Secondary Lesson

Title: Rap & Tango

Arizona State Standards

  • Reading: 2-Concept 1 (apply reading strategies) Strand 3-Concept1 (analyze non-fiction)
  • Writing: Research Document: Strand 1-Concept 1, Strand 2- Concepts 1,2,6, Strand 3–Concept 6
  • Listening and Speaking: LS-P1 & P5 (shares, presents, listens & responds) VP-P1-P3 (develop, analyze, evaluate, organize)
  • History: 1SS-P1(chronological & spatial skills) 1SS-P2 (research methods) 1SS-P3 (interpretation) 1SS-D1 (historical sources) 1SS-D2 (historical thinking) 3SS-P1 (using geographic tools) 3SS-P2 (regions) 3SS-P3 (social interaction, migration) 3SS-P5 (applying skills)
  • Arts: 2AV-P1/P2/3AV-P2(cultural & historical relevance) 2AV-P4(role of art in society)

Goals & Objectives:

  1. Students research to find the similarities and differences between rap music and tango.
  2. Students become familiar with Argentine Culture and South American geography.
  3. Students realize the extent of the African slave trade and its impact on the American Continents.

Length of lesson: 4-5 one-hour periods

Materials & Preparation:

  1. map of South America
  2. research sources
  3. tango music and/or videos of tango dancing

Lesson

First Period

  1. Draw a venn diagram on butcher paper, labeling one rap and the other tango
  2. Play tango music and/or show a video of tango dancing to students.
  3. In groups have students compare and contrast these forms of music.
  4. Come together and share. More than likely, they will not have identified many similarities between the two musical styles and have found many differences.
  5. Explain that for this activity they will need to research and investigate the two forms of music, rap and tango, to find out what they have in common.

Second-Third Periods

  1. Have students research, either in groups of individually, using library and/or internet sources.

Fourth Periods

  1. Return to the venn diagram from before, and have students, either in groups or individually, share what they learned about tango music and how it is similar to rap music.
  2. If not expressed by your students, include the following details:
    • Rap developed in the poor African American neighborhoods in New York in the late 1970s and that tango developed in the poor African neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the 1900s.
    • At first, both forms of music were considered “street-music” and not appropriate or interesting to wealthier sectors of people.
    • Wealthier sectors of these cities both discovered these underground forms of music and began to listen to and eventually created their own versions of the music, leading to the eventual acceptance of the music by all.
    • Both forms of music illustrate how African people and their culture have influenced and changed the mainstream culture.

Fifth Period

  1. Show a map of Argentina and/or South America, pointing out the capital of Buenos Aires. Ask students what they know about this country and this capital city.
  2. Remind them that this is where tango music began, and where it became popular.
  3. Ask students how there could have been an African population in South America. Have students hypothesize and then discuss that the slave trade brought African people to all parts of the Americas, not just to the United States.

Closure

  1. Ask students to share what misconceptions or misunderstandings have been changed by learning about the history of tango music. More than likely, they will share that they didn’t think of tango music, a classical type of music as being “underground” and controversial, or that African culture has influenced other regions of the world, not just the United States.

Evaluation

  1. Have students write about one of the topics brought up in this lesson: tango, Argentina, the slave-trade, rap music, the Americas, etc. Have them develop the topic to explain what they have learned and include further questions they now have.

Extensions

  1. Have students further investigate African populations in other parts of the Americas. Divide the class into groups, each researching a separate region or country, such as Peru, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, etc. Share their findings with the class.
  2. Invite a dance instructor to come and demonstrate and then teach some beginning tango dance steps to the class.
  3. Investigate other dance forms and the multi-cultural influences on them, such as salsa, samba, flamenco, son, etc. Find other forms of music that is popular in the Unites States today and historically compare it to salsa, samba, flamenco, etc.