Crossing Borders/Breaking Boundaries 2000:

A Multidisciplinary Institute for Arts Educators

Teacher: Carol Baker Davis
Arts Discipline: Music
Grade Level: High School
Team: D
Topic: Africa & Its Influence

Click here to view the lesson plans of other Team D members.

Unit Overview

Essential Understandings:

• African culture encompasses many rituals and traditions that are pervasive in their society.
• Traditions are based on the concept of repetition over time.
• Repetition is apparent in African art, music, theater, and dance.
• African culture has influenced western society with the concept of repetition in western art, music, theater, and dance.

Learner Outcomes and Expectations:

• Students will identify the presence of repetition in art, music, theater, and dance.
• Students will demonstrate an understanding of the influence of African culture on western culture.
• Students will create visual art, music, stories, and dance that reflect African rituals and traditions.

Essential Questions:

• What is the role of rituals/traditions in African society?
• What influence has rituals/traditions of African arts had on Western society?
• How does repetition demonstrate this influence?
• What makes rituals/traditions timeless?

Assessment:

• Students should be able to explain the influence of African art forms on western culture.
• Students should be able to state the role of repetition in various art forms, and to distinguish examples of repetition in their own surroundings.
• Students should be able to create art/music/dance/theater that is based on African rituals and traditions, and demonstrates an understanding of its context.

Rationale

This unit will enable students to understand the role of the arts in the TRADITIONS AND RITUALS in African society and culture.  they will see and hear that repetition plays an important role in society.  Students will understand that even though Africa is a vast continent, it is possible to focus on one area to explain the traditions of the people without generalizing about the entire continent.

Students will explore the interrelationships of the Arts in Africa and how they have influenced western cultures.  They will see that the role of the visual arts, music and story telling are timeless in understanding Africa and its influence.
 

Music Lesson Plan: Kye Kye Kule

Objectives:  Every learner will be able to:

• distinguish repetition in various musical genres
• perform basic dance movements in three diverse styles
• describe the influence of African repetition on American popular music

Materials:
world map
African Drumming CD
Video "Dance at Court"

Repertoire:
Kye Kye Kule
CD "Master Drummers of Dagbon"

National Standards:

• Singing alone, and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
• Evaluating music and music performances.
• Understanding music in relation to history and culture
• Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

Introduction:
Students will write in their journals. Write a repeating rhythmic pattern in 4/4 time, using quarter notes and eighth notes

Procedures:

• Students will share their repeating patterns with the class. Teacher will layer patterns and ask the students to describe the difference between the two performances.  Possible answers:  louder, stronger, more fun, etc.  Teacher will write adjectives on the board.
• Students will form a circle and class will sing Kye Kye Kule call-and-response style with the teacher leading. This will include motion and simple dance movements.  Teacher will explain origins of the song and a little about Ghana, showing the country on a world map.
• Teacher will describe some rituals and traditions in Africa, and will explain that traditions involve activities that repeat over many years.
• Teacher will play a portion of the video "Dance at Court" which portrays a repetitious musical performance in Ghana.  Students will discuss how the building power of repetition makes them feel.
• Class will brainstorm other types of activities they know that repeat.
• Teacher will explain that African traditions have influenced our culture through repetition.  Teacher will play the theme of a piece of swing music.  Students will choose a motion to describe that theme.  Teacher will play song and students will be chosen to tally the number of times the theme is repeated in the song.
• Class will learn and briefly practice the basic swing step.
• Teacher will ask the students to choose another motion for a new theme.  Teacher will explain that the theme is at the very beginning of the song, and that they should perform the motion anytime they hear the theme after the beginning.  Class will listen to a dance/techno song with a dominant and very recognizable theme.  Class will perform the motion with each theme.
• Teacher will allow free dance in between the theme, within certain classroom parameters.

Coda:
Sing Kye Kye Kule with a student leader.

Assessment:

• Aural Assessment of Singing
• Visual Assessment of posture and dance technique
• Graded Assessment of understanding at the end of the unit.

Future Unit Ideas:

• Class will be divided into three groups.  African music, swing music, dance music.  Each group will create a story that can be used with a ritual/tradition, and repeated in the culture they represent, that is appropriate to their time period.
• Groups will compose a rhythmic piece based on their repeating rhythmic patterns.  They will make a symbol to represent the ritual/tradition of their choosing, and will perform their piece using that symbol.

Kye Kye Kule

There is a controversy as to the origins of this song. Many scholars say that Kye Kye Kule originated in Ghana, others say Mali.  Regardless of its origins, this song has spread through much of Africa as a popular children's game.  The words and the motions have changed as they have spread but the version I am presenting came from the country of Ghana.
 
 

This song should be performed in a circle call-and-response style.  Once the students have learned the words they can lead the group and create their own motions.
 

Evaluation:

I taught my lesson plan to third graders, and expanded it into a four week unit of repetition in varying musical genres. We used the following repertoire:

AFRICAN MUSIC:

• Kye Kye Kule
• Tue Tue
• Sasa Akroma

SWING MUSIC

• Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
• Sing, Sing, Sing
• Jump, Jive and Wail (Louis Prima version)

DANCE MUSIC:

I used varying songs depending on the class because students provided their own dance music. Songs varied from the Baha Men to Britney Spears.

We explored repetition by layering rhythms on instruments, layering motions, and layering singing voices. All of the rhythms and movements were created by the students, within certain parameters, to exhibit their impression of the music. The students even generated the idea of beginning the song Tue Tue with a few voices and adding voices each repetition until the entire class had joined. By the end of the unit, we had combined our various forms of expression into a three-part rotations. The class performed in three groups: singers, instrumental accompanist, and movers ( I do not call them dancers because some boys are resistant to dancing but more open to the idea of moving). This was the culmination of our unit; leading the students from simply layering rhythms, voices, or motion, to putting them all together into one big performance.

The students were very engaged in the unit and enjoyed the music that they learned. I think this was true because it connected music they were less familiar with to music they identify with. They also had a huge role in determining how the music was arranged and performed. By the end, my students had learned that musical repetition transcends genres and time periods.