Lesson Topics: defamation, the Streisand Effect, free speech
Skill Focus: Speaking, Vocabulary, Listening, Writing
Approximate Class Time: 1.5 hours
Lesson Plan Download: afroman-police-raid-advanced-lesson-042026.docx
Lesson Overview:
- Students first warm up with questions about authority and police.
- After a short foreword on the Streisand Effect, students watch a 2:21-minute video about an American musician named Afroman's court case against Ohio police officers. Summary: Police raid Afroman's house to search for drugs, but find none. In their search, they damage Afroman's home. Afroman later creates a music video entitled "Lemon Pound Cake", using footage from his surveillance cameras. The officers then sue Afroman for defamation, arguing that the video's popularity negatively impacts them. Afroman wins the case, which is seen as a victory for free speech.
- The video is followed by comprehension questions.
- Next, students review phrases from the video and match key vocabulary to definitions. Once complete, students use some of the new vocabulary to complete discussion questions.
- The debate prompt features a topic about trying to hide negative information from the public.
- As a discussion activity, students review five scenarios and decide if they constitute defamation or not.
- After two famous quotations, students then review vocabulary and the lesson's collocations.
- Finally, the lesson ends with a few final discussion questions.
ADVANCED (C1/C2) Lesson on Afroman & The Streisand Effect
Warm-up Questions
- Have you ever been treated unfairly by someone in a position of power? What happened?
- Can you think of an example of an artist or musician who used their work to protest or criticize something?
- In general, do you trust the police?
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This lesson plan was created by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. Claude was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.
Comprehension questions:
1) …
2) Police had a warrant to search his home on suspicion of drug trafficking and kidnapping.
3) He released an album and music videos using his home surveillance footage of the raid, mocking the officers involved.
4) The officers claimed that Afroman's videos violated their rights and had caused them humiliation, damage to their reputations, and emotional distress. One deputy broke down crying when the music video was played in full during the trial, presumably because it was embarrassing and painful to watch himself being mocked in a public courtroom.
5) The officers wanted the videos removed, but by suing Afroman they drew far more attention to the videos and to their own conduct than if they had done nothing — the opposite of what they intended.
6) By wearing an American flag suit, Afroman was aligning himself with the values of free speech and patriotism, framing his case as a defence of fundamental American rights rather than simply a personal dispute.
7) …
Vocabulary answer key: 1-h, 2-c, 3-k, 4-d, 5-g, 6-j, 7-i, 8-f, 9-b, 10-e, 11-a
Collocations: 1-g, 2-a, 3-h, 4-e, 5-b, 6-d, 7-c, 8-f
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
Loving these lessons and the topical nature of them. I wonder if some more complex vocabulary could be included for some of the higher levels, especially at C1-C2? Thanks again!
Hi Will. Thanks for the feedback. I generally use the EVP (English Vocabulary Profile) for level, and I generally aim to select a few C1 words, with the rest being high-frequency C2. I’ll keep your comment in mind for future lessons.