Are Songwriters Poets? Lesson Plan

Learning Intention / Overview

Poetry is a term that makes many students frown before they even give it a chance.  After introducing poetic devices and clarifying that students understand the differences, this activity can create interest in poetry that might have been lacking.  Using the accompanying handout and the lyrics to two popular songs, students are asked to reflect on the question:  “are songwriters poets”?  This increased motivation and requires students to reflect on poetic devices in a comfortable setting because they feel more opening to analysing songs than poetry.  What they may not initially realize is that song lyrics are poetry!

Essential Questions

What is poetry?

How is music similar to poetry?

How is music different to poetry?

Are songwriters poets?

Click here to download the entire four page lesson plan

Vanilla Ice:  Was he a poet and didn't know it?

Find any sound with findsounds.com

FindSounds.com is a free site for finding sound effects on the Web. It is a Web search engine, like Google and Yahoo, but with a focus on sounds. It provides powerful features, yet is simple and easy to use, and suitable for all ages. Note to teachers and parents: audio files containing obscenities are filtered out so this site is safe for children.

Implications for teaching.

If you are making a podcast, a video or just want some sounds and stingers for a school play they are all here.  Younger students might like to play secret sound by guessing what the sound is or finding sounds to match letters of the alphabet.

As a side note - findsounds is also available as a mobile app.

Access findsounds here.

iPad Music Education Apps

Here are a great collection of resources and apps related to Teaching Music

iPad Music Education Apps(function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();

Literacy in the Playground - Clap and Rhyme Games for Junior Students

Here are a great collection of games for junior school students that incorporate literacy and play.  I hope you enjoy them.

Literacy in the playground clapping games 2011 from Kevin Cummins

New Garageband Killer uJam is the best web app of 2011

Ujam is without a doubt the best free app I have seen pop on the web in the last 12 - 18 months and it is a really fresh and unique piece of software that is going to blow your students minds.  Essentially uJam let's anyone create a professional piece of music in minutes by simply singing.  No instruments required. ( You must see the video below to believe it.)

Next, the user can edit the style of their music. There are many to choose from and each allows the user to produce something that sounds exactly the way they want it to. After polishing their personal music creation, the user can share it with others. It can be sent privately to a select group of friends or family members or shared with a larger group of fans.

It has some big names behind it including Han's Zimmer and Pharrell and is currently totally free but I get the feeling that may not last.  You really need to take a look at the videos below to get an idea of how this amazing app works but I can definitely see this up there with facebook and myspace as internet phenomoenons for teenagers and aspiring stars by the end of the year.

Just about everything Ujam can do is unique. The application guides musicians of all levels to building their own music. Style settings allow users to produce a piece they can be proud of and would want to listen to.

Check it out here.

I'd love to hear your songs and thoughts on uJam

Thousands of Great Teaching Interactive Teaching Resources

Havefunteaching.com is a great resource for teachers of all age groups who would like to find worksheets, coloring pages, printable flash cards, songs for kids, educational videos, fun activities and teacher tools mainly focused around literacy and numeracy.  The worksheets and Flash cards real time savers and the videos section has some great content particularly for younger students. 

All in all havefunteaching.com is very well laid aout and easy to find what you are looking for in a hurry and would be well worth your time to browse for your next classroom resource.

Check it out here.

MobyGratis - Free Music for Students

This site has copyright-free music by Moby that students can use for their classroom projects.  You will need to create an account and can access ithere.

Soungle - The Google of free Audio effects and Samples

Free searchable database of hundreds of downloadable special effects and musical instrument samples.  I have used this with my own kids for a few tasks and it has tens of thousands of useful audio samples.