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National Park Service

Lesson 5: Coded Spirituals, Metaphor in African Spirituals

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
If a picture is worth a thousand words, song lyrics also can communicate many meanings. Using the lyrics of spirituals, young historians analyze them for coded messages about freedom. Resources include a chart to help individuals track...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Campaign Songs as Propaganda:Free Trade vs. Protectionism - In Whose Interest?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students analyze campaign messages about tariffs in a 19th-century campaign song. They read and discuss the lyrics, complete an analysis worksheet, and identify the intended audience of the song's message.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Great Depression: A Study Guide Through Song

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students take a closer look at the political and social outlook during the Great Depression. In this Great Depression instructional activity, students analyze selected songs from the time period. Students use the provided lyric...
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Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

The Freedom Riders and the Popular Music of the Civil Rights Movement

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s marched to its own beat—literally. Using songs from the era, as well as other primary sources such as King's "I Have a Dream" speech, class members analyze lyrics to discover how music and protest...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Character Development Through Song

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students use songs to analyze their sense of identity and self-worth. In groups, they discuss and explore their own character development and discover how far they have come in recent years. They also identify the positive and negative...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Music and Lyrics

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders analyze lyrics from songs from a variety of genres. In this musical analysis lesson, 8th graders write an essay about their life plans in which they discuss the lyrics of U2's song, "One." They tell how the writings of Dr....
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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Songwriting Skill - Choosing a Tone: Jordan Pruitt - “One Love”

For Teachers 5th - 10th
"Tone means attitude." Or so says this resource that uses Jordan Pruitt's "One Love" to model for songwriters how to develop an attitude in their lyrics. Class members engage in a number of exercises designed to give them direct and...
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Hold McDougal

Songwriting Skill - Finding Your Style: Elisa Victoria - “No Surprise”

For Teachers 5th - 10th
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...
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Lesson Plan
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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Songwriting Skill - Elaboration: Jesse McCartney - “How Do You Sleep?”

For Teachers 5th - 10th
The practice of developing lyrics by elaborating with sensory details and examples continues in the third lesson plan on songwriting. This time class members examine Jesse McCartney's "How Do You Sleep?" Using procedures established in...
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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...
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National Park Service

Lesson 2: Hope

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
There's hope in music. Pupils discover what gave enslaved people hope by examining lyrics and music during their time of bondage. A series of prompts helps individuals investigate songs of enslaved people. The cumulative assignment...
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Curated OER

Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
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...
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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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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"I Hear America Singing": Controversy and Music in the Mexican War

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders examine the Mexican War and its outcome through music. In this primary source analysis lesson, 8th graders analyze the lyrics of selected songs to consider the 2 perspectives regarding U.S. involvement in the war. Students...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

And You Don't Stop - 30 Years of Hip-Hop, Episode 2, Lesson 1

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students discuss Public Enemy's lyrics and compare and contrast them with songs popular during the Civil Rights Movement. They write their own rap song that expresses feelings of oppression or freedom from oppression.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
"People Everyday" offers class members an opportunity to develop their literacy analysis skills and to develop media literacy. Guided by an included list of discussion questions, groups examaine the word choice, literary devices used,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Getting Inside The Outsiders Through Music

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students listen to popular music of the 50's and 60's to make literature connections to The Outsiders. For this popular culture lesson, students evaluate and analyze various songs and connect them with the themes in the literature...
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Lesson Plan
Concordia College Archives

History and Musical Aesthetics

For Teachers K - 12th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetic Analysis

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students write a poetic analysis on a poem by Carl Sandburg. They take their previous knowledge of poetic devices and apply them to a piece of writing that displays their knowledge on a specific poem. They explain what they know about a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders discover the thematic connections between classical literary and popular song lyrics.  In this English activity, 11th graders research a specific topic to be presented to the class.  Students analyze song...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Civil War

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Historical poetry is lyrical in form and rich with content. After examining the differences between the Northern and Southern states before and during the U.S. Civil War, learners complete a Venn diagram and create an illustration of the...
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Lesson Plan
Tune Into English

America – West Side Story

For Teachers 8th - 12th
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...
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National Park Service

Lesson 4: Escape

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Some enslaved people decided to run for their liberation. Using lyrics of songs they sang, young historians look at these anthems of freedom. An assessment asks them to write the story of escape from the perspective of an enslaved...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rock and Poetry: A Thematic Project

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students explore poetry. In this literature lesson, students examine music and lyrics by Natalie Merchant in order to make the transition to analyzing poetry by Keats and Wordsworth.

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