How I Used... Spotify

"You see, war is not the answer/For only love can conquer hate..."

- Marvin Gaye

I could write a whole post on the discussion we had today in music class (snapshot: Soul music of the 1970's was a response to turbulent times. How are those times similar to what may be going on in the world today? Cue potentially turbulent discussion that the students navigated maturely and respectfully.)

To end our discussion, we listened to "What's Going On?" by Marvin Gaye - his response to what was going on in the world in the late '60s and early '70s.

I'm a huge fan of Spotify (and one of these days I'll spring for a Premium account). A new feature they've added is the Lyrics tool (lower right hand of the screen when you've downloaded the desktop version):

Click on this link, and your main screen will switch to album/artist artwork and the lyrics to the song playing. You can decide if you'd like one line at a time, but I opt for the scrolling option so students can read just before or just after if they'd prefer.

Reading Marvin Gaye's words from "What's Going On?" Was a timely and such an appropriate way to end today's discussion, and I was glad to use this tool for my students as they reflected on when music and culture intersect.

TeachRock Resource

Sorting through the websites, lesson plans, curricula (for free or for purchase) is daunting and overwhelming. So let me help my fellow music teachers out a bit!

In 7th grade music, we take the quarter to study popular music in America, starting with Jazz, working our way through Rock, and ending talking about Hip Hop and sampling.  Its a really logical progression, but finding a quality curriculum is difficult and writing one is time-consuming.

Enter TeachRock!

I discovered this website in the final weeks of summer vacation and it really gave me a boost of excitement going into the new school year. The development, growth, and fragmentation of Rock music is presented chronologically with loads of primary sources (interviews, rock concert footage, music reviews from the 1950's, etc...). Each lesson includes:

• Objectives
• Motivational (Warm-Up) Activity
• Procedure
• Summary Activity
• Homework/Assessment
• Writing Prompts
• Extension Activities

There is way too much information to use in just one class period (at least with my 7th grade students), but that's the beauty of it. Because there is such a wealth of information and lesson ideas, its easy to create a lesson that encourages students to really examine the different styles of rock, their roots, and the effect of musicians and albums on the wider world of pop music.

PROS

• Quality primary sources
• Multiple levels of thinking (critical thinking, recall, reflection)
• Clearly stated objectives
• Adaptable to many levels, interests, time constraints

CONS

• The music footage is mostly partial, not full performances (but this is easily remedied by finding the same footage or similar footage on YouTube)
• It is not all school appropriate (but it is Rock music, after all...) so you will need to take the time to look at each resource and video.

Want an example of the materials?

Here you go!

Over the last three days, my 7th graders have been looking at Punk Rock as a reaction against what was going on in the music world and the world around them (cultural context). To see how I adapted the materials for my students, take a look at the original materials on teachrock.org, and now take a look at what I distributed to my students:

Punk Rock Document Set
Punk Rock Listening Guide
Punk Rock Discussion Questions
Group Paragraph

They're still working on their group paragraphs, so I'll have to update that at a later date.

But how great is it that my students are talking about the economic crisis in England during the 1970's and The Clash's emergence as a force of Punk Rock... and its all from their own critical thinking and analysis!

How I Used... Today's Meet

There are a number of tools out there to engage students, foster collaboration, and help them show their thinking - Socrative, InfuseLearning, etc...

Throughout the year, I'll take a quick moment to let y'all know how I've used different Web 2.0 resources in my day-to-day classwork. Hopefully these will give you quick ideas that you can easily translate into your own classes right away!

This morning, I had a seventh grade class that was really struggling with group work. They were tasked with examining different elements of Chuck Berry's music and create a digital display/museum exhibit to teach users about his music. However, most of the groups were off-task, interruptive, and some were being downright rude to or dismissive of their group members by the end of yesterday's class period.

In order to move on and work past a pretty discouraging day, I started class by launching a TodaysMeet room, posting a QR code for the room on my screen, and asking the students to brainstorm on the site...

• What are characteristics of good groupwork?
• What does good groupwork look like?
• What does good groupwork sound like?
• What should your teacher see in a hard-working group?

Some of the answers were funny ("I'm hungry... good groupwork includes snacks.") but rather than get upset with those entries, I let them go because the class on the whole was laughing and having fun with it. If I had chosen to express frustration, it would have squashed any future sharing from that particular student. Instead, it became a common thread, and interspersed with really constructive comments were more takes on that joke from a variety of students ("Group members provide twinkies.")

Once they were done and I set them off to finish their projects, I left their brainstorm on the screen and a few times I did remind them of their OWN groupwork expectations. This was so much more effective than using my own words. To take it a step further, I isolated the action/description words and created a word cloud using Word It Out**. 

Now we have a visual reminder of the class' expecations for groupwork as we move past a bad day and look forward to better days of collaboration.

** Word it out does NOT require Java, so its a great option for Mac users!