Date: 10.6.09                                                                          Teacher: Sarah Cram
Grade: 7th grade                                                                     Subject Area: Music
Time Needed:20 minutes                                                       Theme: Community

Standards:
Content Standards for Music (5-8)
Standard A4: Students will be able to sing music in two or three parts
Standard H3: Describe how the principles and subject matter of other school disciplines interrelate with those of music.

Materials:
·         Youtube video of Happiness Runs commercial (duration: 0:32)
·         Recording of Donovan’s version of Happiness Runs (starting at 0:55)
·         Objectives slip for each student
·         Printed up version of “my” “Happiness Runs”
·         Notebook paper and pencil (which they will have provided)
·         Laptop
·         Projector
·         Speakers
 
Rationale:
            This song, with the lyrics that I learned as a child, is a great way to begin or continue talking about community and how we can work towards a happier tomorrow.  This conversation is especially important in a middle school classroom because of the never-ending drama and the hurtful words and actions that they use on one another.
            This song is also a great way for students to practice singing rounds and getting used to hearing other parts blend with the part they are singing, even if the words are different.

Background:
·         This song was written by Donovan Leitch, a singer/songwriter in Scotland that was popular in the 1960’s
·         Donovan was compared to Bob Dylan
·         He was known for his style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic, and world music
·         He taught John Lennon and Paul McCartney the finger picking style in 1968
·         “Happiness Runs” was covered by Mary Hopkin in her 1969 debut album produced by Paul McCartney
·         Personal background with song:
o   Grew up singing this song at a camp I went to
o   We loved singing it because it is catchy, but also has a very good message
o   We sing the words a little different and the way we sing has a stronger meaning, especially for younger children

Objectives:
·         Students will list, in smaller groups, at least three ideas of what the message that Donovan (and my lyrics) are trying to get across with this
·         Students will be able to identify the three different sections of the song and perform each section by memory.
·         Students will be able to perform the song as a round where a small group of students will be singing each of the three parts
·         Students will create at least five ways, as a class, to become a stronger community using the ideas brought up in this song and how it is presented

Lesson Opening:
 This lesson will begin with the music video of the Cheerios commercial that the song was used for.  After presenting this commercial, I will ask if students remember it, and then will go directly into the main theme of the song written by Donovan with the words up on the board.

Body:
1.      After students have listened to a portion of the song, we will break into small groups and will come up with their lists of what Donovan is trying to say in this song.
2.      Afterwards, I will sing my version of the song and ask students to tap along and while they are tapping, to listen for when the sections change while following along with the lyrics.
3.      I will then introduce the first section, which has the most words after taking away the transparency.  I will sing it once again and ask the students to tap along.
4.      We will then speak the lyrics for the first round in an echo (me first, students next)
5.      Then we will do fill-in-the-blank speaking, where students will fill in the last word, then the last few words of each line.
6.      We will then fill in the blank with singing in this section.
7.      After fill in the blank singing, we will all sing this section together.
8.      Finally, with this section, students will sing it alone, first while I lip the words, and then alone.
9.      The other sections are simpler, so they will only include an echo singing, together singing, and then students singing them alone.
10.  After all three sections have been taught, we will put the whole song together as a whole class.
11.  The groups that the students were in previously will then count off “1,2,3” and find the students with their same number.
12.  The first way we will sing this round is that one group will start with the first section, and the other two groups will be silent.  When the first group finishes the first section and moves on to the second section, the second group will come in with the first section and so on.  Each group will sing the entire song twice.  Once they are finished with singing the song twice, they will quit singing, so that in the end, only the third group is singing the last section of the song.

Closure:
  After singing the song successfully, the students will be asked to sit in a circle and share those principal ideas they had with their groups at the beginning
  From those ideas, students will come up with at least five ways in which we can become a better and more cooperative community in our classroom, in our school, and beyond.
   Before students leave, their initial lists will be handed in.

Assessment:
  By reading the students’ initial lists, I will be able to see if they were able to connect these lyrics with the principals of cooperation and understanding that they are consistently talking about in their other classes are evident.
·  Through singing in small groups (probably groups of about three or four), it will be evident if the students have learned the song once it is broken down into a round.
·  Finally, by having the whole group discussion at the end, the students will be able to assess each others’ understanding of the song, how it connects to our everyday lives, and how we can make our communities a more harmonious place to live.

Adaptations/Modifications:
·For younger students, the song may have to be one that is sung with ALL of the classes of a certain grade so that there are enough students to be able to hold the round together.  It is more difficult for younger students to ignore those that are singing a different part than them, so this would be more effective.

  Also, for younger students, the conversation may be too deep for them and they may not understand exactly what the song is trying to say, so it may take a lot more side-coaching and perhaps the teacher may have to give the students an idea of what the singer is trying to say and THEN have the students at the end still come up with ways that we can reach those ideals together.

Integrating Other Subject Areas:
  Social Studies- this song was written in the 1960’s.  A good conversation would be to discuss whether or not we are still having these same issues and lack of cooperation in our communities, in our societies, and in our world today

 Language Arts- students could connect poems/lyrics with this song of their own with the ways they come up with to make our world more of a community

 
Foreign Languages- look at lyrics of songs in the language of study to see if any have the same message as this one and what that means for us as a world