http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=812
I love the website Read, Write, Think. For Language Arts teachers, this website gives lessons for everything from studying character to peer-editing activities to so much more! This particular lesson has students looking at the song lyrics of the Billy Joel song We Didn’t Start the Fire. This lesson would be terrific as a cross-disciplinary lesson linked to Social Studies!! It could be adapted to fit the particular time period/events students are studying in history. I like this lesson because students are always interested in music…and instead of analyzing a poem, students get the opportunity to look at and analyze song lyrics!! Students will use the people, places and events in the song to do research and look up those specific links to history. I believe it is important to use various texts, and not just a textbook. What a wonderful way to teach history and reading comprehension by using a song! This song could also be linked to Forest Gump, Beatles songs or other media references to history. Young adolescents respond well to lessons that are interesting, and music is always one way to get students’ attention!
I definitely did a lesson like this in my World History class. I think it’s well suited for middle schoolers as well. Definitely a lot of research involved for them, though!
-Rachel
I agree that music is a great resource for students! My master teacher plays music before school and he sometimes plays the guitar while the students are doing their homework and they love it! Songs are poetry and I like how you are incorporating this creative resource into the classroom! I also like how you can cover multiple subjects with this project- Jessica Placke
Hi, Jami! I love this lesson plan! It’s like Dr. Considine’s “Pop Goes the Classroom” lesson. Incorporating music into lessons is a great way for students to be engaged! I agree, I love Read Write Think for Language Arts! I got so many good lesson plans there this semester for different projects! I like that one and learnnc.org. Analyzing song lyrics is a fun way for students to be interested in learning! And you know that some of them will have heard of Billy Joel, even better!
Marie-Jo Gartshore
I love music too and think it is a great way to teach any subject. I play the trombone and and piano and love all kinds of music. I agree that most students like music and if you can incorporate learning with a song, it isn’t dreaded like a boring lesson would be.
Hats off to you!
I also really like the website Read, Write, Think! I am going to use it if I teach Language Arts. I recently used a lesson plan that used music, and the students LOVED it, and it definitely got their attention!
-Megan Anderson
Personally, I feel that anytime music can be brought into the classroom you automatically win. This looks really cool and is something I am definitely bookmarking for myself.
-Justin
I am not that familiar with this site since I am not ELA, however in my internship my teacher uses the site a lot with her students in building essay maps. While the functionality seems to be a little messed up at times the maps that we have used in class have been great! I really like your lesson because everyone loves music and it is a fun way to get students engaged in their own learning!
Laura
LOVE IT! i love any lesson that incorporates music like this into it. I think so much about how I can incorporate music into my lessons because it is such a large part of my life, and letting songs like these just “die” is awful. I mean students these days have powerful songs they listen too, but these kinds of songs like “We Didn’t Start the Fire” changed so many peoples lives.
This is great! I always love to bring music/fun into the classroom. This is a great lesson to use in a middle school classroom. I looked at the lyrics of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” in 10th grade and will never forget it. It was a great learning experience for me!
-Cati
I like the Read, Write, Think site as well. Like we’ve talked about, I think it’s important for students to be able to write about what they’ve learned. Although, sometimes it’s not always practical depending on your students. I’ve learned this the hard way.
Mr. Friel