Teacher: Heather Reimer
Grade: 6-8th grade
Time needed: 1 week
Subject: Social Studies, Music, Language Arts
Materials needed:
“We Didn’t Start the Fire” lyrics for each student
“We Didn’t Start the Fire” song
Billy Joel references on tiny slips of paper
Books of current events
Magazines
Objectives:
SWBAT identify and explain 5 important events or people from the song “We Didn’t Start the Fire”
SWBAT create a timeline (as a class) of the people and events mentioned in the song.
SWBAT research and write a short (2-3 pages) paper on the importance of one of the topics/people mentioned in the song.
SWBAT create a song based on the important events and people of their lifetime (1995-present).
SWBAT analyze what they are hearing (or reading) while listening to the song.
SWBAT relate the importance of music to both popular culture and history
SWBAT to make a connection from this song to their lives, when they compose their own lyrics/poem.
SWBAT rewrite the song keeping the same tempo and rhythm Billy Joel used.
SWBAT to perform their song in front of the class.
SWBAT write three versus containing events and people that are important from the last 15 years.
Background for Teachers:
This semester I have been focusing on different ways to incorporate music into the classroom. This is a great lesson because it not only incorporates music but will also allow the students to work on learning about important events in history. Also, by allowing the students to pick one topic and research it from the song they will develop a deep understanding of that event, and they will then become the teachers and teach their classmates. It is important for students to be responsible for their own learning and this project also enables them to be responsible for getting their information to others. Finally, by having the students “rewrite” the song so that it has events and people from their lifetime they will learn about the world around them. They will become more globally aware and see that there is more beyond our town and state. It also will allow them to practice their poetry skills (keeping in rhythm). We have been doing our unit on popular culture and this fits in perfectly.
Why This Lesson is Important:
I think it is important for students to see the role that popular culture (especially music) plays in our society. I want my students to start listening and understanding the connections that some of their favorite artists make. I decided to start with this song because its sole purpose is to talk about what has happened in the world so it is a very clear and obvious example. I also think it is important for students to have an understanding not only of history for the 1700 and 1800’s but also from more recently, this song was written in 1987 and covers about 40 years of history. This lesson also allows them to focus on “their history” and learn about things that have happened since they were born. I think it is important “to know where you are coming from in order to understand where you are going”.
Procedures:
The closure will be talking about patterns we saw in the songs that the class wrote. Was there any event that every song had? Why do you think that is? Where there any major events that we left out? Why did we leave those out? Where there any people who showed up in all the songs? This discussion will be student led and will go in the direction that the students take it.
Assessment:
In this project there will be a few different assessments. The first assessment will be the paper and presentation that the students do individually on an event or person from the song. The next assessment will be their presentation to the class. I will also be looking at their ability to place their event/person on the class time line. Next, I will be assessing them on their songs that they write and the presentation of those. The final informal assessment will be on the class discussion.
Adaptations:
For classes where picking groups is a problem I will have the groups made a head of time. For students who need more support I will give them a table that they can use to help keep their notes in order for their research. Also students who need more support may just write a poem instead of writing a song. This way they are still working on keeping a rhythm but a slower one because the song is fast. Also when it comes to the topics the students write their paper on, it would be helpful to give the more commonly known ones to students who need extra support, and some of the less commonly known ones to students who need a challenge.
Next Steps/Connections to Other Classes:
This whole project connects music, social studies, and language arts. The next step in this unit would be to look at current music and see what events or famous people they are talking about. I want my students to be able to develop an ability to listen to music and understand what it is REALLY saying. Another lesson that would follow this one would be to look at music from specific time periods and focus on the songs that mentioned or talked about specific events. For example, the civil rights movement, Obama’s journey to presidency, woman’s rights movements, the Vietnam War, 9/11 attacks, ect. This project is a small lesson in the overall unit of Popular Culture (focus on music) and its role in history. The rest of the semester will be spent focusing on the role music has played in history and in our current lives.
Grade: 6-8th grade
Time needed: 1 week
Subject: Social Studies, Music, Language Arts
Materials needed:
“We Didn’t Start the Fire” lyrics for each student
“We Didn’t Start the Fire” song
Billy Joel references on tiny slips of paper
Books of current events
Magazines
Objectives:
SWBAT identify and explain 5 important events or people from the song “We Didn’t Start the Fire”
SWBAT create a timeline (as a class) of the people and events mentioned in the song.
SWBAT research and write a short (2-3 pages) paper on the importance of one of the topics/people mentioned in the song.
SWBAT create a song based on the important events and people of their lifetime (1995-present).
SWBAT analyze what they are hearing (or reading) while listening to the song.
SWBAT relate the importance of music to both popular culture and history
SWBAT to make a connection from this song to their lives, when they compose their own lyrics/poem.
SWBAT rewrite the song keeping the same tempo and rhythm Billy Joel used.
SWBAT to perform their song in front of the class.
SWBAT write three versus containing events and people that are important from the last 15 years.
Background for Teachers:
This semester I have been focusing on different ways to incorporate music into the classroom. This is a great lesson because it not only incorporates music but will also allow the students to work on learning about important events in history. Also, by allowing the students to pick one topic and research it from the song they will develop a deep understanding of that event, and they will then become the teachers and teach their classmates. It is important for students to be responsible for their own learning and this project also enables them to be responsible for getting their information to others. Finally, by having the students “rewrite” the song so that it has events and people from their lifetime they will learn about the world around them. They will become more globally aware and see that there is more beyond our town and state. It also will allow them to practice their poetry skills (keeping in rhythm). We have been doing our unit on popular culture and this fits in perfectly.
Why This Lesson is Important:
I think it is important for students to see the role that popular culture (especially music) plays in our society. I want my students to start listening and understanding the connections that some of their favorite artists make. I decided to start with this song because its sole purpose is to talk about what has happened in the world so it is a very clear and obvious example. I also think it is important for students to have an understanding not only of history for the 1700 and 1800’s but also from more recently, this song was written in 1987 and covers about 40 years of history. This lesson also allows them to focus on “their history” and learn about things that have happened since they were born. I think it is important “to know where you are coming from in order to understand where you are going”.
Procedures:
- The first step in this lesson would be to listen to the song. I will pass out lyrics to each student so that they have them in front of them.
- I will tell them for the first time just to listen to the song and the words.
- After we listened to it one time I would ask them what they heard both musically and lyrically.
- Then I would play the song again and tell them to underline the references that they understood or knew something about.
- After we finished listening to it the second time we would talk about some of the references the students knew.
- I would then explain to the students that we will be using this song to guide is for the following week.
- The first part of this lesson will be for each student to pick a topic (at random) from the song and do research about it. They will have one class period to research and then they need to write a 2-3 page paper about the importance of this event or person in our history. They also need to include why they think Billy Joel decided to include it into his song.
- Students will be presenting the information they learned about their event to the class.
- After each student has presented their event or person to the class, we will make a time line of all the things mentioned in the song. We will then hang the timeline up in our room.
- The next part of this project will be for the students to write their own song about things that have happened since they were born (~1995). They may work in pairs or groups of 3.
- As a class we will brainstorm about ideas that we might want to include in our song (Obama, 9/11, War on Terrorism, Oklahoma Bombing, ect.) and write them on the over head
- After we have brainstormed some ideas allow the students to start their own lists
- Give the students time to look through the resources and online to find events and people they want to include in their song.
- The students must write at least three versus (explain what a versus is)
- Explain to the students that they must try and keep to the rhythm and beat that Billy Joel used.
- They will have two class days to work on this in class. The third day will be a presentation day.
The closure will be talking about patterns we saw in the songs that the class wrote. Was there any event that every song had? Why do you think that is? Where there any major events that we left out? Why did we leave those out? Where there any people who showed up in all the songs? This discussion will be student led and will go in the direction that the students take it.
Assessment:
In this project there will be a few different assessments. The first assessment will be the paper and presentation that the students do individually on an event or person from the song. The next assessment will be their presentation to the class. I will also be looking at their ability to place their event/person on the class time line. Next, I will be assessing them on their songs that they write and the presentation of those. The final informal assessment will be on the class discussion.
Adaptations:
For classes where picking groups is a problem I will have the groups made a head of time. For students who need more support I will give them a table that they can use to help keep their notes in order for their research. Also students who need more support may just write a poem instead of writing a song. This way they are still working on keeping a rhythm but a slower one because the song is fast. Also when it comes to the topics the students write their paper on, it would be helpful to give the more commonly known ones to students who need extra support, and some of the less commonly known ones to students who need a challenge.
Next Steps/Connections to Other Classes:
This whole project connects music, social studies, and language arts. The next step in this unit would be to look at current music and see what events or famous people they are talking about. I want my students to be able to develop an ability to listen to music and understand what it is REALLY saying. Another lesson that would follow this one would be to look at music from specific time periods and focus on the songs that mentioned or talked about specific events. For example, the civil rights movement, Obama’s journey to presidency, woman’s rights movements, the Vietnam War, 9/11 attacks, ect. This project is a small lesson in the overall unit of Popular Culture (focus on music) and its role in history. The rest of the semester will be spent focusing on the role music has played in history and in our current lives.
