creating space to explore global issues

in a culturally isolated, rural

classroom

This Unit Plan was Developed While Participating in

Teachers For Global

ClassroomsJennice McCafferty-Wright

North Callaway R-1 Social Studies

Creating Space for Conversations about

Justice-Oriented Citizenship

An

Emergi

ng Unit Hip Hop, Street Art,and Arab Spring

Media of the Masses

Goals• Create a bridge/ for students to connect with a global issue

• Frame Arab Spring through the intersectionality of youth, global democratic movements, and popular art

• Flex and strengthen budding global competencies

U.S. Studen

ts

Shared Popular Culture

Arab Spring Activist

s

Personally Responsible Citizen• Acts Responsibly in his/her community

• Works and pays taxes/obeys laws

• Recycles, gives blood

• Volunteers in a crisis

Participatory citizen• Active member of community organizations

• Organizes community efforts for those in need

• Knows how government agencies work

Justice-oriented citizen• Critically assesses social, political, and economic structures

• Seeks out and addresses areas of injustice

• Knows about democratic social movements and how to effect systemic change

(Westheimer and Kahne, 2004)

What kind of citizenship does this lesson promote?

• Contributes to a food drive

Personally Responsible

• Helps organize a food rive

Participatory

• Explores why people are hungry and acts to solve root causes

Justice Oriente

d

If People Were Starving

1. What are popular forms of communication, hip hop and street art, telling us about Arab Spring?

2. Whose voices do they represent?

3. So what?

Hip Hop, Street Art, and Arab Spring the Media of the Masses

Guiding Questions

Members of the Free Syrian Army chant as one of them plays the guitar near Nairab military airport in Aleppo Feb. 26, 2013. (photo by REUTERS/Hamid Khatib)

• Responding to video- reflective writing, discussion

• Text analysis of lyrics- Text analysis protocols, primary source analysis work sheets, word clouds, literary devices, AND MORE

• Visual thinking strategies and responses to street art

• Cross walk between the two

Days 1-3. What are popular forms of communication, hip hop and street art, telling us about Arab Spring?

#Syria

Omar Offendum• Read article “Syria’s Music Wars”

for background on Hamwee Ibrahim Qashoush’s story. http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/05/music-syria-war-pop-rap-dabke-regime-rebels.html?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=7140#ixzz2ScNCKMto

• Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXjEWrhkb6g

Responding to video- reflective writing, discussion

It’s been a long time coming

And there's no turning back now

Voices are the weapons

In these military crackdowns

Millions on the streets

In defiance of your gat sounds

Look who's got you shook

Doctor don't know how to act now...

 

-Omar Offendum, “#Syria”, 2012

Fly Over Egypt

The Narcycist, aka Narcy• Video- https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqBt2vkVO5I

• Article, “What Happened to the Arab Spring?” http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/01/what-happened-to-the-arab-spring/266778/

In the light of day you are more than just a knight

seeking for a right of way asking is it just to fight...

I feel the winds of change, but everything is still the

same

Even Though I fear the sun, I can only see the reign...

-The Narcicyst, “Fly Over Egypt”, 2012

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/16/arab-spring-year-of-protest

The Smithsonian. “Egypt’s Murals Are More Than Just Art, They Are a Form of Revolution: Cairo’s artists have turned their city’s walls into a vast social network.” http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Egypts-Murals-Are-More-Than-Just-Art-They-Are-a-Form-of-Revolution-204114911.html#ixzz2ezp35NdS

Street Art fromThe Smithsonian

http://animalnewyork.com/2013/egyptian-women-street-artists/

Other Sources of Street Art

http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/07/16/in-pictures-walls-of-freedom-documents-egyptian-street-art/

http://news.msn.com/world/egyptians-speak-out-through-street-art#image=7

• Hip hop, the creators- biographical research: comparing and contrasting Narcy and Omar Offendum, comparing and contrasting US popular artists

• Street art, the creators- biographical research: same comparing and contrasting exercise

• The audience- demographic research: Egypt, Syria, Morocco, and other Arab Spring countries by age, education, and economic indicators

• Bringing it all together… reflection, discussion, analysis

Days 4-6. Whose voices do they represent? Self-selected research teams

Days 7- __. Application and extension opportunities:• Exploring other examples of youth and social

change• Outcomes of Arab Spring- Case studies, specific

countries• Cross-curricular collaboration with art and music• Refugees and internally displaced peoples• Other media and revolution- social media• Infographics and mapping Arab Spring• Soundtrack of a Revolution project• Guest panel• US popular art and social justice• Other revolutions...

So what?

http://www.albanyassociates.com/notebook/2012/03/the-arab-spring-and-the-impact-of-social-media/egypt-facebook/

NBC . The Soundtrack of a Revolution. http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbc-news/44508127

Portland State University. Music and the Arab Spring. http://www.middleeastpdx.org/resources/original/music-and-the-arab-spring/

Primary Source. The Modern Middle East. http://www.resources.primarysource.org/content.php?pid=425088&sid=3476396

Matthew Machowski. The Arab Spring on Maps

http://www.matthewmachowski.com/2011/05/arab-spring-maps.html

More Resources