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 • http://flocabulary.com/jazz-age/• 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 InvestigatorReinforce 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-12-2012

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

levelso This Week in Rapo Vocabulary: grade 2-8, SAT prepo Language Arts: K-2 stories, grammar, high school

lit, Shakespeareo Social Studies: ancient world, modern world, U.S.

history, civicso Science: earth science, life science, physics and

chemistryo Math: addition through linear equations

Pros

• Great for cognitive load• Memorable• Colloquializes difficult concepts and

stories• Improves on vocabulary proficiency

and test scores

Cons

• Paid subscriptions. (What would be the benefits of open courseware?) • "Get-educated-quick" scheme? - Fox

News• Has received criticism on some of

the lyrics

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.