How Music Forms a Culture Madelaine Feakins Emily Meehan

Intro Our goal is to suggest alternates to the teaching methods we saw when observing Hartford classrooms The classrooms are very diverse but there is limited material taught about the different cultures of the students To fix this, we are teaching a curriculum on musical history, and how music can shape a culture or heritage

Plan 1 ½ hours for five days will be devoted to this topic Students will pick a particular song from their culture and research when this song was written in their cultures history, and for what purpose At the end of the week students will present a project to the class about their own culture

Objective 1 Students will gain an understanding of the importance of personal identity and how heritage plays an important role in this concept.

Objective 2 Students will develop intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence skills through research of their own cultures and presentations

Objective 3 Students will be exposed to music from various cultures

Objective 4 Students will learn that music differs between cultures and develop an understanding of how music expresses a cultures experiences, beliefs, and values. o One history standard for fourth graders in Hartford is to “analyze and evaluate human action in historical and/or contemporary contexts from alternative points of view (cite evidence to explain the various feelings/points of view of people in a historical situation and predict various points of view people might have on a contemporary issue).”

MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday Introduce theme Show two videos: Native American rain dance and Michael Jackson "Black and White (20 minutes) Explain music and culture correlation (20 minutes) Show example of project (20 minutes) Develop research questions (30 minutes) HW: ask parents and grandparents research questions Continue researching individual cultures and picking songs (incase students didn't’t do it for homework) (30 minutes) Explain music and how it can express social issues that are specific to a culture (15 minutes) Music teacher will come in with instruments for the students to play (45 minutes) HW: Have students continue researching their cultures and start working on their projects Speaker from, The Artists Collective, in Hartford will start by performing music for the class (45 minutes) Speaker will emphasize how music is an outlet of expression about social issues or can express certain ideals and values of a culture The students will take a social issue in their lives or in hartford and write a paragraph, song, or poem expressing themselves and their feelings (45 minutes) HW: Continue working on final projects Work on their projects either a poster, powerpoint, a song that reflects the culture they researched, or any other creative idea (1 hour) Students teachers questions Finalize project Prepare for presentation (30 minutes) HW: Make sure projects are finished for presentations tomorrow Final two hours of the day Students present Fill out evaluation sheets for other students

Wednesday Speaker from The Arts Collective in Hartford Perform for the class enhances musical intelligence Express the importance of music in culture Students will do an activity that stresses the importance of taking social action Work in partners and think of a social issue o write song/poem/short story about it Social action allows the students to learn on a higher level of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives o Synthesis Teacher, Linda Christensen stressed the importance of taking social action in the community o “my students walk out the school door to social emergency...I believe that writing is a basic skill that will help them both understand that emergency and work to change it” (Christensen, 162).

Evaluation Presentation in front of the class Students can grade each other Grade based on whether or not we believe they met the objectives o they gained an understanding of the importance of personal identity and how heritage plays an important role in this concept. o They gained an understanding of how music expresses a cultures experiences, beliefs, and values.

Resources Connecticut State Department of Education. State of Connecticut, Website. April older/frarts.pdf> Connecticut State Department of Education. State of Connecticut, Website. April 27. Helen1434. “Native American -Music- (Rain Dance).” Online Video Clip. Youtube. YouTube, April Web. April 25. MichaeljacksonVEVO. “Michael Jackson -Black or White.” Online Video Clip. Youtube. YouTube, April Web. April Musical instruments from the music classroom in our school Silver Burdett: Making Music. Persons Education Inc, Website. April The Artist Collective. The Artist Collective. Planet Bret. Website. April 26.