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Movement And Rhythm In Modern Art
Students gather around the three selected paintings. The teacher guide students in looking at different elements of the paintings and help students make the connections between the visual art and movement skills.
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Sondheim: Secret Metaphors
Students explore the work of Stephen Sondheim. In this musical theater lesson, students examine the musicals Merrily We Roll Along and Sunday in the Park with George. Students identify and anaylze linear and...
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Create a Composition
Students select an instrument and create a musical composition. In this musical composition lesson, students invent an original piece of music that is 16 measures long. Students hum and record their pieces.
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Improvising in the Birthplace of Jazz
Students recognize significant developments in New Orleans jazz music. They improvise blues licks using notes from a minor pentatonic scale.
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Listen Up! Swinging with some Big Band Music
Students read about the music and life of Glenn Miller. They listen to Miller's "Jeep Jockey Jump" and analyze the piece for instrumentation, formal structure and stylistic characteristics.
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A Chorus For Us
Students examine "serious" choral music written for student choirs and the composers who write it. They reflect upon the notion of "serious" music, and examine the trend of concert composers writing pieces for student chorus
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Back to the Classics
Students closely examine chamber music as it has changed from the Middle Ages to today. They work in small groups to research the composers, instruments and typical presentation in 5 time periods. They write biographies and share their...
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"Mambo" from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein
Students encounter and study "Mambo" from "West Side Story," by Leonard Bernstein. They practice utilizing musical elements (instrumentation, tempo, and dynamics) to create a certain mood for a scene with music. Each student interprets...
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Rhythm & Improv: Jazz & Poetry
High schoolers analyze the elements of poetry and jazz. In this critical thinking skills lesson, students take a closer look at the rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, form, free verse, lyricism, and imagery that exist is jazz as well as...
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Fan(tom) of the Opera
Students explore the ways in which the worlds of popular music and opera can work together to complement the other. They work in small groups to analyze plot, characters, setting and themes of a popular opera using a summary of that...
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Our Own Water Music
Students listen to a portion of Handel's Water Music Suite and hypothesize about what would happen if you tapped on the edge of a glass with varying levels of water. They experiment with the glasses and, in small groups, compose their...
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Jazz Talk
Students analyze the origins of jazz music by examining work songs, spirituals, blues, and gospel songs as well as works of poetry from African American artists. They create their own poems from either the narrative, dramatic, or lyric...
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Pop on the Block
Students consider what makes a movie, television show, musical talent, or artist a cult classic and create descriptive lists of items from these phenomena that may be sold at auction.
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"ART ZOO 'Blacks in the Westward Movement', 'What Can You Do with a Portrait', and 'Of Beetles, Worms, and Leaves of Grass'"
Students study black history, examine portraits and portrait making and create their own portraits, and investigate their natural environment. This humanities lesson provides a text that can be used to teach lessons in black...
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Habari Gani: What is the News?
Display creative works of art after learning about Kwanzaa. Kindergartners hear stories about the history of Kwanzaa and its celebrations. They then create artwork, practice African dances and listen to African music.
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Itsy Bitsy Spider & His 2 Friends: Music, Pitch, High and Low Notes
Students gain practice with high and low notes when singing an adaptation of the 'Itsy Bitsy Spider".
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The Last Meow
Students explore the popular culture phenomenon of the musical 'Cats' and the T.S. Eliot poems that were its inspiration. They write original poems about animals, and read them aloud to their peers.
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Poetry for the Common Good
Learners identify examples of philanthropy in poetry or song. In this philanthropy instructional activity, students examine several poems such as Give by Carrie A. Thomas and identify concepts of philanthropy in the poem. Learners...
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Lesson Plan for Korea: P'ansori
Twelfth graders read different versions of P'ansori in an attempt to gain exposure to this form of literature. They gain information in order to help understand the context of how they are part of the Korean culture.
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Graffiti Project
Students inspect performing arts by participating in a class presentation. In this art collage lesson, students examine the graffiti art created on New York subways and discuss the life of Keith Haring. Students create their own images...
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Smithsonian Jazz Class: Ella Fitzgerald
Young scholars play "Ella's Match Game" to learn an overview of Fitzgerald's life and career. In this Ella Fitzgerald lesson plan, students listen to excerpts of Fitzgerald's music and respond by creating writing prompts.
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Other Poetic Types
Rather than a lesson, this resource is a list of poetic forms and young poets are encouraged to try their hand at composing poems of various types.
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Unscramble the Letters - Music Terms
Students receive a worksheet on music terms. As a class, they unscramble a couple before attempt them on their own. They then write the meaning of each to research the meaning of the musical terms.
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THE FLOW OF MUSIC AND POETRY
Learners describe their feelings through writing, art or music.