After attending a Media Smart Libraries workshop entitled, Start a Conversation on Digital Voice in Your Library, I was inspired to teach the concept of mashups to fourth graders as part of our Mac Barnett author study. Originally, I had planned to end the unit reading “Battle Bunny” a mashup combining an innocent Golden Book style story of a bunny whose birthday was forgotten. Alex, the book’s owner rewrites and draws on top of the sickly sweet original, Birthday Bunny, jazzing it up with an evil villain and hero story. Students would then create their own version of Birthday Bunny. We still did that piece, but I spent an additional class explaining the concept of mashups. I defined what a mashup is and gave popular examples in music, art, books, and apps that students in 4th grade could relate to. Students really enjoyed seeing/hearing the mashup examples and the next week when I asked students to recall the definition of a mashup, most hands shot up and were exactly on point with their answers. I also think viewing other types of mashups inspired students to be more creative when they were making their own mashup version of Birthday Bunny. Below are the mashups I showed to students as well a teacher resource for teaching copyright and fair use to that grade level.
Music
Art
1. Mona Lisa Original
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa#/media/File:Mona_Lisa,_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci,_from_C2RMF_retouched.jpg
Lego Mashup
http://buzzlime.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Marco_Pece_Lego_Mona_Lisa.jpg
2. Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh Original
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starry_Night#/media/File:Van_Gogh_-_Starry_Night_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
The Great Wave by Hukusai Original
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa#/media/File:Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa2.jpg
Starry Night & Great Wave Mashup
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/8b/20/1a/8b201a1db4620ff2fc399731eef3ea27.jpg
Books
Apps
Common Sense Media Resource
Music
- DJ Earworm (Videos are not okay to show students at this grade level in school. We listened to the audio only).
http://djearworm.com/victory-mix - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjYWwZYLYEs
- Firework & Grenade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_IWRuryzaY - Classical/Pop music - http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2012/10/adorable-kids-sing-mashups-of-classical-tunes-and-pop-lyrics/264041/
Art
1. Mona Lisa Original
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa#/media/File:Mona_Lisa,_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci,_from_C2RMF_retouched.jpg
Lego Mashup
http://buzzlime.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Marco_Pece_Lego_Mona_Lisa.jpg
2. Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh Original
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starry_Night#/media/File:Van_Gogh_-_Starry_Night_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
The Great Wave by Hukusai Original
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa#/media/File:Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa2.jpg
Starry Night & Great Wave Mashup
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/8b/20/1a/8b201a1db4620ff2fc399731eef3ea27.jpg
Books
- Good Night Forest Moon (Good Night Moon & Star Wars)
http://www.dzignspace.com/goodnight/goodnight_forest_moon.pdf - Book Covers
http://noblemania.blogspot.com/2014/09/kidlit-mashups-aka-merged-childrens.html
Apps
- PBS Marthur Sticker Mashup
http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/marthursticker/ - Google Lit Trips
http://www.googlelittrips.org/ - Health Maps - maps, news reports, World health Organization data
http://www.healthmap.org/en/
Common Sense Media Resource
- Copyright & Fair Use