Wild Things: A Song Study

Learning Resource Type

Learning Activity

Subject Area

Arts Education

Grade(s)

5

Overview

This activity is designed to allow students to make connections to their own lives, to help them use background knowledge, and to help them understand that reading comprehension is just as important when singing or playing an instrument as it is when reading a story or text.

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.

Phase

Before/Engage
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.

Learning Objectives

  1. Students will demonstrate and explain how this song connects to their life and their experiences.
  2. Students will explain the composer's purpose in writing this song.

Activity Details

  1. Listen to the song, Wild Things, by Alessia Cara.
  2. While listening, look at the lyrics on the PowerPoint.
  3. Turn and talk to a neighbor about any connections (what the song made you think of or reminded you of) you made to the song.
  4. Discuss new vocabulary using the PowerPoint.
  5. Have a whole group discussion about the song, stopping frequently to make connections, discuss new concepts, and discuss the composer’s purpose (relate to the author’s purpose – the reason the author wrote the book or story).

Assessment Strategies

Determine whether students understand the new concepts, new vocabulary, and comprehend the meaning of the song by observing their discussion. 

Variation Tips

  1. As a whole group, compose a new verse for the song, based on the connections made during the discussion.
  2. Break into groups and compose a new verse based on the connections your group made during the discussion.

Background / Preparation

  1. Download the PowerPoint.
  2. Set up the PowerPoint for viewing.
  3. Look over the lyrics and the new vocabulary to be prepared for the whole group discussion.
Alessia Cara - Wild Things (Official Audio) YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5vUBQBykJ4

Approved Date

Owner (Author)

jmuse83
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