Suggested sequence of teaching strategies

Provide an overview and explain the purpose of the rap.

Explain to students that this rap focuses on developing a healthy, active lifestyle. Students will investigate aspects of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and how to lead a healthy, active lifestyle.

Explain to students how each week they will discuss and respond to the rap texts with their classmates and students in other schools. As the Olympic Games begin at the end of the week, you may also like to write about what you are most looking forward to during the games.

During this week rappers send a short, introductory message about the class or group to the rap.

In order to prepare the message, discuss the information that you would like to include in your class introductory message. You may like to include some information about your local area. You might identify some information about the location of the school in relation to other places in the local area.

Possible activities

1. In preparation for the class introductory rap point post, talk about the location of the school, places in the local area and any special events occurring in the school community.

2. Investigate the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games by visiting

   • The official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
   • Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Australia: official site of the 2008 Australian Olympic Team
     
     

3. Discuss healthy, active lifestyles. The following websites will be helpful:

   • Healthy kids: getting active
   • Kids and getting active! fact sheet
     
     

4. Inform students that they will communicate their ideas to other students by uploading to the Comments section of a blog (also known as web log). Explain rap lingo or terminology to students.

5. In order for the class to construct an introductory comment, clarify the purpose of the introductory comment, identifying the audience and discussing the detail required to achieve the purpose. List appropriate voice, modality, greeting and email signature, for example. The blog post would include the school’s name, location, size of group and any other interesting features of the school or class. Using correct blog and Book rap etiquette (see Book rap FAQs for further details), post the class introduction to the rapblog.

6. Access, read and discuss introductions from other rappers, and locate these schools on the Rap maps. Students might wish to respond to other rappers’ introductions on the rapblog.

7. If time is available, consider the optional activity.

Optional activity

Teachers may wish to join the a.s.p.i.r.e. school network for a range of activities on the Olympics 2008 theme. Why not use an IWB to share some podcasts with the students? There are opportunities to Talk to Olympians and explore the kids website at BK Zone for engaging activities and ideas for developing an active, healthy lifestyle.

Posting response to Introductory rap point

1. prepare the response to Introductory rap point with the class

2. student/s (rap representative) word process the response, edit and save

3. teacher facilitates the student/s use of the word processor and blogging procedures to post the response to Introductory rap point once the teacher has approved the final text.