Rise Up – Hamilton and the Power of “Not Throwing Away Your Shot“
I was asked by a student to teach a lesson using Hamilton.
Um. Okay. Sure. How do I do this and embed English content into the lesson? More importantly, how can I create a fun lesson that connects my love of musicals with most of the students’ love of hip-hop?
Thankfully, Lin-Manuel Miranda made that easy for me to do. In his book, Hamilton: The Revolution, he cross-references his lyrics with the lyrics of songs that inspired his work. This book is a must read for fans of Miranda’s musical and for fans of musicals in general.
Where did I begin? With the idea that when presented with things that are similar, yet different in maybe the smallest of ways, I could base the lesson in the world of comparative and superlative adjectives. The lesson consists of nine Google slides in total, and you should have viewing rights to the document.
Most of the slides include speaker notes, but you won’t need these to directly instruct. I have provided them to so that you know how to actually teach the lesson using the information on the slides. Of course, you can modify/adapt this to suit your needs, including, but not limited to the age group of your students. Most of us teach to the class in front of us, so please, make this lesson your own.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact me using the link below.
And as scary as it may be to do something outside of your wheelhouse, go ahead, take a shot!
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