-area terms are used and defined in the song lyrics. Click on highlighted lyrics to learn more= info boxes will pop out The Week in Rap info boxes contain links to full news stories on external sites Can remove key terms from the song and then reveal the missing word Provides Challenge questions Also has lesson plans, with extension activities Follow their blog to stay up to date

Demonstration News Investigator Reinforce research skills and best practices for 21st-century education. Using the clickable lyrics as a jumping off point, you can divide up the current events stories amongst your students and create mini- research projects week-in-rap-october The Week in Rap News Investigator

When and How? Hook for new material Note-taking activity End-of-unit formative assessment using the challenge questions Missing lyrics as a study tool Tests for group review or homework Have students write and perform academic rhymes Jigsaw different sections of the song and have students teach each other Debate the news Vocabulary-building with Word Up program

Who? All school instructional staff could use this tool Curriculum can be tailored to a wide range of grade levels o This Week in Rap o Vocabulary: grade 2-8, SAT prep o Language Arts: K-2 stories, grammar, high school lit, Shakespeare o Social Studies: ancient world, modern world, U.S. history, civics o Science: earth science, life science, physics and chemistry o Math: addition through linear equations

Pros Great for cognitive load Memorable Colloquializes difficult concepts and stories Improves on vocabulary proficiency and test scores Improves

Cons Paid subscriptions. (What would be the benefits of open courseware?) "Get-educated-quick" scheme? - Fox News "Get-educated-quick" scheme Has received criticism on some of the lyricscriticism

Assignment (Choice of Two) 1. Write 8 lines of "educational rap" on a topic of your choice, modeled after the style of Flocabulary. Tweet a link to the result, using whatever method works best for you (Dropbox, Google Docs, Scribd, or another file- sharing site). Alternatively, you can write out the entire rap in a series of tweets, or even record yourself performing the rap and link to the video or MP3. 2. Tweet a lesson plan using Flocabulary for the classroom or library.