SOS: MVP

In honor of celebrating YOU, our MVP, we have a brand new strategy to share that will have students tuned into learning. Our S.O.S series provides help, tips, and tricks for integrating DE media into your curriculum.

Leave a comment and let us know how you’ll use this strategy in your class.

MVP

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The purpose of this strategy is for students to analyze information to determine the MVP or Most Valuable Point within song lyrics. Dividing a song into verses enables students to analyze smaller pieces of a song and dive deeper for specific information. By brainstorming and discussing important ideas in a small group setting, students will strengthen skills in the areas of listening, speaking, writing, and summarizing.

Materials: one song with printed lyrics from Discovery Education that reinforces a concept in the curriculum, scissors to cut the lyrics into one strip of paper per verse, paper for group brainstorming such as chart paper, markers or writing utensils (Note: For this demonstration, the song “Natural Satellites” by Dr. Lodge McCammon will be used.)

1.Introduce the topic by distributing printed song lyrics to your students. (Note: For this example, you may want to share the video “Dr. Lodge Kinesthetic Lecture: Chorus” from http://tinyurl.com/DrLodgeNatural.)

2.Play the complete song while students listen and read the lyrics to themselves.

3.Model the MVP task for your students by discussing the chorus of the song with the class while taking notes about the MVP, or Most Valuable Point. After discussing the chorus, determine the MVP of the chorus by circling it on the chart paper. (See attached image of sample MVP note taking organizer.)

4.Group students and assign each group one verse of the song, chart paper, and markers.

5.Ask students to elect a scribe, discuss their verse, and brainstorm to determine the MVP. Students should create a dance move or other movement to illustrate or symbolize their MVP.

6.Students attach their song lyric to their chart paper and circle the MVP, then post their paper in the classroom.

7.Play the song again, asking students to STAND or DANCE when their Most Valuable Point is sung. The entire class will stand or dance when the MVP of the chorus is sung.

8.Allow students to reflect on their group work and share any disagreements or roadblocks to reaching a consensus.

This strategy is a great way to assess students’ abilities to determine important ideas in a curriculum-based song and provide supporting evidence to back up their statements.

• Provide a more advanced graphic organizer from a website such as http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/ for structuring group discussions.
• Students can select and print images from Discovery Education as supporting visuals for their MVP. Create a more advanced visual representation of the MVP by using a digital art or photo editing tool such as Sumo Paint or Pic Collage to add text or vocabulary and definitions. (Note: When students use images from Discovery Education, the citation is available to give proper attribution.)
• Each student can create a new MVP song verse and dance moves using all MVP statements from the class analysis of the song.
• Kinesthetic Lesson plans for Dr. Lodge McCammon songs available at -°© http://tinyurl.com/DrLodgeNatural