History
There are seemingly endless possibilities for involving music from throughout history in lesson planning. For the sake of time, let's just look at a unit on the American Civil War.
- Pick some songs created/sung during the war to play for the class. Use songs written by a soldiers or a soldier's family member to cope with the effects of the war, to grieve, or to hold on to hope. Through music, students can learn individual stories/struggles of people involved; hopefully the Civil War can become more than a bunch of facts about battles. Check out this website for a plethora of mp3 downloads and info on Civil War songs.
- Have students answer a prompt addressing Robert E. Lee's quote, "I don't believe we can have an army without music." Ask students, "Why might have Lee thought this? Why do you think soldiers made music? Why do you listen to or perform music?" Help students see the ways that they might be similar to or different from the people of this period. Students might be surprised by the similarities and differences.
- Use song lyrics as documents for DBQs (Document Based Questions). Southerners during this period created many parodies of the well known song Yankee Doodle. Have your students compare and contrast the Northern and Southern versions. What do the songs show about differing opinions of the war?
- Play a song to introduce a novel. For a lesson on The Great Gatsby play the songs that you imagine might be played at one of Gatsby's parties. If the book has been made into a decent film, the soundtrack could be a useful resource to start your search.
- This article explains that many famous literary works (Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, etc) have inspired songs by popular artists (Pink Floyd, Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, etc). Use these songs for an introduction to a book, poem, or short story to form a connection between literature and songs students probably already know. It's all about the connections!
- Pass out a piece of sheet music. Teach students about whole, half, and quarter notes and how fractions relate to composing music. For more info on connections between music and math check out this website.
Great post! Love, love, love your tips for history! Very useful! I actually had a class in college on the Civil War and our professor would always play music as we came in to class and took our seats. Once class started, she would then use the music as a "hook" activity and connect it to what we were going to learn that day. And great advice for the DBQs. I personally was not very fond of them as a high school student, but I know the tip you give would have definitely helped intrigue me back then! Look forward to your next post! :)
ReplyDeleteThese incorporations of music into the lessons are so creative. I had never even thought that you could connect music to these classes in a non-aubible way. That just increases the trasnferability factor of music! Great ideas! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteOf course I focused on the math tips and loved your suggestions! Deciphering (and composing) music really is like working out a mathematical puzzle. I wonder though if students with no experience reading music would be at a significant disadvantage, or if students with a lot of music-reading experience wouldn't be challenged. Maybe not...maybe the most important thing is making the connection that math and music are the two most universal languages on the planet (and universe?)!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to the math and music website. This is one of those topics I always meant to explore in more detail ... and, now, I can :) I see connections to trigonometry already: graphing (or looking at an applet of, if you can't get the proper tools to measure) sinusoidal waves of sound! I also loved your suggestions for integrating music into other subjects. I remember when I was student teaching in 5th Grade, I played a clip of a friend singing the national anthem at a Duke basketball game. It led to a great discussion about what war was like and about the powerful feelings songs and other poetry can evoke. Music is a great discussion starter :)
ReplyDeleteJeannette, another great post! I particularly enjoyed the info about the soldiers (of course) and about Lee (you just taught me something about one of the most influential West Point grads/superintendents!). Thanks for the that. And thanks for inspiring,"Down with the Slope Form." Looking forward to the last blog next week. Tony
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