Overview: ME-LLC
An integrated approach to teaching, learning, enrichment programming, and therapy that engages young people and those who support them, in a process of discovery via the deconstruction of the INIME [information and news industry and media entertainment] and the INIME’s influence on four developmental components via self-reflection.
The developmental components are: a) identity; b) values; c) coping; and communication.
Designed to build competencies aligned with youth development and to promote social and emotional wellbeing.
Compliment core academic instruction in five subject areas [contact for more information].
Comprised of seven ciphers and customizable lesson plans that address national common core standards and state standards in five subject areas [contact for more information].
Designed to cultivate seven key competencies referred to as 21st Century Competencies [contact for more information].
Designed to address Ten Prevailing Themes and Messages in Popular Youth Music and Media [contact for more information].
Designed to prompt discussion about the psycho-socio-cultural and economic contexts for these themes and to clarify values related to health, hope and healing.
Program Goals
Facilitate culturally engagement of teaching, learning, enrichment, and therapy that measurably improves health and education [i.e., school connectedness and other literacy-related outcomes.]
Help those who service youth in and out of school [i.e., teachers and staff of youth serving organizations, etc.] by providing training and technical assistance in the implementation of lesson plans and activities based on the MusicEnergy: Life Literacy Curriculum© [contact for more information].
Participants:
Participate in lesson plans to increase their awareness of specific skills required to excel in high school, to be successful in college, and to thrive in the workplace or life beyond school.
Gain critical literacy skills to discern the influence music media may have in cultivating or inhibiting embracing healthy attitudes, beliefs and choices that align with optimal health, and the manifestation of hope and healing.
Group Leader:
Customize and implement lesson plans to enhance participants’s academic, behavior, emotional, moral social competence using the MusicEnergy: Life Literacy Curriculum© as framework [contact for more information].
Help participants articulate and clarify their values – especially those values that contribute to or inhibit being a successful student, employee, business owner or consuming citizen.
Description of Each Cipher:
C1: Please Inform Me©
Goal: The goal of this cipher is for participants to understand the benefits and responsibilities that go with being a member of a healthy, supportive community of individuals committed to being life-long learner. Emphasis is on the principles of democracy, naming and honoring shared values, and the power of a “voiced expression” through representation.
Objective: Participants will demonstrate measurable shifts in self-awareness, knowledge, cognitive skills and abilities linked to communication [oral and written]/group discussion and notetaking.
Sample Activities: [contact for more information].
21st Century KSAs: Communication [i.e., oral and written]; Group Discussion; Notetaking
C2: My Favs©
Goal: The goal of this cipher is for everyone o their favorite songs and artists and to explore the link between musical preferences and identity development during adolescence, including touching upon the values and perspectives that may not be represented in popular music and media, and examining how popular artists in different genres present coping mechanisms and communication norms in the ways they creatively express themselves. Introduction to mind, brain, and behavior, and the potential influence music may have when exercising the “freedom of speech”.
Objectives: Participants will demonstrate measurable shifts in self-awareness, communication [oral and written], information-seeking and notetaking skills and abilities.
Sample Activities: [contact for more information].
21st Century KSAs: Information-Seeking; Communication; Notetaking
C3: Words Matter©
Goal: The goal of this cipher is for participants to understand the power of words – written or spoken - with emphasis on understanding the meaning and influence of the spoken word, especially in the form of music lyrics.
Objective: Participants will demonstrate measurable shifts in self-awareness, and cognition linked to reading, comprehension, communication [oral and written]; the need to seek information, the importance of sourcing the information [i.e., for its accuracy, credibility, and reliability] and taking written notes.
Sample Activities [contact for more information]:
21st Century KSAs: Reading Comprehension/Vocabulary; Communication; Information-Seeking; Notetaking.
C4: The Game©
Goal: The goal of this cipher is for participants to identify and distinguish the elements of fiction in a music video and to gain the knowledge, skills and abilities to conduct content analysis. A secondary goal is for participants to identify and discuss the themes, messages and potential influence these themes and messages may have on shaping and/or reflecting social norms shaped by four social constructions linked to: 1) race; 2) class, 2) gender; and 4) orientation, and four social systems that serve to preserve the status quo: 1) public education; 2) religion; 3) legal/judicial and 4) Information and News Industry and Media Entertainment.
Objective: Participants will demonstrate measurable shifts in self-awareness, and be able to demonstrate skills and abilities to: collaborate effectively with peers; engage in critical analysis (i.e., critical viewing and critical listening); P.A.R.T.I.C.I.P.A.T.E.™ [contact for more information]; and to effectively seek information, distinguishing accurate, credible, reliable information from everything else. Additionally, participants will be able to take useful notes that can be shared with others.
Sample Activities [contact for more information]:
21st Century KSAs: Collaboration; Critical Analysis; Information-Seeking; Notetaking.
C5: U-Turn©
Goal: The goal of this cipher is for participants to engage in critical analysis and to fully engage in the deconstruction of the prevailing themes and messages in PYMM through the lens of seven PALS [Positive Attributes for Living]. Specifically, activities will focusing on unpacking the contexts for the prevailing themes and messages through the social constructions and using the PALs to master the art of “code-switching” by embracing contrasting ideas, opinions, and values than those presented as prevailing themes and messages in PYMM.
Objective: Participants will demonstrate measurable shifts in self-awareness, knowledge, cognitive and affective skills and abilities in collaboration; critical analysis (i.e., critical viewing and critical listening); reading comprehension, communication [oral and written]; information-seeking; and notetaking.
Sample Activities [contact for more information]:
21st Century KSAs: Collaboration; Communication, Critical Analysis, Information- Seeking
C6: If I Were a Song©
Goal: The goal of this cipher is for participants to demonstrate the connections between creative expression and creative response-ability through crafting a song, ideally based on an increased awareness of social problems linked to the social constructions of race, class, gender, orientation, religion, politics, media, laws, and public education. Specific attributes of the song will be addressed.
Objective: Participants will demonstrate measurable shifts in self-awareness, affective skills, and abilities to creatively collaborate with peers effectively communicating with their “audience” and other “audiences” via oral, written, and creative expressions.
Sample Activities [contact for more information]:
21st Century KSAs: Creative Expression, Collaboration, Communication, Information-seeking, Notetaking.
C7: My Turn©
Goal: The goal of this cipher is for participants to present their works, ideally demonstrating meaningful, thought-provoking, emotionally compelling connections between the privilege and responsibility of creative expressions shared broadly through music and media, specifically exercising their understanding and manifestation of this responsibility via recording a live performance. Students will share with the audience their reasoning for choosing specific attributes of the song, video, or post.
Objective: Participants will demonstrate measurable shifts in self-awareness, affective skills, and abilities to creatively collaborate with peers effectively communicating with an audience of their peers and “cheering squad” via oral, written, and creative expressions.
Sample Activities [contact for more information]:
21st Century KSAs: Creative Expression, Collaboration, Communication.