Season Seven
Episode 136
Soundtrap Rap Project
Cheers to 2021! I’m ready for a new year of new lesson ideas and thought I’d share one of the projects I’m doing with my students as we return back to school. This project would be a really fun one to do at the beginning of the school year as well - it’d be a great way to get to know your students, what they like, and who they are. Since I see my students in trimesters, sometimes I have to modify when I do lessons and introduce material so I decided to use this project to start off the new year with my fifth graders.
I first saw the idea for this lesson in the Soundtrap Blog. The original idea was created by Meredith Allen and inspired by Katie Wardrobe. I took their amazing idea and expanded upon it. You can find the links to both the Soundtrap Blog page - click on ‘That’s a Rap’ to see the lesson plan - as well as the Google Doc with the lesson idea from Meredith. I highly recommend Meredith’s plan for an 8-beat phrase for younger students. It’s a great launching pad for helping students speak on the beat for a shorter period of time.
If your students need or want to expand on it, here is the extension that I created. Students will be given access to a Google Slides Presentation. They can make a copy of it for themselves and then share it with me. Or sometimes I make the copies ahead of time and share it with them. They will use the first few pages to brainstorm ideas about themselves. Anything from their favorite things to activities they enjoy to their favorite places and the people in their family.
On Slide #6 I explain the next steps of the project - taking something about themselves to write a short phrase. In class I’ll take time to explain that their phrases should be spoken over 4 beats. They will then look at the last syllable or word in their first phrase and search for rhyming words. This can help them choose a word to end the second phrase and figure out how to write the second phrase so that it rhymes with the first.
For example, if their first phrase is: My name is Sarah and I like to run… students might think of the words: sun, fun, done. This can help guide them towards finishing the phrase with something like: I go real fast and it’s kind of fun. So the first two phrases would be:
My name is Sarah and I like to run.
I go real fast and it’s kind of fun.
They will repeat this process four more times, resulting in five couplets (in other words, two successive lines that rhyme and occurring five times). So ten lines total.
Once students have written all of their lines, they will combine them in order into slide #13. They can print off this slide to read from as they record their rap into Soundtrap.
A few tips and tricks for making this as successful as possible:
Before students record their rap, have them work with a partner. The partner maintains a steady beat by patting their lap while the other partner speaks their rap.
If they are unable to work with a partner (due to being on Zoom with delays or working from home), ask students to practice with a family member at home or by themselves with the metronome on
Have students change the tempo before recording. It’s automatically set to 120bpm, but I like to have students slow the tempo to 80bpm and use the metronome to help with staying on beat.
Speak the poem with students individually if they are struggling. I prefer to not speak with students if possible, but sometimes they need assistance and just can’t find that steady beat. I don’t record myself with them, but for practices I will speak it. Or even speak it as they listen to it.
Another option is to have students echo each couplet after you. For example I would speak:
My name is Sarah and I like to run
I go real fast and it’s kind of fun.
The student would then speak the couplet immediately after I finish. This is a possibility for recording with students who may struggle to read an entire section on a steady beat for a longer period of time. You (or the student) could then split regions in the piece to take away the parts where the teacher is speaking and then put together the sections where they speak the poem. Or even leave instrumental parts between each couplet that they are speaking! The goal of the project is to give students an opportunity to speak over a steady beat, compose couplets that rhyme, and choose loops that create a fun instrumental background. These can all be accomplished with modifications. The work students create doesn’t need to be identical! It’s okay if there are differences and adaptations to help all students be successful.
Once they’ve recorded their tempo, they should switch it back to 120bpm before choosing loops for their project. They can always adjust the tempo to a slower speed once all tracks have been chosen.
Encourage students to record multiple attempts! So many students think that they should get it right the first time and be done - or they just want to record it once and call it good even if they aren’t speaking on the beat. It might be useful to have students keep track of their progress using a Google Doc and making notes about what they experienced along the way. I’ll share the Google Doc that my students will be using as they record their recording observations. The idea being that it is expected that they will take multiple attempts at recording and not just settle for their first attempt.
When the projects are completed, students can present their rap to the class or you could even share their raps in a Google form for everyone to hear! To do this, download each Soundtrap file into an mp3. Then upload the mp3 into a Google Form for students to hear. You can even provide students with questions about what they learned about classmates and what they learned in the process of the project!
I’d love to hear how this project goes with your students. Reach out if you use it or have questions about the process. Or check out my Instagram page for more information and ideas: @highafternoonti.
Resources
Meredith Allen's 'That's a Rap' Lesson Plan
Google Slides Presentation to use with students
Google Doc Recording Tracking
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