Lesson Overview
Estimated Time: 60 minutes
This lesson serves as a companion to lesson one regarding money messages in popular music. Students will build upon the key skills of decoding and analysing acquired in lesson one, and will strengthen drama skills in role-play and improvisation. In this lesson, students are required to use critical thinking skills and personal knowledge to differentiate between wants and needs and to examine the impact of wants and needs on a family relationship.
Connections to Financial Literacy
Drama
B1. Creating and Presenting
Grade 7:
- B1.1: engage actively in drama exploration and role play, with a focus on examining multiple perspectives related to current issues, themes, and relationships from a wide variety of sources and diverse communities
Grade 8:
- B1.1: engage actively in drama exploration and role play, with a focus on examining multiple perspectives and possible outcomes related to complex issues, themes, and relationships from a wide variety of sources and diverse communities
B3. Exploring Forms and Cultural Contexts
Grade 7:
- B3.2: identify and describe several ways in which drama and theatre contribute to contemporary social, economic, and cultural life
Grade 8:
- B3.2: identify and describe a wide variety of ways in which drama and theatre make or have made contributions to social, cultural, and economic life in a variety of times and places
Curriculum Expectations
Drama
B1. Creating and Presenting
Grade 7:
- B1.3: plan and shape the direction of the drama by working with others, both in and out of role, to generate ideas and explore multiple perspectives
Grade 8:
- B1.3: plan and shape the direction of the drama by negotiating ideas and perspectives with others, both in and out of role
B2. Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing
Grade 7:
- B2.1: construct personal interpretations of drama works, connecting drama issues and themes to their own and others’ ideas, feelings, and experiences
Grade 8:
- B2.1: construct personal interpretations of drama works, connecting drama issues and themes to social concerns at both the local and global level
Learning Goals
At the end of this lesson, students will
- identify key skills developed through dramatic play and role play
- articulate the difference between wants and needs
- consider and empathize with families impacted by financial constraints
- think critically about value and how it is assigned
Instructional Components and Context
Readiness
Students are encouraged to have previous experience working collaboratively in a safe and supportive classroom environment. Anchor charts created in lesson one should be visible to all students. Students should have their selected their own song lyrics to use for the Minds On activity. Prior exposure to drama strategies such as choral speaking, hot seating and teacher in role is helpful. This lesson may be used as part of a larger unit on poetry and media literacy.
Terminology
Song fragments
Stars and wishes
Spectrum of Difference
Drama
Choral speaking
Role play
Writing in Role
Gesture
Sound and gesture circle
Place mat
Materials
Student selected lyrics
Music
Recording of If I Had a Million Dollarsby Barenaked Ladies
Large paper
Markers and highlighters
Graphic organizers to record thoughts and ideas
Journal
Lesson Plan
Minds On
Whole Class > Sound and Gesture Circle
Instruct students to form a circle and bring their selected fragments of song lyrics that refer to money with them. Playing music from the previous lesson, invite students to move in a variety of ways such as slowly, quickly, sliding, stretching arms and legs, through the space reading the lyrics aloud. Stop the music and advise students to highlight one line from their lyric fragment that most resonates or stands out for them. Begin the music again and ask students to move through the space reading this line aloud several times. Instruct students to share their line with the person closest to them when the music stops. Encourage students to read the line dramatically, employing some of the choral speaking techniques used in lesson one. Repeat this process five times, starting and stopping the music.
Direct students to find one of their five partners, whose highlighted line they shared most connects in some way with their own. Invite the pairs to put their lines together with a movement or gesture. Again, remind students of the variety of ways to deliver the line from the Action! section of lesson one.
Invite students to return to the drama circle and share their new creation of sound and movement in a sound and gesture circle.
Ask students to reflect on this activity by returning to the anchor charts from lesson one. Prompts: Do we have anything to add to the positive/negative anchor chart? Did combining the lines alter the message? If so, what changed? What was the effect of adding movement to the lines? Encourage students to add any changes, new vocabulary or fresh ideas to the anchor charts.
Connections
Connections: This lesson might serve as a companion to a unit on found poetry. Ensure that anchor charts are visible for students to refer to throughout the lesson.
Differentiation: Model how sound and movement go together. Have extra song fragments available for students who are having difficulty finding connections. Review choral speaking and model a mixture of vocal techniques. Allow students to perform their lines in a way that is meaningful to them.
Assessment for learning: The call and response nature of a sound and gesture circle reinforces and reviews concepts from the lesson one. The teacher should note the collaboration and willingness to take risks in this activity. Invite students to give verbal or written feedback in the form of Two Stars and a Wish at the end of the sharing.
Action!
Whole class > Song Lyric Discussion
Invite students to find a comfortable place in the room by themselves and listen to If I Had a Million Dollars by Barenaked Ladies.
Invite the students to discuss the lyrics of the song. Prompts: What would you buy with a million dollars? For yourself, for others? What things are mentioned in the song? Are there items that we might want and items we might need? Identify the want and need items. Would you give any money away? Who might you give it to? How could you get a million dollars?
Pairs > Place mat
Instruct students to share their responses with an elbow partner. Provide students with a large piece of paper and invite them to draw pictures of the things they would buy with their million dollars. This is known as the place mat strategy. Instruct the students to draw the “want” items in one colour, and the “need” items in another. Tell students to circle the three most desired items on the sheet and compare their illustrations with three other partners using the following questions to guide the discussion.
Key Questions for Discussion:
What is the difference between what you want and what you need?
How do the number of “want” items compare with the number of “need” items?
Could you acquire these things without having a million dollars?
What would you have to do to get the things you want?
How do your wants and needs compare with your classmates?
What determines value?
Pairs > Role play
Invite students to work in family pairings - one student as child and one as parent. For this role play instruct students in the role of the child to convince their parent to buy one of the items on their personal place mat. Privately instruct the student in role as the parent not to agree to buy the item under any circumstances. Advise the students to support their position with as many reasons as possible.
Following the improvisation, have a discussion with the students in the role of child using the following questions.
Key Questions for Discussion:
Did you convince your parent?
How did you feel through the improvisation?
Did you feel that your parent was listening or that they cared?
Then ask the students in the role of parent:
How did it feel to not be able to give in to your child?
What was their best argument?
If you had the funds, would you buy them what they wanted?
Choose to switch roles and play the scene again prior to the discussion so that students better understand what it feels like to be on the other side. Tell the students about the special instructions that were given to the parents in advance.
Connections
Connections: This lesson might be used to discuss values in society and consumerism as well as parenting issues and how the family is affected by financial constraints.
Differentiation: Students who prefer not to draw on the place mat are welcome to create a collage of their items for the first activity. Provide magazines and materials.
Assessment for learning: Provide descriptive feedback during all the activities in the Action! section of this lesson. Follow up discussion after each exercise will support learning or activate prior knowledge necessary for the following activities.
Assessment as learning: Students can complete the Self Assessment Checklist CODE resource after any or all of the activities.
Consolidation
Individual > Writing in Role
Instruct students to complete a journal entry writing in role as either the child or the parent. Encourage the students in role as the children to explain their reasons for wanting that particular item and how they felt when they couldn’t get it. Encourage the students in the role of the parents to explain why they couldn’t buy the item and how they felt when they had to deny their child.
Whole class > Sharing
Invite the students who wrote as a child to sit in an inner circle and students who wrote as a parent to sit in an outside circle. Ask students to read a section aloud when tapped on the shoulder by the teacher. Choose students randomly from both groups or from one group and then the other to read aloud to hear the many voices and thoughts. Consider using inner and outer circle as a strategy.
Connections
Connections: Encourage students to refer to the anchor chart when writing in role. Writing in role will deepen their understanding of the difference between needs and wants and how this financial issue can create family conflict.
Differentiation: Students can write in role on index cards which will encourage some students to be succinct but also give confidence to struggling writers when they see that the length is manageable. Students could also record their thoughts on tape instead of writing and play it when called upon in the second part of the activity.
Assessment for learning: Students can submit their writing and receive written descriptive feedback from the teacher.
