Lesson Plan
PBS

Breaking the Code: Actions and Songs of Protest

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
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...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

End of Unit Assessment: Making Connections between Song Lyrics and Texts

For Teachers 8th Standards
For the end-of-unit assessment, scholars engage in small group Socratic seminars to connect the lyrics of two songs to texts they read and studied. They discuss how the songs "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around" and "Lift Every Voice...
Worksheet
Moore Public Schools

Lyric Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Discover lyric poetry through a reading of Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar and analyze its meaning with three short-answer questions covering symbolism, personification, alliteration, metaphors, and similes. 
Lesson Plan
EBSCO Industries

Music and Poetry

For Teachers 8th - 10th Standards
Song lyrics, like poems, are meant to be heard. After examining the literary devices in several poems, scholars examine the lyrics of popular songs and identify the sound devices and the figurative language writers use to create the...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Final Performance Task: Presentation of Photograph and Song Selections

For Teachers 8th Standards
The presentation is the thing. Learners combine all their skills by creating a pitch for their films about the Little Rock Nine. They explain to classmates why they selected the images and songs using self-created prompt cards. The end...
Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

Teach This Poem: "In cold spring air" by Reginald Gibbons

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Reginald Gibbons' poem "In cold spring air" provides learners with a chance to develop their noticing skills. As a warm-up, class members watch Paul McCartney's video singing "Blackbird" and note words and phrases that stand out. They...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Magical Musical Tour: Using Music Lyrics to Teach Literary Elements

For Teachers 8th - 11th Standards
While music lyrics are often used to teach literary elements, the richness of this resource comes from the wealth of exercises, activities, and support materials provided in the packet.  Although designed for gifted learners, the...
Interactive1:45
Scholastic

Study Jams! Properties of Addition

For Students 1st - 3rd Standards
Zoe from the StudyJams! crew brings the properties of addition to life by clearly explaining the meaning of the associative, commutative, and identity properties as she collects photos for an album. Listen to the included karaoke song...
Lesson Plan
Prestwick House

The Poetry of Bob Dylan

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Bob Dylan's selection as the 2016 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first songwriter ever to receive the honor, has focused the attention of a new generation on the work of the legendary artist. Class members...
Lesson Plan
Azar Grammar

Song Lessons: You Gotta Be

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Des'ree's song "You Gotta Be" is used to model for language learners the forms that can be used to express necessity (must, have to, have got to). After examining the grammar in the song, the attention switches to a discussion of the...
Lesson Plan
Azar Grammar

Song Lessons: Never, My Love

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Here's a clever way to introduce language learners to noun clauses. After a brief exercise that provides examples of different types of noun clauses, class members listen to the Association's "Never, My Love" and identify the clauses in...
Lesson Plan
Azar Grammar

Song Lessons: What a Wonderful World

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Here's a wonderful way to learn English grammar. Class members examine the plural count nouns in Thiele and Weiss's "What a Wonderful World," reading the lyrics as they listen to Louis Armstrong's version of this classic song.
Lesson Plan
Literacy Design Collaborative

Catching a Grenade: How Word Choice Impacts Meaning and Tone

For Students 8th Standards
Beyonce's "Halo" and Bruno Mars' "Grenade" provide eighth graders with an opportunity to consider how a writer's choice of words can create a very different tone even when the subject is the same. After a close reading of both lyrics,...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Hidden Messages in Spirituals

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Slaves laboring in the cotton fields of the old South singing joyously may have convinced overseers that their workforce was happy and content, but in truth, these spirituals contained secret codes. After viewing a short video about...
Lesson Plan
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Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Yankee Doodle: How Has It Changed over Time?

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Grab your feathers and your hat! And perhaps some macaroni! It's time to investigate the evolution of "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Groups do a close reading of sheet music covers, lyrics, and even YouTube videos to see how this political song...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Myth of the West: Lonely But Free I’ll Be Found

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Tumbling tumbleweeds! Scholars work with video clips, primary and secondary documents, and song lyrics to uncover life in the Old West. They examine song's lyrics to uncover myths told in the 1930s about life in the Wild West. 
Unit Plan
Johnny Mercer Foundation

Project-Based Songwriting

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Project-based learning in a music theory class? Take note. Young songwriters compose, record, copyright, and promote their original songs. They even design their own CD cover.
Lesson Plan
Missouri Department of Elementary

Express Yourself!

For Teachers 1st Standards
Encourage scholars to express themselves with help from an engaging song. Sung to the tune of "London Bridge is Falling Down," participants sing phrases that offer tips for dealing with emotions—sad, happy, worried, proud, mad, and...
Lesson Plan
Texas Education Agency (TEA)

The FFA Creed and Song

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners memorize the first sentence in each paragraph of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) creed. Once memorized, they complete a worksheet on the FFA creed before reciting the lyrics in rap form. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Parrot in the Oven: Instructional Routine

For Teachers 6th - 9th
After reading "The Bullet," a particularly intense chapter in Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, class members listen to the Spanish and the English versions of "Dimelo" by Enrique Iglesias. They then discuss how the...
Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Poetic Devices

For Teachers 7th Standards
Introduce middle schoolers to poetic devices with a lesson that asks them to find examples of alliteration, anaphora, onomatopoeia, metaphors, similes, and personification in various poems. Young scholars craft examples of these poetic...
Lesson Plan
Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford

Similes Activity using Jazz (featuring Duke Ellington)

For Students 4th
Language learners get into the swing of things with a jazzy lesson about similes. They read an article about Duke Ellington, listen to samples of his music, and then try their hand at crafting similes to describe his improvisational and...
Lesson Plan
Learn NC

Buffalo Soldiers

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
"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...
Lesson Plan
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Science 4 Inquiry

Rocks Makin' Rocks: Rock Cycle Simulation

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Scholars review prior knowledge before completing a hands-on simulation of the rock cycle. They write stories or songs summarizing their simulations to demonstrate mastery.

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