GRADE AND SUBJECT: Grade 10 English, Applied (ENG2P)

UNIT TITLE: Oppression and Resistance

LESSON TITLE: Imagery in the Hip Hop Music Video

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION DETAILS

Knowledge of Students

[ ] Readiness
[x] Interests -- Many students will have at least some exposure to (and
perhaps interest in) music videos and/or hip hop.
[ ] Preferences:
[ ] Styles
[ ] Intelligences
[ ] Other (e.g. environment, gender, culture)

Need to Know

Misconceptions and biases -- Are the students' analyses of the videos

affected by prejudices with regards to hip hop videos, or hip hop music
generally?

How to Find Out

Brief informal talk -- Take 5 minutes, either at the end of this lesson or at
the beginning of the next, to ask the class for their general impressions of
the videos. Look for any comments that indicate stereotype and use it as
an opportunity to draw a distinction between videos that carry a message
and those that don't. Explain how Shad and War Party are 'conscious'
rappers: they rap to entertain, but also to deliver a message.
Differentiated Instruction Response

[x] Learning materials (content) -- Students struggling to locate examples of

visual imagery may choose to focus on the sound/music or the lyrics in
order to demonstrate an understanding of how imagery is working in these
songs.
[ ] Ways of learning (process)
[ ] Ways of demonstrating learning (product)
[ ] Learning environment

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

Overall Expectation: Listening to Understand

Specific Expectations: Listening to Understand

Demonstrating Understanding of Content --1.4 identify the important

information and ideas in both simple and complex oral texts in several
different ways

Interpreting Texts -- 1.5 develop and explain interpretations of both simple

and complex oral texts, using evidence from the text and the oral and visual
cues used in it to support their interpretations

Analysing Texts -- 1.7 analyse both simple and complex oral texts, focusing
on the ways in which they communication information, ideas, issues, and
themes and influence the listener's/viewer's response

Learning Goal:

• Students will be able to define imagery (ie. how it works, why it

works).
• Students will demonstrate an understanding of how hip hop videos
convey their message(s), with emphasis on how and why 'conscious'
hip hop videos employ imagery.
• Students will recognize how imagery functions as a form of
resistance, and as a way of depicting oppression.
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION

Assessment/Success Criteria

Knowledge and Understanding

Demonstrates comprehension of visual imagery, its function, and its
implications.

Thinking
Asks students to closely consider artists' motivations for using imagery.

Application
Uses process of inquiry modelled in this lesson to consider instances of
imagery outside of class (ie. in ads, film)

Assessment Tools

• Anecdotal comments on student responses

• Checklist to verify completion of task for next class.

PRIOR LEARNING

Prior to this lesson, students will have:

• A familiarity with some of the issues in these videos related to

oppression and resistance, as discussed earlier in the unit.
• Previous experience identifying imagery in written texts, although
perhaps without identifying them as such.
• Ease with the format of the group work, and a readiness to share
findings with the class.

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

Materials

• copy of lyrics to Shad's "Brother" and War Party's "All For One"
• compact discs of Shad's The Old Prince and War Party's The Reign
• internet connection, projector, speakers
Internet Resources

• Youtube
• www.shadk.com -- Shad's blog and website, updated regularly.

Reading

• Dalton Higgins, Hip Hop World -- A concise yet very helpful survey of
hip hop, its history, its proponents, and its continued influence in the
world.

MINDS ON (the 'hook')

Whole Class / Individual Response --> Image Montage / 'What does the
image remind you of?'

• The teacher presents the class with 10-12 images. The images will
include some that will be familiar, including some that were introduced
earlier in the unit (ie. the gates of Auschwitz, a raised fist, the
protester facing tanks in Tiananmen Square), and others that
presumably will be less familiar (a residential school, a black circle
painted on a billboard). Students respond individually as the images
are presented, spending only about half a minute on each image and
encouraging students to write down on sticky notes their initial
thoughts and associations.
• Students are then encouraged to share their responses by placing
sticky notes around the corresponding images at the front of the
class. Responses are read aloud. Students are encouraged to explain
their responses and look for patterns. What associations, for instance,
arise when confronted with the image of a raised fist? Does it make a
difference if the fist is white instead of black?
• 'Minds on' wrap-up and segue: Images can be deliberately used to
achieve a certain effect (like oppression or resistance). We call this
imagery.
ACTION

Whole Class --> A Definition

• Question to the class: What is imagery?

• On the blackboard --> Imagery means the use of images for a
rhetorical purpose. In other words, images, in the form of visual
symbols, words, or even sounds, are carefully chosen to achieve an
intended reaction from an audience.
• Can you think of places where images are carefully chosen to make
an audience react a certain way?
o Advertisements (online, billboards, magazines)
o Books (novels, poetry)
o Movies
o What about music videos? (if not mentioned)

Modelling --> Analyzing imagery in a music video.

• Play video for "All For One" by War Party

• Ask class:
o Which images show up often throughout the video? Which
images seem important?
o How do these images make you feel?
o How are these images working to make you feel this way?
o Why do you think War Party would have chosen these images?

• Model with the following example: The basketball net.

o It's dirty and in rough shape. Makes me feel uncomfortable. Makes
me think of poverty, but at the same time tells me that kids are kids and will
keep playing sports and having fun even if they're poor. War Party maybe
chose the image of the basketball net to show what conditions are like in
the reservation.
Groups of Three --> Analyzing imagery in a music video.

• Play video for "Brother" by Shad K

• Individually:
o List all the images you can find.
o Pick two images which you think are most important.
o Describe these images and explain your reaction to them.
• As a group:
o Share what you found with the other members of your group.
o If your answers differ, make your case for why you chose yours.
o Settle on one image, and be prepared to explain what message
it might be sending us as viewers.

Whole Class --> Sharing Findings

• What issues do the images in this video give rise to? Why might Shad
have chosen these images instead of others?

CONSOLIDATION AND CONNECTION

Whole Class --> Wrap-Up

• Refresher:
o Imagery can apply to visuals in videos and films, but also to
language (in books) and sounds.
o Images have meaning, and are chosen and used to create
particular reactions in those you read/see/hear them.
• Pass around handout on Imagery: definition and examples (with
reference to Shad's video).
• Homework task: Each student is to find an example of imagery: it can
in advertisements on public transits, on television, in a newspaper.
Students will present their found examples of imagery and explain
how they work next class.

Next steps: In a follow-up lesson, look at imagery in lyrics to these songs

for textual examples of imagery and how they work to achieve similar
effects as visual imagery.