Searchin' About a Revolution

An Online Database Exploration Lesson
for 10th Grade World History

Designed by Dan McDowell
World History Web Site

danmcdowell@cox.net

Introduction | Acquaint | Ask | Arrange | Apply | Evaluation |Credits

Introduction

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, the term revolution means:

  1. a sudden, radical, or complete change
  2. a fundamental change in political organization; especially : the overthrow or renunciation of one government or ruler and the substitution of another by the governed
  3. activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation
  4. a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm

What constitutes a revolution? How does a revolution occur? What causes a revolution? What long term effects does a revolution have? Over the next two weeks we will be exploring the nature and impact of political revolutions on the world. However, before we delve into the history, we are going to examine the concept behind the word revolution.

Throughout history, people have attempted to express their understanding of the world, feelings, and creativity through various forms of art. Since fusion of music and words and the rock and roll revolution of the 1950's and 1960's, musicians have penned poems about personal, social, and political issues. For this project, you will explore and compare how three different song writers have represented the idea of revolutions in their lyrics.

Acquaint Yourself

To complete this project we will be using a song lyrics database called Leo's Lyrics. This web site boasts it has over 80,000 songs that can be searched by artist, song title, phrase, or scattered words. The place to search is the form on the home page, there you have access to all of the search options on one page. You may also used advanced search option. You DO NOT need to register to use this site.

To become familar with how this database works, try the following searches:

  1. Find a Sting song about "Oppenheimer's deadly toy"
  2. What singers/bands perform the song "Sweet Jane"? Who wrote the song?
  3. Search for one of your favorite songs? Describe how you searched for it.

Ask for Information

Working individually or with one other person, your goal is to find one or two songs that exemplifies the concept of revolution based upon the provided definition and class discussions. While searching consider the following items:

  • you want a song or songs about a revolution of some sort
  • they don't have to be about a historical or political event, but can be
  • try and select songs that your classmates might miss (The Beatles' Revolution is a bit obvious)
  • you will have to explain your interpretation of the songs so be sure to pick ones that you understand

Once you have found your song, either print it or copy and paste the lyrics from the web page into Word document for easy reference.

Arrange the Answers

  1. Break the song into at least three sections and consider the following
    1. Use of the concept of revolution - What is being revolutionized? Is it positive or negative?
    2. What is the setting? Are there characters? Who are they?
    3. 2-4 lines from the song that exemplifies the concept
    4. Your interpretation of the purpose of the song
  2. Transfer the lyrics to a piece of butcher paper or computer paper, write your responses from above around the lyrics.
  3. Illustrate with original artwork or found artwork.
  4. Present song to class.

Apply What You've Learned

Let's go back to the initial questions posed at the beginning of this project:

  • What constitutes a revolution?
  • How does a revolution occur?
  • What causes a revolution?
  • What long term effects does a revolution have?

Have these questions been answered by this project? How? What questions do you have as a result of this project? What are some examples of modern day revolutions?

Next: The French and Russian Revolutions!

Evaluation

1 = not acceptable       2 = could be better     3 = acceptable     4 = outstanding

 
1
2
3
4
The database was adequately searched.
 
Song selection was appropriate.
 
Analysis was thoughtful and complete .
 
Presentation to class.
 
 
 
Total
 

Comments:

 

 


 

Conclusion

In the next couple of weeks we will be examining political revolutions that changed the course of human history. In France and Russia, regimes that ruled for hundreds of years fell for ideas that resulted in radically different governmental systems. While neither the French or Russian Revolutions brought about the utopias envisioned by participants, they changed the nature of politics and influenced world events for the last 200 years.

Throughout the rest of the school year, following the events of the world and try to identify what revolutions our world is currently undergoing.

Credits & References

Painting of Vladimir Lenin from Russia.com.
Painting of Liberty Leading the People from the Artchive.

The title is reference to Tracy Chapman's Talkin About a Revolution.
The lyrics in the graphic are from the Beatles' Revolution.

I would like to the thank the academy for... Have a nice day.

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this lesson, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this lesson. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.

Last updated on March 7, 2004. Based on a template from EDTEC 570