K20 LEARN
Watch Your Tone: Tone Analysis Through Music And Nonfiction
Identifying the tone of a piece of writing or the author's attitude toward the subject matter can be difficult for learners. Simplify the process with a lesson that begins with skits, moves to songs and their lyrics, and then to passages...
Concordia College Archives
History and Musical Aesthetics
What are the musical elements that characterize a school's fight song or its alma mater? Class members listen to examples of fight songs and alma maters from various schools, play a listening game, and then create a list of the...
Curated OER
Kodaly Beat Lesson
Introduce rhythmic beat and melodic beat with a upbeat activity that asks young musicians to clap the beat to their favorite nursery rhyme. To introduce the rest beat, class members use small drums or other percussion instruments to play...
Curated OER
Writing Lyrics
Students examine the themes and structure of a bluegrass song and identify the common themes in bluegrass music. They practice songwriting by rewriting the lyrics of "Oh! Susanna" as a bluegrass tune.
PBS
Breaking the Code: Actions and Songs of Protest
Ezell Blair, Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil changed history. Their sit-in at the lunch counter of the Woolworths in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960 became a model for the nonviolent protests that...
Curated OER
The Imagine Poetry & Mural Lesson
Readers of all ages can work together in groups to create original poetry on the theme of "Imagine," inspired by John Lennon's classic song. They also create a mural to illustrate their poetry. A beautiful lesson, inspired by a beautiful...
Curated OER
Rhythm and Improv, Jazz and Poetry
Connect the ideas of jazz improvisation and art to writing poetry. Learners collaborate and write different lines of poetry, imitating the jazz styles of improvisation and freewriting. Take a close look at the poems "Tenebrae" by Yusef...
Curated OER
Tradition through storytelling and music
Young scholars discover how storytelling can shape a person's tradition.Students examine different methods of storytelling such as music, biographies, and African folktales. They then demonstrate their knowledge of storytelling by...
Curated OER
The Music and Message of Lauryn Hill
Students explore the music of artist Lauryn Hill and analyze the way she uses her music in a socially responsible manner. In this music artist lesson, students read the lyrics to Hill's songs and listen to some example songs. Students...
Hold McDougal
Songwriting Skill - Finding Your Style: Elisa Victoria - “No Surprise”
Hip Hop? Country? Punk? R and B? So many styles. Young song writers consider the emotional effects of various style options before selecting the style best suited to the emotions they want to express in their song. The sixth in a...
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Learning English through Poems and Songs
Exposing learners to the power of words in poetry is a stimulating way to learn languages. Songs, haikus, rhyming words, and narrative works are all employed in a resource for teaching English as a Second Language.
Tune Into English
America – West Side Story
Anita's iconic rooftop ode to American life in West Side Story is the focus of a lesson on immigration. As class members listen to "America," they follow along with printed lyrics, and discuss whether they agree with Anita's...
Orlando Shakes
In the Heights: Study Guide
Before Hamilton, Lin Manuel-Miranda gained fame with In the Heights. A study guide prepares theater goers for a performance of the musical about a group of friends living in the New York City neighborhood of Washington Heights....
Curated OER
Learning Through Musical Theater
You don't have to be Richard Rodgers or Oscar Hammerstein to do produce a musical in your classroom.
Learn NC
Buffalo Soldiers
"Stolen from Africa, brought to America,/Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival." Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldiers" provides high schoolers an opportunity to explore the rich history of the Rastafarians in Jamaica and the Buffalo...
Curated OER
Poetry in Music
Sixth graders look at poetry in music. In this language arts lesson plan, 6th graders listen to and read the lyrics of songs to find the poetic aspects of them. They focus on similes and metaphors and write their own songs lyrics.
Curated OER
Rock & Roll through Literary Terms: An Upbeat Lyrical Adventure
Students participate in a variety of activities surrounding Rock & Roll music, lyrics, drama and visual art and how they all help demonstrate examples of literary terms. They use Rock & Roll as an effective aid to stimulate their...
Curated OER
Getting Inside The Outsiders Through Music
Young scholars listen to popular music of the 50's and 60's to make literature connections to The Outsiders. In this popular culture lesson, students evaluate and analyze various songs and connect them with the themes in the literature...
Curated OER
Song Writing
Students write an original song using music composition software such as Music Time. By doing this, students identify another use for the computer besides word processing and games.
Curated OER
Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum
Henry David Thoreau and Linda Ronstadt? Ann Tyler and Pete Townshend? Joyce Carol Oates and Pearl Jam? This richly detailed plan pairs classic literature with contemporary music and asks learners to analyze how the theme of conformity is...
Curated OER
Lyric Poetry Lesson
Students synthesize the "textbook" definition of lyric poetry and discuss various forms (love lyric, complaint lyric, loss lyric, satiric lyric). They discover the relationship of poetry to musical selections.
Smithsonian Institution
The Vocal Blues: Created in the Deep South of the U.S.
Bring the sounds of the deep South vocal blues to the classroom with a Smithsonian Folkways lesson. In preparation, scholars listen to and count the 12 bar blues patterns in several works and identify the I, II, IV, and V chords as well...
British Council
Love Poems
Language learners write down the words to a song as they listen to it. They then work in groups to write a love poem using the words and phrases they wrote from the song. As a culminating activity, scholars read their poems to the class.
Computer Science Unplugged
The Intelligent Piece of Paper
How smart is that piece of paper? The activity introduces the idea of computer programming as a list of instructions written by computer programmers. Two individuals play a game of Tic-Tac-Toe in which one follows the commands...