San Francisco Symphony
Lesson Ideas for Any Music
Music is a wonderful tool you can add to enhance the learning process for every subject. Here is a list of music selections that are categorized by subject, along with some neat teaching suggestions. You'll find songs suited to...
Curated OER
Cajun Music: the Voice of the Cajun Family
Students use the Cajuns and their music to engage an interest in and study French. They examine the Cajuns, their customs, work, leisure time, food, and how their music unites them as an ethnic group, with emphasis on the family.
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Rock
Students play "Fly Away" and "All Along the Watchtower" and then use different voicings of guitar chords and compare them.
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Willie Nelson: All Together Now!
Young scholars recite Willie Nelson's lyrics in one voice and then analyze their tone and vocabulary usage. They research Willie Nelson's history and dramatize the song: "On the Road Again."
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Music Video
Students explore songs that tell stories over various decades and create a Garage band track for their voice. In this story song lesson, students create a video for their song group. Students present a proposal to their teachers for...
Curated OER
Creating Music
Learners explore the music soldiers listen to before and after battle. They attempt to develop an understanding of the role music plays in this conflict. They create their own lyrics to attempt to construct a pro-war and anti-war song.
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DIGITAL WATERWORKS
Students add digitally-produced, water sound effects to a song, using electronic keyboards.
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Historical Comparison of Anti-War Music
Students explain that, how in this world of increasing awareness and interdependence, music can act as a magnet to draw people together. They research and compare anti-war songs from many different generations.
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INTUITION
Learners explore the concepts of intuition, insight, imagination and the reasons not to ignore it, but to enhance it in one's lifestyle. In doing this, one increases the ability to draw deeper meaning from art, poetry and symbolism. In...
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Harriet Tubman Integrated Unit: Lesson 3
Learners explore African spirituals. In this slavery lesson, students listen to and analyze the spiritual song "Wade in the Water" line by line. Learners share their interpretations with their classmates.
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THE PEN VS. THE SWORD: LYRICAL RESPONSES TO A NATION AT WAR
Students brainstorm lists of songs that were written in response to American wars; consider the patterns in the lists they create.
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A Poetic Finale
Young scholars write a poetic response to the Holocaust as a culminating activity to a unit on the Holocaust. They listen to and discuss a rap song about the Holocaust, complete various handouts, and write a poem for future generations.
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Doggie, Doggie Where's Your Bone?
Students practice matching pitch. In this lesson on vocal pitch, students sing a silly song that requires them to match their pitch. This song/game also provides a harmless way to get students to sing solos.
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Once Upon a Time: Writing Stories about Reading
Students read a New York Times article to examine strong first person voice in essays about reading. They write their own first person essays about some aspect of reading, participate in peer review, and re-writing.
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Moving and Grooving with Tempo: Diversity of Learners Adaptation
Young scholars with logical/mathematical intelligence keep count of the tempo of each song and of the number of different movements that they can create to go with the folk songs heard.
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Africa: Small Sounds From a Big Country
Students explore the music from Burundi, Zimbabwe, and Pygmy cultures. They listen to and discuss music from the African cultures, analyze the musical elements, write a song, and perform music.
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Creative Writing
High schoolers determine what grammar is and how they have learned it. In this creative writing lesson, students read "Style' Gets New Elements," and respond to the discussion questions. High schoolers then present grammatical rules to...
Curated OER
Music Around the State: Sound and Place
Students identify and interpret the styles and elements of music in three major folk regions of Louisiana within specific traditional music genres. Then they hear the diversity of music in the state and identify the major genres of...
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Rhyming With Ramon
Students examine healthy behaviors to avoid the flu. They repeat words that rhyme, sing a song, and repeat a chant and act out the verses to reinforce healthy behaviors to avoid the flu.
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Freedom
Students brainstorm a list of the freedoms they have living in the United States. In groups, they compare and contrast these freedoms with those of their home country. After completeing a worksheet, they examine lyrics to songs to...
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Courageous Voices that Shook the Nation to Action
Pupils study Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. In this Martin Luther King, Jr. day lesson, students learn about the holiday for Dr. King through literature and music. Pupils learn the lyrics to Stevie Wonder's 'Happy Birthday' about Dr....
Curated OER
Raising Voices: World War II in a Song
Twelfth graders discover the different ways Canada and Quebec participated in World War II. They then analyze the repercussions of the war on Quebec. Students complete three knowledge outcomes: Knowledge of facts, ( Canada's...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Songwriting Skill - Choosing a Tone: Jordan Pruitt - “One Love”
"Tone means attitude." Or so says this resource that uses Jordan Pruitt's "One Love" to model for songwriters how to develop an attitude in their lyrics. Class members engage in a number of exercises designed to give them direct and...