Rock Roots Essays - African-American Music, Music Of Cuba

Rock Roots Rock Roots: Africa and Cuba - a synthesis between 2 traditions & 2 continents to form rock - rock is the unique tribute to the power of integration - upon closer inspection, rock appears to be a purely African addition to the western musical institution - Afro-Cuban + black music of Mississippi and Louisiana share common ancestry: in the early 19th C. the Haitan revolution sent the islands plantation owners packing. Many managed to escape with their African slaves , whose origins were primarily from Yoruba + Fon, modern Nigeria, Congo and Guinea. Most of these slaves ended up in either Cuba, found in the Oriente province or in the southern United States, pricipally in LA but also spreading into MS. - from Africa, these black slaves brought a strong oral music tradition of storytelling, recreation, work and tragedy. - used the call-and-response method (eg. Ray Charles Whatd I Say) - ask the Cubans where their music comes from and many point to the mountanous, jungle-lush Oriente province in the fart south of Cuba - the heartland of where the islands African religeous + musical survivals are. - during the 19th C. African rythmic structures filtered out of the Orientes countryside into the popular dance halls of its capital, Santiago-de-Cuba. From there the new music - African polyrythms underlying spanish guitar styles and stanza forms all using the call-and-response - spread to Havana. This style is called son. - when a Cuban is asked if this son business was anything like a-wop-bop-a-lu- bop-a-lop-bam-boom, the Cuban will counter, or like boogie (John Lee Hooker) - what is known as clave music in Cuba is the same as the Bo Diddley Beat - by the 1920's Havana was rocking to sons bass-heavy riffs - the most characteristic bas pattern was a 3-note figure, identical to the bass parts on mid-50's rocknroll hits like Elvis Lawdy Muiss Clawdy and Fats Dominos Bluberry Hill - only in Cuban + black American music do you find a heavy emphasis on the back- beat, the 2+4. Everything else, from calypso to to samba to reggae, is accented on the 1 + 3. The reitoration of Am. Music toward the 1 - acenting the first beat of every measure - is a recent development, stemming from the funk and soul of the 60s/ 70s. -* Afro/Cuban trditions reveal the fundamental riffs, licks, bass-figures and drum rythms that made RnR -* Mississippi Delta the home of rock -* the same way that Cuba is the MS Delta of the Americas. - The MS delta gave birth to a great # of performers who made a name for themselves in their hometowns and later after they moved to Chicago, New Orleans + Memphis. Among them are: Son House, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Elmore James + John Lee Hooker [*SHOW BLUES BROTHERS*] - the blues from the delta created the driving force behind all of rock - although blacks + whites were were kept separate, a few pioneering musicians united in Americas urban centers (of Chicago, Memphis and New Orleans) + rural South. For them the barriers of racism were artificial. [*SLIDE OF DANCE HALL] - Chuck Berry performed at white dance halls, and took a white rockabilly song, Ida Red and molded it into Mabelline - Elvis emulated black bluesmen who performed in his hometown of Memphis. He acted + sung like a black man, challenging the forces of racism w/his every move, literally [*SHOW SLIDE OF ELVIS / RACISM POSTER*] - success of Elvis helped pave the way for black bluesmen + artists alike who otherwise wouldnt have been welcome in mainstream America - blacks gave Rock its rhythm and whites gave it its musical form/ package/ looks Music Essays

Classroom Essentials for the New Special Educator

Classroom Essentials for the New Special Educator When we approach the school year all teachers will be evaluating the strategies and classroom structures that are important for behavioral success and instructional efficiency.  That is doubly essential for the new teacher creating their first classroom.  Ã‚   Perhaps the most important actor in your classroom is the environment.  A classroom environment is not just a matter of lighting and decorating (although they may contribute.)  No, it is the emotional as well as the physical environment that create the canvas on which you will be providing instruction.  For some special educators who push in, they carry their environment with them.  For teachers who are in resource room settings, they need to create an environment communicates expectations for students and create an efficient place for them to engage in instruction.  For self-contained programs, the challenge is to create an environment that will provide a structure that will work for the teacher, the classroom para-professional, and the range of abilities your students will probably bring with them. In our experience, self-contained programs often have as wide a variety of skills and challenges as a regular education classroom with three to four times more students.   Pro-Active Means Preparation Preparing a classroom for students will require planning and anticipation, including:   Seating/Seating chart: How you plan to provide instruction will change how you seat your students.  Anticipate those seating arrangements to change.  For a classroom where you anticipate behavioral challenges, start with desks in rows separated by an arms length in each direction.  As your year progresses, you will be able to modify how you mediate instruction and how you  manage behavior.  A group that needs constant monitoring will be arranged completely differently from a group that focuses on independent work while others are in small groups or working in learning centers.  Also, the first group, with consistent feedback, teaching, and reinforcement, might just become the second group! Comprehensive Behavior Management System How you intend to reinforce the behavior you want, especially independent behavior and how you want to provide consequences for behaviors you do not want, you will need to choose and implement one of several different comprehensive plans:   Whole Class and/or Individual Behavior Management Systems:  Sometimes a classroom system will work without implementing individual behavior management, especially when the focus of your program is remediating academics and not managing behavior.  Or, you can start with a group plan and then add an individual plan.  Or, you can use individual reinforcement plans (i.e. token boards) and then a classwide system for group activities or transitions.   Whole Class Behavior Systems Require   A visual cuing system.  This can be a board, a digital system (such as Class DOJO)  Ã‚  or an interactive cue system, like a clothespin clip system or a color wheel.  Clear expectations and outcomes. These include rules and routines, which we will explore later.  Be sure you know exactly when you place a token or move a clip up or down.  Be sure you know what consequences will be moving to red or whatever your least desirable color is.  Be sure your consequence is truly a consequence and not a threat, in other words dont make a consequence something that is either unreasonable (no p.e. for the rest of the school year) or something you are unwilling or unable to do (two swats with a paddle.  Corporal punishment is illegal in most states and doesnt work in any case.)  Rewards or Reinforcement.  Be sure some of the reinforcers you offer (positive) are social so you are pairing reinforcement with appropriate social behavior.  How about tickets for a game day? (Play bo ard games as a class on Friday afternoons.)  Access to preferred activities or classroom jobs with status (such as line leader or lunch basket) is also great reinforcers.  By pairing reinforcement with appropriate positive behavior, you also reinforce the social behavior.   Consequences.  Sometimes the absence of reinforcement is consequence enough to change future behavior.  Sometimes an appropriate consequence (because it makes undesired behavior less likely to reappear) is to remove access to a preferred daily activity, such as recess or reading in a kindergarten classroom.   Individual Behavior Systems Require A visual recording system.   Sticker charts or token charts work well.Clear expectations.  It is best to focus on no more than two behaviors at a time.  Be sure students know why they are earning stickers or tokens when they get them:  i.e. Wow, you did a nice job getting that spelling page done, Roger.  Heres your sticker.  Just two more till you get your break!  Targeted reinforcement:  As above, target specific behaviors and be sure you define those target behaviors clearly.  Reinforce no more than two behaviors at a time.   Deciding Which Behavioral Strategies to Use As you are setting up your classroom, you will need to decide a few things: Do you start with individual behavior management systems or group?  As a new teacher, you are best to err on the side of too much structure, not too little.How easy or hard will the system be to administer?  No structure is chaos, too much structure may lead to default because you cant keep your eyes on everything.  Know your team, as well.  Will you have one or more paraprofessionals who could administer one of your reinforcement systems?  Can you and your staff administer the system with as little effect as possible?  You dont want a system that you are tempted to use as a punishment.  If the focus of your system becomes your relationship with your students.  Ã‚   The Physical Environment Arranging supplies, pencil sharpening and all the mechanics of supporting academic and social interaction for school success is invaluable. Sharpening pencils, handing out materials, all those simple tasks are tasks your students can manipulate to avoid tasks, to move around the classroom and disturb peers, to establish their pecking order in the classroom.  New teachers may feel that those of us who are long in the teeth make way too much of organization, but we have watched students dither away the day sharpening their pencils.  Oh, and they can burn those babies out! So, you need to be sure your routines include: Pencil Sharpening.  Is it a job, or do you have a cup where pencils can be swapped out?  Desks: Trust me.  You want the tops of desks clean.  They are students, not insurance agents.  Supplies:   If you put students in groups, each group should have a carry all or tray for pencils, crayons, scissors, and other supplies.  Put someone in charge (and assigned on the job chart) to refill papers, sharpen pencils and do whatever you need.  For small groups, put someone in charge of paper passing.Turn in:  Have a routine for turning in completed assignments.  You may want a tray for finished assignments, or even a vertical file where students turn in their folders.   Bulletin Boards Put your walls to work.  Avoid that temptation of some teachers to spend big at the teacher store and clutter up the walls.  Too much on the walls may distract students with disabilities, so be sure the walls talk but not scream.   Resources Behavioral Systems A Color Chart System Using Clothes PinsToken ChartsSticker Charts to Support IndependenceA Lottery SystemA Token Economy Physical Resources Seating ChartsBulletin Boards that Put Your Walls to WorkBack to School Bulletin BoardsSticker Charts

Academic writing skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Academic writing skills - Essay Example The critical comparison of two academic papers requires the presentation of their strengths and weaknesses in regard to their structure and content;at the same time it is necessary to refer to their alignment with the ethical standards of academic research– especially if there is empirical research involved. Current paper focuses on the comparison of two academic pieces of work; the first of them, entitled as ‘Earning it’ will be referred to as ‘Assignment 1’, while the second one, entitled as ‘Direct Line Reviews and System Acquisition’ will be referred to as ‘Assignment 2’; the two assignments will be compared as of their structural characteristics and content, but also as of their language and referencing. The fact that the two papers will not refer to the same subject does not set barriers to their comparison, since they are of similar type, i.e. they are both essays, and of similar length (Shampoo and Resnik, 2009, p. 8) – even if assignment 1 is of more words compared to assignment 2, a fact which will be of critical importance for evaluating the two paper’s structure/ content, as analysed below. One of the first issues that should be highlighted is the difference in the research done in regard to the issues under discussion; more specifically, the first paper has been supported by a series of studies, approximately 10, which provide critical information on the issues under discussion. ... icant efforts, in terms of the nature of the paper’s subject, to cover the issues under discussion but he had limited choices in terms of literature available on the specific subject. In terms of the planning of each paper, the following comments would be made: assignment 1 is not well structured, the issues related to the paper are adequately supported in terms of references but they are not clearly presented; more specifically, it could be argued that assignment 1 is not easy to be read – providing a lot of information on the paper’s subject but the material is not appropriately categorized and cited. This difficulty in reading and understanding assignment 1 is probably caused of its presentation – sections are not clearly distinguished, instead, long paragraphs are used for presenting the material available and the author’s arguments. Moreover, in assignment 1 it is difficult for the reader to understand the coherence of information. Information from various sources is added but is not appropriately presented, as explained above. In this way, the value of the paper as an academic piece of work is reduced. On the other hand, assignment 2 is well structured; paragraphs and sub-paragraphs have been used in order to make the text easier to be read. Moreover, the sequence in the arguments regarding the issues under discussion is clearer – a fact which is proved through the appropriate (and logical) order of the paper’s sections (as they are revealed through its sub-headings). For this reason, in terms of planning, the assignment 2 has a clear advantage – taking into consideration also the fact that despite the lack of adequate references, assignment 2 is well supported in terms of the arguments involve, an issue which is also analytically discussed below