Spirituals During Slavery

Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Subject Area

Arts Education

Grade(s)

3, 4, 5

Overview

Students will review the Underground Railroad and how enslaved people used secret codes to try to escape.  They will listen to a variety of spirituals and discuss their meaning.  In groups, students will listen to and analyze the lyrics of Follow the Drinking Gourd.   

Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 3 - Music

AE17.MU.3.16

Demonstrate and describe how selected music connects to and is influenced by specific interests, experiences, or purposes.

UP:AE17.MU.3.16

Vocabulary

Rhythm
  • Bar lines
  • Measures
      • Melody
      • Pitch set: Low So, Low La, High Do
      • Treble clef reading (Mi, Re, Do)
      • Middle C to high G
      • Ledger lines
      Harmony
      • Partner songs
      • Rounds
      • Ostinati
      Form
      • Theme and variations
      • Coda
      • D.S. al coda
      • Repeat sign
      • Fermata
      Expression
      • Phrase/ phrasing
      • Pianissimo (pp), fortissimo (ff)
      Other
      • Age-appropriate audience and performer etiquette
      • Orchestral instruments: 4 families
      • Age-appropriate pitch matching (Bb3 - Eb5)

Essential Questions

EU: Individuals' selection of musical works is influenced by their interests, experiences, understandings, and purposes.
EQ: How do individuals choose music to experience?

Skills Examples

Performing
  • Using movement, manipulatives, or visual representation, demonstrate and describe how specific music concepts are used to support a specific purpose in music (such as different sections, selected orchestral, band, folk, or ethnic instruments).
Creating
  • Express melodic contour through movement.
Reading/ Writing
  • When analyzing selected music, read and perform rhythmic patterns and/or melodic phrases with voice, body percussion, and/or instruments, using iconic or standard notation.
  • Develop criteria and use them to critique their own performances and the performances of others.
Responding/ Evaluating
  • Identify and respond to simple music forms (e.g., AB, ABA).
  • Identify elements of music using appropriate vocabulary.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 4 - Music

AE17.MU.4.16

Demonstrate and explain how selected music connects to and is influenced by specific interests, experiences, purposes, or contexts.

UP:AE17.MU.4.16

Vocabulary

Rhythm
  • Conducting patterns in
  • Syncopation
Melody
  • Pitch set: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, Ti
  • Treble clef reading (La, So, Mi, Re, Do)
  • Middle C through High B
  • Create melodic sequences
  • Half-step
  • Whole step
Harmony
  • Canons
  • Chord components
  • Chord progression (I, V)
  • Crossover bordun
Form
  • Phrasing: antecedent and consequent
  • D.C. al coda
  • Fine
Expression
  • pp through ff
Other
  • Age-appropriate audience and performer etiquette
  • Orchestra instruments within the 4 families
  • Age-appropriate pitch matching (A3-E5)

Essential Questions

EU: Individuals' selection of musical works is influenced by their interests, experiences, understandings, and purposes.
EQ: How do individuals choose music to experience?

Skills Examples

Performing
  • Demonstrate and explain how specific music concepts (such as form, timbre, etc.) are used to support a specific purpose in music (such as social and cultural contexts) through various means (such as manipulatives, movement, and/or pictorial representation).
Creating
  • Develop criteria and use them to critique their own performances and the performances of others.
Reading/ Writing
  • Evaluate musical works and performances, applying established criteria, citing evidence from the elements of music.
  • When analyzing selected music, read and perform rhythmic patterns and/or melodic phrases with voice, body percussion, and/or instruments, using iconic or standard notation.
Responding/ Evaluating
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the elements of music applied to a listening example using teacher-given vocabulary (such as different sections of complex forms, teacher-selected orchestral instruments, etc.).
  • Explain how the elements and subject matter of music connect with disciplines outside the arts.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 5 - Music

AE17.MU.5.16

Demonstrate and explain, citing evidence, how selected music connects to and is influenced by specific interests, experiences, purposes, or contexts.

UP:AE17.MU.5.16

Vocabulary

Rhythm
Melody
  • Pitch set: Do-centered diatonic
  • Treble clef reading (choral octavos)
  • Grand staff
  • Bass clef
  • Accidentals
  • Major scale
Harmony
  • Part singing/ playing
  • Chord progression (I, IV, V)
  • Arpeggio
  • Descant
  • Level bordun
Form
  • Rondo form
  • 12-Bar blues
Expression
  • Vibrato
  • Tremolo
  • Reggae
  • Blues
  • Timbre: soprano, alto, tenor, bass
Other
  • Age-appropriate audience and performer etiquette
  • Age-appropriate pitch matching (Ab3-F5)

Essential Questions

EU: Individuals' selection of musical works is influenced by their interests, experiences, understandings, and purposes.
EQ: How do individuals choose music to experience?

Skills Examples

Performing
  • Analyze the formal structure of music that is to be performed.
  • Identify elements of music to be performed for a specific context (for example, dynamic markings that are appropriate for a lullaby).
Creating
  • Choose a literary work, such as a poem or story, to generate musical ideas for performance.
Reading/ Writing
  • Examine performance music for expressive elements, and use correct notation to indicate placement.
Responding/ Evaluating
  • Justify personal preferences for certain musical pieces, performance, composers and musical genres both orally and in writing.
  • Discuss contributions of musical elements to aesthetic qualities in performances of self and others.
  • Consider and articulate the influence of technology on music careers.
  • Develop and apply criteria for critiquing more complex performances of live and recorded music.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.

CR Resource Type

Lesson/Unit Plan

Resource Provider

Other

License Type

CUSTOM

Resource Provider other

San Francisco Symphony
http://www.keepingscore.org/sites/default/files/lessonplans/KSEd_Spirituals_Dur…

Custom License Type (URL)

http://www.keepingscore.org/sites/default/files/Terms%20of%20Use%20for%20Lesson…

Accessibility

Text Resources: Content is organized under headings and subheadings

Comments or Notes

Connection to Pathways to Integration chart

Approved Date

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