Probable Passage

I used this technique with a copyright class I taught yesterday. I had been trying to find something to help the students realize copyright was a legitimate concern - not just something else adults used to harass them! I found a great article on NPR about DJ Danger Mouse, a rapper who had mixed some music from the Beatles White Album with some music from The Black Album by Jay-Z. (To be honest, I had never heard of DJ Danger Mouse or Jay-Z!) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1722774

Then I found the transcript by using PowerSearch in Discus. ("Profile" DJ Danger Mouse's 'The Grey Album' mixes Jay-Z and The Beatles.") I then selected 20 words and phrases that were important in the article and had the students arrange them into categories. I decided to let them decide on their own categories. Most did really well! My favorite was the group that put William Shakespeare in with some of the legal terms because "he sounded like a lawyer!"

I passed out the transcripts and played the audio file from NPR - a read aloud with someone else doing the reading! The students really seemed to like it - maybe because it had music embedded in the audiocast.

This particular article was rather lengthy, (1415 words) but all of the students seemed to be listening to the entire broadcast. I suspect that the pre-reading activity had a lot to do with that! Thanks to Nicole and RAISSE!