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Curated OER

Building Canons on Pachelbel's Canon in D

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Students demonstrate the structure of a canon by composing melodies and variations over Pachelbel's Theme from the Canon in D. Requires a networked keyboard lab and computers.
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Overture to 'William Tell' by Gioacchino Rossini

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students create an awareness of how music creates a setting in a story or legend. They identify the instrumentation, dynamics and tempo used to create various settings for a musical story. They perform rhythmic patterns from listening...
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Curated OER

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students improvise then compose and notate melodies with appropriate accompaniments that are inspired by events that transpired during their summer vacations. Requires a networked keyboard lab.
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Can You Hear a Story?

For Teachers 2nd - 6th
Learners listen to, analyze, and describe music. They explain relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
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Rhythm Stars

For Teachers K - 1st
Students listen, clap, compose and identify various rhythms.  In this rhythm lesson plan, students practice rhythm with rhythm cards.  Students become familiar with stick notation. Students glue Popsicle sticks to illustrate...
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Storytellers: Bruce Springsteen

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students use the music of Bruce Springsteen to learn literature techniques.
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Night on Bald Mountain

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students use appropriate terms to reflect a working knowledge of the musical elements. Then they use terminology from music and other arts to analyze and compare the structures of musical and other artistic and literary works. Students...
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Dance: Personal Soundtracks

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students create a musical autobiography. In this fine arts activity, students explore the emotions that music can express by listening to and discussing a variety of music. Students construct a personal timeline and a collection of music...
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The Nutcracker

For Teachers 1st
First graders define a ballet as a story told through dance. They listen to melodies and demonstrate beat and accent through body movement. They watch the ballet.
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Song Writing

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Learners 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.
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Low Brass: Tibet, Switzerland and Haiti

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students identify sounds played on instruments from around the world. In this music lesson, students listen to music played on various low brass instruments from Tibet, Switzerland and Haiti to determine the differences in pitch...
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The Bolero

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students discuss the structure of the musical film "The Bolero."  In this film arts lesson, students watch "The Bolero" before participating in discussion questions and watching a second performance of the same musical. ...
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James Brown: Life and Times

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students trace James Brown's rise from "Little Junior" in Depression-era Augusta, Georgia, to the "Minister of the New Super Heavy Funk" and create a collage that captures his impact on American music.
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iRock

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students explore, listen to and analyze songs that helped define rock and roll music. They read and discuss the article, "They're All Oldies, Dad Included." Research on contemporary artists is conducted and then the students choose who...
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Curated OER

Passing Down Family History Through Oral Tradition: Corridos

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners create and perform Corridos which are oral tradition ballads. In this Passing Down Family History Through Oral Tradition lesson plan, students interview family members using a predetermined list of questions. In addition,...
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Different! Diverse! Dynamic! Lesson 2: Teaching Peace Through Literature And Song

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young scholars investigate bullying and discrimination and draw pictures of a personal response to being bullied. They read Thank You, Mr. Falkner by Patricia Polacco, to determine the philosophic act that the main character performs....
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Puttin' On the Hits

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students explore "summer songs." They compose a list of songs that they would put on a summer CD and write an essay that explains the images they would choose for the cover for this CD. They also create collages that represent their...
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Aaliyah Biography

For Teachers 5th - 6th
In this biographical reading / writing worksheet about the singer Aaliyah, students first read a one page biographical essay. Students then compose 11 short answer responses to the following questions.
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The Monkey Dance: Exploring Balinese Culture

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students explore Balinese culture. In this Balinese integrated fine arts instructional activity, students listen to a podcast of "The Monkey Dance," taking notes about important features of the dance. Students participate in a jigsaw...
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Unionized We Stand

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students compose a statement of basic rights to protect their own health and well-being. They research the history, power and purpose of unions in the United States before creating their own union to promote the interests of students.
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Music in West Africa

For Teachers 1st - 4th
Learners listen to music at a designated website. They demonstrate how to make musical sounds with symbols and create their own musical composition. From activities on the website, students begin to train their ear to hear pitches and...
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Introduction to Technologies in Music Education

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers identify and define a canon. Then, they create a canon in as many parts as they can and describe the various canons. Students also identify and interpret history of canons that includes their origins in Italy and France,...
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VH1 Storytellers for Save the Music Starring Billy Joel

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars use a Billy Joel song to write a scenerio about it.
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Contrast Listening

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners listen to two different excerpts of the same music piece. In groups, they collectively write descriptions of the tempo and dynamics of the piece and assign a color to the music. They relate the color chosen to the tempo and...