Learning to Give, Curriculum Division of The LEAGUE
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Purpose:
Duration:
One Forty-Minute Period and Optional Field Trip
Objectives:
The learners will:
- explain how music can motivate and move its listeners to take action.
- describe how sharing his/her musical talents is a form of philanthropy in the community.
Service Experience:
Students will perform for a local community group as a philanthropic event.
Materials:
- Paper and pencil for list making
- Piano for performance
- Tape /CD Player for accompaniment tapes and/or CDs
- Musical instruments and music
- Permission slips
- Transportation request form
- Roster of students attending field trip
Instructional Procedure(s):
Anticipatory Set:
Ask students to remember the first day of the unit when they heard the song “We Shall Overcome” playing in the background as they entered the room. Ask them to share with each other their thoughts and feelings as a piece of music was used to focus their attention on something important.
- Identify an appropriate need in the neighborhood or local community whereby music can play a role. Let students discuss if they can share their musical talents to motivate or help individuals in the community. Would this be an act of philanthropy in any way? Why or why not? Ask students to list any individual or group musical talents they possess. Can anyone perform a prepared piano solo, vocal solo, choreographed dance, poem, or any other talent they can share? Compile a list of students and their talents in the form of a short program based on the music and philanthropists of the Civil Rights Era. Songs of the Era could be interspersed with information learned in Lesson One: Introduction to Music of the Civil Rights Era or quotations from Civil Rights leaders. (See www.learningtogive.org, Quotation Search Engine for quotations.)
Ask the students to brainstorm a list of individuals or community groups that would benefit in some way from a musical presentation. How is sharing their talents an example of a benefit for the common good? What results would students like to achieve by performing for others?
- Teacher Notes:
- When students have decided for whom and where they would like to perform, obtain permission from the school administration and make arrangements directly with the location the students have selected.
- If your principal does not want the class to leave the school building, ask if you may invite a community group to the school. In either case, arrangements for transportation will have to be made. The performance could also be done in school for other students.
- Make sure you call the day prior to your field trip to reconfirm your times and destination.
- Obtain parent volunteers to chaperone. Contact the parents personally to confirm all details of the trip. Tell the chaperones exactly what your expectations are for their supervisory responsibilities.
- Permission slips must be provided, signed by parent or guardian, and returned prior to the field trip. Tell students they will not be allowed to board the bus without a permission slip.
- A list of all excused students, attending this field trip, should be sent to all teachers at least two weeks in advance.
- Rehearse your program in the order it will be performed. Well-rehearsed and organized groups will feel successful and secure about their performance.
- Review concert and performance etiquette with your students. Describe the procedures and the importance of sensitivity to the people with whom students are working.
- Make sure students are quiet and polite upon arrival to your destination. When the performance is over, thank your host for allowing the students to share their talents. Leave in the same quiet and polite manner you arrived.
- Inform the school office that students have returned from the field trip. Keep your principal informed of the events of the day.
- When students have decided for whom and where they would like to perform, obtain permission from the school administration and make arrangements directly with the location the students have selected.
Assessment:
The assessment for this lesson will be the effectiveness of the performance. Ask student performers how their music may have motivated and affected the moods of their listeners. Do they feel that they contributed in some way to the good of the community by their performances?
School/Home Connection:
Your parent chaperone volunteers will be the school/home connection.
Extension:
Teacher Note: Permission from the local community(s) must be secured before beginning this project.
There is a companion unit (English Language Arts and Social Studies) coordinating this project available at www.learningtogive.org, Teaching Materials, 6-8 Grades, “Cultural Pluralism in Young Adult Literature: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.”
Students will be offered the opportunity to work with a neighboring school or district on a project to “Bridge the Gap” between communities. Students will have the opportunity to illustrate what diversity looks like to them. Students will draw and color what diversity looks like to them on one large piece of paper (approximately three feet by three feet). Students will then take a Saturday, work with local artists, and transfer their work to a sidewalk square on the bridge or street that separates the two communities. Students (and local artists from the communities) from both schools should meet on the bridge or street block to transfer and paint their illustrations. Students will write local businesses for donations, paint, and advertisements. Money will be raised for billboards in both communities advertising the project. There will be a dedication ceremony featuring students singing freedom songs, dance and readings. The students will have a hands-on experience of how “music motivates.” The students should begin their work in the middle of the bridge or street block and work their way out so there can be an addition for consecutive years. In the future, there could be two interlocking pieces of sculpture, one placed on one side of the bridge or street, the other on the opposite side facing each other, or reaching out to the other.Getting the students to work together with others of different races and backgrounds will be the first step toward bridging the gap between the communities.
Bibliographical References:
The following Web sites may be found on the Internet:
- “Music and Language.” Chris Dobrian, 1992. Go to: http://www.arts.uci.edu/ and type in “dobrian chris.” Click on “Music and Language.”
- “The Effects of Music on the Mind: Beyond Soothing the Savage Beast.” Kristian David Olson, Feb. 22, 1996. http://www.bobjanuary.com/musicmnd.htm [no longer available]
- “Music and How It Affects Our Lives.” ENERGYPowr http://wiseoracle.com/oasis/August99/Pjac899.html [no longer available]
- Goldman, Peter. Civil Rights: The Challenge of the Fourteenth Amendment. New York: Conrad-McCann, Inc., 1970. ISBN: 0698200241
- Steiner, Rudolph and Eileen J. Southern. Music of Black Americans: A History, 3rd Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1997. ISBN: 0393971414
Lesson Developed and Piloted by:
Elizabeth WrightSt. Joseph Public Schools
Upton Middle School
St. Joseph, MI 49085
Handouts:
Unit Contents:
Overview:Music of the Civil Rights Era, 1954-1968 Summary
Lessons:
- 1.
- Introduction to Music of the Civil Rights Era
- 2.
- Music Motivates
- 3.
- Written Report How Music Motivates
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