Lesson Plans: Authenticity

Lesson Plan 1: Authenticity

Objective:
• To have the students understand the concept of authenticity.
• To have the students take a look at a specific artist and decide if they are authentic or not.

Procedures:
1. Give the students the prompt of, “What does the word ‘authentic’ mean?” Give them five minutes to brainstorm on their own. After five minutes, open up the discussion. Write their responses on the board. Once all the responses have been told, lead a class discussion.
2. During this class discussion, come up with a set of qualities they believe fit the concept of being authentic.
3. Once this list is made, read articles discussing the concept of authenticity in relation to musicians.
4. Go back to the class list and make any changes the students deem necessary.
5. Explain that the students will each need to pick an artist that they will do a project on to determine whether or not they are authentic.
6. Using Kembrew McLeod’s Semantic dimensions, have the students do some research into their artist’s background as well as using their own experience with that artist in order to determine their authenticity.
7. After the research is complete, have the students complete a paper describing the authenticity of their assigned artist. They should also present their results to the class.


Lesson Plan 2: Authenticity

Objective
• To enhance the students’ understanding of authenticity in regards to musicians

Procedures:
1. This lesson should follow an initial discussion of the concept of authenticity.
2. Have the students review the idea of authenticity and discuss what the characteristics of an authentic or true self are.
3. Break them up into groups. Assign each group a different genre of music. Each group now needs to come up with a list of qualities that are necessary for an artist of that genre must have in order to be considered authentic.
4. Once those lists are complete, have each group present their list to the class.
5. Now, assign each student one of the genres that have just been characterized.
6. Have each student pick an artist from that genre and see if they are an authentic member of that genre or not based on the characteristics provided.
7. Have them present their results to the class.