What is the word up project

Teaching Other Subjects Using Word Up

Idioms

An idiom is a word or phrase with non-literal meaning. If students were to look up an idiom in a dictionary, they would not be able to discern its colloquial usage. For example, the literal meaning of kick the bucket doesn’t even hint at its idiomatic meaning of «to die.» Idioms can also manifest in the form of slang, where «that’s cool» is a phrase of approval rather than a description of temperature.

While native speakers of English can more easily parse the meanings of these everyday words and phrases, idioms can be particularly challenging for ELLs. To help your students understand the idioms that appear in the Word Up songs-and recognize idioms in their daily lives and other reading we have included a lesson plan that teaches the concept and practice of idioms.

To gain the most value from this lesson, we recommend that you teach idioms near the beginning of The Word Up Project specifically, after you teach the context clues lesson, as it builds upon context clue knowledge.

Literary Analysis

Each song in The Word Up Project recounts a fiction or nonfiction story and thus functions just like any piece of writing that the students might encounter in school. We have written each song with care and attention to detail, so that students and teachers will feel comfortable analyzing the lyrics for figurative language, meaning, theme and voice. All of the songs can also be analyzed for the five elements of a story: plot, character, conflict, theme and setting. For example, you might ask your students: Who is the narrator of this song? What motivates him?

Encourage your students to draw a story arc for the song as well. Summarizing the plot of the song in this manner not only helps students develop critical analysis skills, but it also helps them understand the song through their visual intelligence.

Reading/Oral Comprehension

Every state in America tests reading comprehension for students in various grades, and many now test oral comprehension as well. Of course, the reason for this is that effective reading and oral comprehension are the keystones of a successful education.

Each unit in The Word Up Project includes a reading comprehension passage to help students develop strong reading skills. However, you may choose to use the lyrics of the songs themselves as a teaching tool for reading comprehension. Instead of playing the song first, have students read the lyrics aloud or to themselves. You can then ask any type of reading comprehension question, ranging from historical background to character traits.

Oral comprehension can be tested by playing the song without having students read along. Then you can ask comprehension questions, or use the missing lyrics and have students fill in the missing words.

Grammar

Teaching grammar using a song in Word Up might not seem like an obvious choice, but the songs can easily be used as a high-interest way of getting students to think about language structure and parts of speech. Nearly every line in the song lyrics is grammatically correct, though there are some exceptions. Each song’s lyrics are printed to highlight the couplet, even when the result is a run-on sentence. For example, in the song Gold Rush, we have:

Go west, young man, for something new, I went through the barren desert where nothing grew.

Technically speaking, there should be a period after the word new, if those lines were being written as sentences in a paragraph. One exercise you could have students do is go through the lyrics adding the periods or semicolons that would be necessary if the lyrics were written out as sentences. Another exercise is to simply analyze lines for grammar, asking students to identify the parts of speech of different words.

We recently spoke to Alex Rappaport and Blake Harrison, founders of the innovative educational company Flocabulary, about how they were inspired to infuse challenging vocabulary and educational content into rap music. In this interview you’ll learn more about why they feel rap music is the perfect medium for their mission… and you’ll get to sample one of their flocabulous videos.

VT: How did you come up with the concept for Flocabulary?

Blake: The idea for Flocabulary came to me when I was a student in high school, and it was at a time when I was studying for the SAT. I was really struck by how difficult it was to memorize the meanings of challenging vocabulary words, and at the same time, how easy it was for me to remember song lyrics.

So I had the idea that someone out there somewhere should create songs that teach SAT vocabulary. I didn’t really think that that person would be me, but after college, I met Alex out in San Francisco. We were both trying to pursue creative careers, and I mentioned this idea to him. I had mentioned the idea to a lot of people, but he was the only one who said, «Why don’t we try it?»  And so a few weeks later, we had a demo recorded, and I think late, late one night sitting in my back yard, the name Flocabulary came to us.

Alex: We always thought about Flocabulary as the combination of two distinct or unique things. And so it only made sense to use a portmanteau for the name of our company, bringing «flow» and «vocabulary» together for the first time.

VT: When you envisioned this idea, were you specifically thinking about lyrics from hip hop or rap?

Blake: Yes, I was. I was thinking about rap. Not only was that the music I was listening to the most in high school, but also I thought there was something unique about rap music that made it a great genre for this project. No other musical genre is as focused on the lyrics themselves and their meaning. Rap music gives you a lot of opportunity to be creative, to teach, to make someone laugh.

Think back to the first ever hip hop radio hit, «Rapper’s Delight,» when the rapper’s rapping about how he’s going over his friend’s house to eat, but the food just ain’t no good – «the macaroni’s soggy, the peas all mush and the chicken tastes like wood. » Those lyrics paint a picture that’s hard to forget. Not only are you smiling at that image; it’s really etching itself, the image, in your mind. And for me, at least, rap has always been the most powerful musical genre for creating that kind of an effect.

VT: When you say «etching in someone’s mind,» you’re saying that rap is a memory aid because of its imagery. What other ways do you consciously try to incorporate memory aids for students so they can more easily learn new words?

Blake: A lot of it is based on the power of rhymes. Rhyme has been used for thousands of years as a mnemonic device. We teach our children the alphabet using rhyme. We sing them songs and lullabies in rhyme. We use rhyme to remember that I comes before E (except after C). We use rhyme to remember how many days are in the months of the year. So there’s certainly nothing new about the idea of using rhyme. I think that rap music, of all the musical genres out there, places the most emphasis on rhyme.

We loved Schoolhouse Rock. A lot of those lyrics are certainly still stuck in my head, and I know they are for millions of people out there. But we wanted to try something a little bit different and maybe reach a slightly younger audience.

Alex: The other key to what we do is the idea of motivation. That goes beyond just remembering the lyrics themselves. Our songs and our videos are really engagement tools and are designed to start the learning process. We use the song as that engagement piece and then build in resources, exercises, and assessments that are more rigorous and a bit more traditional in certain ways. So we’re combining something that’s really different and really fun with the kind of proven research-based strategies that you see in other learning programs.

VT: And when you first created Flocabulary, did you have videos?

Alex: No, we started with a couple of songs for a partnership with SparkNotes. Our first project was a CD that taught 500 SAT words. Our idea back then was to come out with something that was, in a way, the anti-flashcard. We were still young enough to remember the pain and tedium of looking at flashcards to remember SAT words. And so we wanted to do it with songs, and that first project did well and was next to the Kaplans and the Princeton Reviews in the bookstores. But it became clear right away to us, after about a year of being just another SAT prep program, that there was just so much more that we wanted to teach and that we could teach effectively with this approach. So after spending about a year with the SAT words, we jumped into US history and then started working with younger students as well.

VT: How has video enhanced your project or your mission?

Alex: Video brings the ideas to life even more. I think that’s especially true with stories from social studies and history. To see depictions and images of characters from history is a really powerful thing. But beyond that, I was just speaking with an ELL teacher recently who talked about how the use of video and images helps students who haven’t quite mastered the English language. With our vocabulary videos that are just starting to come out for the Word Up Project, we’re seeing those words animated in an engaging way to really help the learning process.

VT: Do you ever encounter educators that have a knee-jerk reaction to rap because they associate it with disturbing content? Do you have to end up convincing some educators that all rap’s not bad?

Blake: It’s true that we do get that reaction occasionally. Our response to that is — take a listen to some of our programs, some of our songs. Look at some of our videos. Click through one of our units and then tell us your reaction, because it’s true that maybe the word «rap» or «hip hop» conjures up some really negative ideas for certain people, or they associate it with some things that they don’t support. That’s not at all what we’re about.

So, for us, the way to fight those attitudes or that sort of prejudice is by exposing them to what we’re creating. And we like the fact we’re working with a lot of different artists, artists who make music about all kinds of different subjects and topics. But we really like that we’re able to work with them to create something that’s positive and that is helping students. I think certainly 99 percent of the people that we talk to realize that and see the value in it.

Click here to watch Flocabulary’s video for «Rhyme Rehab,»
and here to see a list of vocabulary in the song.

Founded in 2004, Flocabulary creates award-winning educational hip-hop music and curricular materials for grades K-12. Flocabulary’s programs are used in more than 15,000 schools and reach a weekly audience of 6 million students. They are proven to raise scores on state reading tests. More information is available at www.flocabulary.com.

Types of projects

Projects can be diverse in the ways in which they are implemented. Here are some examples of projects:

• Traditional projects: These are run sequentially in phases. These phases are typically initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure. Most high-cost infrastructure projects make use of traditional project management.
• Agile projects: These are used mainly in software development. They are people-focused and adaptive. They also typically have short turnaround times.
• Remote projects: Remote project management is usually used by distributed teams that seldom meet in person. Handling freelance contributors is an example of a remote project.
• Agency projects: Agency projects are outsourced to an agency that is likely to have projects with multiple clients. Marketing and design projects are commonly outsourced to agencies.

The boundaries of a project

Every project operates within certain boundaries called constraints:

• Project scope
• Project schedule
• People
• Resources.

All of these project constraints depend on what the project aims to achieve and when. The outcome of a project results in deliverables. Anything that’s produced during the project’s development such as documents, plans, and project reports is considered a deliverable. A deliverable may also be the result of the project itself.

Having a final deliverable, as well as a finite timespan, distinguishes project management from business-as-usual operations. Since projects are unlike routine operations, most people involved are those who usually don’t work together. Sometimes, the professionals involved will come from different organizations and geographies. If the desired outcome is achieved on time and within budget, a project is considered to be a success.

Project life cycle – 5 stages

Often, projects are divided into five project phases each of which comes with a distinct set of tasks, objectives, and a particular deadline. Dividing a project into different phases enables teams to stay on track throughout their entire life cycle.

1. Initiation

The first phase in a project’s life cycle is called project initiation. Here, a project officially launches. It is named, and a broad plan is defined. Goals are identified, along with the project’s constraints, risks, and shareholders. At this point, shareholders decide if they want to commit to the project.

Depending on the project, studies may be conducted to identify its feasibility. For IT projects, requirements are usually gathered and analyzed during the initiation phase.

2. Planning

A roadmap that will guide teams from creating a project plan throughout the project’s execution and closure phases is developed comprehensively during the planning stage. Deadlines must be set, and resources must be allotted. Breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable activities makes it easier to manage project risks, costs, quality, time, and so on.

In addition, team members familiarize themselves with the necessary status meetings and reports that will be conducted throughout this phase to collect project metrics. The project execution phase is a critical point in a project’s life cycle as it will help everyone determine if their efforts will ultimately be fruitful or not.

4. Monitoring and Controlling

The project monitoring and controlling phase happen at the same time as the execution phase. It’s the job of the project manager to oversee operations and make sure that everything is headed in the right direction, according to plan.

Aside from overseeing the project’s performance, project managers have to monitor resources, manage risks, head status meetings, and reports, etc. If unforeseen issues arise, the project manager may have to make adjustments to the plans, as well as the project schedule.

5. Closing

The final phase of the project management life cycle known as the project closure phase isn’t as simple as delivering the output itself. Project managers have to record all deliverables, organize documents in a centralized location, and hand over the project to the client or the team responsible for overseeing its operations during the project closure phase.

Not only that, but teams come together for a final meeting to discuss the insights they’ve learned and to reward the hard work of each member.

When is a project considered a success?

The short of it is that a project that is completed on time and on a budget can be considered a success. However, a project can be evaluated on many criteria:

• Does it meet business requirements?
• Is it delivered on schedule and on a budget?
• Does it deliver the expected value and ROI?

What defines a successful project is likely to change based on the type of project. This is why it is important to define what project success means during the initiation and planning phases of a project.

How to implement a project

Project implementation can vary based on the methodology used. In traditional project management, implementation is done in 5 phases.

1. Initiation: This phase involves making the case for the project to convince the project stakeholders. A Project Initiation Document (PID) is created with basic information about the project including probable resource use and feasibility.
2. Planning: This phase occurs once a project has received approval from stakeholders. This is a critical phase that involves a myriad of tasks including contingency planning, allocating tasks, and planning resource sharing.
3. Execution: This is the phase when the actual work happens. Periodical reviews are conducted to ensure that execution happens within schedule.
4. Monitoring: Monitoring happens in tandem with execution. Constant monitoring by the project manager is required to ensure that work goes on minus hiccups.
5. Closure: This phase involves the important final tasks in the project including project delivery to the client and documenting the learnings from the project.

Once these steps are complete, a project can be said to be implemented well.

How project management helps you manage projects

Projects can be very complex undertakings that require a huge amount of effort and resources. No matter what the goal is, using project management principles will help the initiative run smoothly. Without proper project management principles, projects will be handled haphazardly and are at a much higher risk of

• project failure,
• delay in the project, and
• being over budget.

Knowing the fundamentals of project management improves one’s chances of completing a project successfully. No matter what industry or niche an organization is in, project management methodologies and frameworks enable them to steer the project in the right direction.