We Didn’t Start the Fire—Songwriting History

Content Area: Social Studies/Language Arts/Music                     Teacher: Celia Hagar
Topic: Songwriting, Recent US History                                           Date: 11/19/09
Grade: 7th grade                                                                                Time: 60 minutes

Standards:
·         National Standards for Music:
o   6a. Students describe specific music events in a given aural example, using appropriate terminology.
o   4b. Students arrange simple pieces for voices or instruments other than those for which the pieces were written.

·         Wisconsin State Standards for Social Studies:
o   B.8.7 Identify significant events and people in the major eras of United States and world history
o   B.8.8 Identify major scientific discoveries and technological innovations and describe their social and economic effects on society

·         Wisconsin State Standards for Language Arts:
o   E.8.3 Create media products appropriate to audience and purpose.
o   E.8.5 Analyze and edit media work as appropriate to audience and purpose.

Objectives:
·         Students will identify the purpose of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” through reading the lyrics, having discussion with peers, and having classroom discussion.

·         After listening to and reading Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire, students will work with a partner to each select three major historical events from 1999-2009 to add to the class list.

·         Given Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and a class list of important historical events, students will create a continuation verse of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” using events from 1999-2009 while respecting the musical techniques already used in the song.

Why is it important that students learn my lesson? What academic subject will this lesson be linked to?
Many years students only cover history from early civilizations until the civil war. Many students don’t regard more current history as history. It is important for students to learn about these events and their impact on their lives. Billy Joel’s song does a great job of summing up important events for students to learn about in more recent years. To begin a unit on recent history and social studies, this song can introduce the major events. When covering each event, students can look back at their lyrics and acknowledge why it was important to be included. At the end of the unit, students will look back at the song and will have a discussion about the events they think should be included from the time period.

Another reason this is important for students to learn is so that they can realize that their lives affect history. History is written everyday. By allowing students to see that the song could extend to include the most recent ten years (which they were all alive for), each student can help decide what the most important events that shaped our world were. 

            In doing this, the lesson will be linked to social studies or history as well as language arts. Students will be relating the song to history, considering their own history, using language skills, writing ideas, and then writing lyrics.

Materials:
·         YouTube Clip of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel
·         Laptop/Computer
·         Projector (or hook-up to a television)
·         Speakers
·         “We Didn’t Start the Fire” Lyrics (on sheets of paper)
·         Chalkboard/chalk

Background for Teachers:
            “We Didn’t Start the Fire” summarizes important social and historical events from 1949-1989.  This song will be an introduction into a larger unit about recent history, but could also be used in a variety of other arenas.

Steps in the Lesson:
·         Introduction/Building Background Knowledge:
o   Students have heard of many of the historical events from parents, previous classes, or media.
o   Many students will not have heard the Billy Joel song so sheets with the lyrics will be handed out
§  Students should make the connection that the lyrics discuss important historical events through discussion about the lyrics with a partner
§  There will be a classroom discussion about what the song is about

·         Body:
o   Teacher will play “We Didn’t Start the Fire” on YouTube
o   There will be a classroom discussion about what the video along with the lyrics shows us about the past.
§  Does it only show the bad? Only the good?
§  Why where these events chosen?
o   If the song were to be recreated to teach future generations about 1999-2009, what would be included?
§  Students will work with partners to come up with three ideas each
§  Students will share as a class and teacher will type into Wordle
o   Classroom discussion about Wordle and how this represents our most recent history.
§  Is this history?
o   Students will be instructed to individually add another verse to “We Didn’t Start the Fire” with events from 1999-2009
§  Use Billy Joel lyrics
§  Music will be playing for help
§  Classroom Event ideas will be projected as wordle
§  May share ideas with neighbor if needing help

·         Closure:
o   Class will come back together and share verses
o   Teacher will tell students that we will continue to come back to this song as we continue to study recent history
o   Dismiss

·         Assessment:
o   Teacher will informally asses by listening to student engagement and participation in discussions
o   Students will hand in their versions of the verses for teacher to assess if students understood the lesson
§  This is a creativity assignment, so a formal letter or number grade will not be assigned

Adaptations:
Some students may struggle with the ideas portion (which is why I chose partner working). The partners could be predetermined if there were friendship or ability-level issues. Another adaptation would be to allow certain students to work as a group to create the next verse.
 
Next Steps/Connections to other subjects:
            If using an integrated curriculum, students could use this in art class by creating a collage or poster of the things they would like to include in the most important events of the last ten years. This could also be extended to reading with reading about current events.
            Other next steps are ones such as this lesson is intended for—to be an introduction into a current history unit. The song will be referred to throughout the unit and the song can be one consistent string of chronological events that guides students through recent history.