On this study abroad trip to China our group traveled to three cities, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Beijing. In this program we were given the opportunity to co-teach a lesson in two international schools. For the lessons we taught we were given room for creativity, we could teach a traditional core lesson or we could plan to educate the students on any topic in Western Culture. My lesson focused on a genre of music that is popular in Western Culture and its influence. The genre I chose was Rock and Roll, narrowing in on Queen.
In preparation for my lesson I researched about the band and followed an effective lesson plan outline. After conducting my research I selected what I thought was the most important and impactful information to share with the students in these schools. Some of the information that I included was that they reached the top charts in the United States and the United Kingdom, Freddie Mercury was born with four extra teeth allowing him to reach pitches that the other band members couldn’t, each band member had a say in the songwriting and that they had a major impact on other famous musicians, such as Lady Gaga, David Bowie, and Panic! At The Disco, and a major impact on Hollywood, such the making of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody which made over 200 million dollars and season eight of the American sitcom, That 70’s Show, every episode was named after a Queen song.
Before getting up in front of the classes, we all were able to meet, observe, and review our lesson outline with our co-teacher. At Beijing Royal School a few of us were able to work with elementary students, teaching them all about basketball and introducing them to the basic principles of psychology. The remaining of the group worked with high school students, enlightening them about Southern food culture, survival skills in case we are ever faced with the end of the world, physics, and allowed them participate in a read aloud.
I worked with a ninth grade English as a Foreign Language class. Going into the school I was nervous to execute the lesson, for the first time at SNA I went through the lesson and activities quickly and the students weren’t very talkative. This was not the case at Beijing Royal School. Today, I opened the class by asking if they have ever heard of the band “Queen”, immediately the students started to sing Bohemian Rhapsody. Following that I asked them to share with me their favorite bands/artists, then I lead into the core of the lesson by showing them the live performance of Bohemian Rhapsody. After the live video performance I had them split up into groups and proceeded to handout articles about each of the four band members. They read about them and created a powerpoint slide with what they thought was the most important information was to share with the class and then each group came to the front of the room to present. After the short presentations, I closed the class with asking them “how music was important to them as an individual, to their society, and to cultures”. To end the class a student got his guitar out and came to the front of the room to give us a performance. He started to sing “Let It Be”, and in unison the class started to sing along with him.
At the end of the school day we were invited to have a formal dinner at the school. What made this the dinner so special was that we were able to meet Dr. Wong, the CEO of the school. After being able to formally meet him he gave us a warm welcome, relaying to us that he was very grateful to have this partnership and friendship with Dr. Spires and NC State.