Curated OER
Compare and Contrast Poems vs. Lyrics
Combine your pupils' love of music with their growing knowledge of poetry! First, have them bring in their favorite songs for a discussion on word choice and literary devices. Then, use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the...
Curated OER
The Age of Sailing Songs
Students explore various genres of spoken and written expression. While considering the era of the shipyard and sailing, students describe and document a favorite ship, captain, crew, or life of a sailor. Using this information, they...
Curated OER
Lesson 2 - Music: A Uniting Force?
Students gain an understanding of the role music plays during a crisis such as wartime. They discuss emotions associated with war and how music connects with these feelings.
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International Music Convention
Students examine culture and music of specified areas. They conduct research and design a booth for a chosen culture. With researched information, students decorate a poster, create an informational packet, and locate examples of music.
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VH1 Legends Sam Cooke Lesson 2
Young scholars examine the reasons and controversy regarding Sam Cooke's transition from gospel to pop.
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200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons
Young scholars define the term "exoticism" and identify musical elements used by 19th and 20th century composers and modern pop icons to convey exoticism.
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ABBA - Lesson 4
Students discover a connection between the genres of popular music and musical theater. They find and discuss musicals written in many different musical styles.
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Gospel Beginnings - Lesson 1
Students identify genres of music that influenced musical style of Aretha Franklin. They identify musical characteristics of gospel and sing a gospel selection. They pay particular attention to the call and response style.
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Boosting Rap's Rep
Students consider the negative image that some have of rap and hip-hop music through discussion and reading an opinion piece from The New York Times. They create CD cover artwork reflecting these messages.
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Bob Marley - Legend Episode #3 - Lesson 4
Students analyze and describe Reggae music using correct musical terms to discuss tonality, instrumentation, meter and tempo. They experiment with singing and dancing to Reggae music in a style appropriate to the genre.
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Listening Task: Merengue and Calypso
In this merengue and calypso listening activity worksheet, students listen to samples of each genre of music and respond to 11 short answer questions.
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Music Education, Playing the Blues
This lesson enables learners to gain a broader awareness of the basic blues scale and the harmonic structure of the standard blues progression. Students will be given introductory exercises on blues improvisation and will also...
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The Beat of the Blues
This lesson plan focuses on how students can learn basic blues percussion patterns by considering the polyrhythms of African drumming and investigating how and why such drums were banned during slavery. Students will listen to several...
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VH1 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons Lesson 2
Students compare two versions of song done as an original and as a cover. They attempt to arrange a pop song to show a different musical style.
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Music: Individual and Group Practice
Third graders, in groups and individually, perform various musical pieces on their instruments. After demonstrating how to play steady beats, they also play counter melodies to songs such as "Peace Like a River." While some students...
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VH1 And You Don't Stop - 30 Years of Hip-Hop
Learners examine the origin and elements of Hip Hop music and the associated culture. They visit websites and listen to examples of the music.
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My Way
Students culminate a humanities project by improvising music to accompany a video of a particular era in US history.
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Performance Evaluation
Young scholars evaluate in class performance of music previously prepared by the ensemble. The rubric and assessment criteria are adaptable to any orchestra setting which allows the teacher to choose music to be assessed. Critical...
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The Collaborative Works of Rodgers and Hammerstein: Show Business
Pupils study the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein in an historical context of the development of American musical theatre as an art form. Students explore "roots" of the genre as it evolves in last half of the 19th and first two decades...
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Sheryl Crow and Willie Nelson - Lesson 1
Appeal to your music lovers with this activity. Middle and high schoolers listen to and describe music from contrasting styles. They identify the common elements between gospel and bluegrass music and have a class discussion regarding...
San Francisco Symphony
The 20% of Beethoven
Compare Beethoven's fifth symphony to latin music and disco. Learners will listen to and discuss the elements found in the first part of Beethoven's composition. They'll then look for the same elements in Tito Puente and Bee Gees songs....
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VH1 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons Lesson 2
Young scholars discuss pop culture, pop culture icons, and female composers.
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In My Dream
Students listen to recordings of early jazz and identify examples of ostinato and syncopation. They discuss important personalities from jazz cultures and take a quiz on aspects of jazz.
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"Disco Sucks!"
Students examine why disco and other forms of music were not widely accepted.