The document outlines a series of lessons that use music to help students learn vocabulary. It discusses how music can make vocabulary more memorable and impactful. The lessons have students analyze song lyrics to understand word meanings, create their own songs that incorporate target vocabulary, and present their songs to the class. Assessments include a vocabulary test and measuring any impact on reading fluency.

1. Learning Vocabulary through Music By: Tene’ Carter

2. Enduring Knowledge: Strategies can help me learn, understand, and remember. Understandings: Understanding vocabulary is essential to reading comprehension. Students understand that using descriptive and interesting vocabulary is important in writing. Students will understand the power of language and how it can shape ideas, feelings, and actions. Students will be able to use rhyme and rhythm to increase their reading fluency and vocabulary.

3. Essential Questions: How can I use music to help me learn, understand, and remember? How can music help my writing? How does the language of music affect us? How does rhythm and rhyme help me remember information?

4. Students will know… How to use music as a strategy to better understand vocabulary. How to use voice in their writing and how to write musical lyrics. The different types of music and how the language affects our lives. That rhyme and rhythm are important in a song and help you to remember the lyrics.

5. Students will be able to… Use the context of a song to learn new vocabulary. Write their own lyrics to a song including key vocabulary. Identify how the language of a song affects people. Use rhyme and rhythm to remember information and increase reading fluency.

6. Assessment: Students will make a presentation of their song and will submit it in written and recorded form. Students will take a written test on key vocabulary that was taught in the unit. Students will take a reading fluency test (DIEBLS) to see if this experience has increased their reading fluency.

7. Learning Activities: Introduce music as a strategy, show students how music has helped us to learn information, improve our reading comprehension and fluency. Students will listen and learn music that the language expresses different feelings, ideas, and relationships. Students will talk and discuss key vocabulary from the previously learned songs and create a vocabulary quilt that expresses the meanings of the key vocabulary words. Students will work in groups on learning specific songs (they may choose from a teacher selected group of songs). They will use a Karaoke machine with a screen that has the lyrics on it when learning the song. Students will do a rhyming activity using their song and think of how they can use rhyming to help them in other areas of learning (i.e. reading fluency). Students will work alone or in a small group and create a draft of a song that would be used to help them remember information from a certain area of learning. This song will include key vocabulary that has been taught through other songs.

8. Lesson 1 “ Introduction ” First, I will introduce the lesson by playing a song on our Karaoke machine that most students will know. Then, we will talk about how music can be a strategy to help us learn. We will then discuss some pre-selected words from the song and what the students think they mean. The words will be shown on a power point. We will then talk about how the song helps us to know the meanings of those words. Next, I will give the students some examples of songs that can help you learn other information (We have some songs for writing that help us learn the writing traits). The students will turn and talk about a song they know that helped them to learn something. After that, we will split up into 4 small groups. Each group will then listen to a song that they may choose from some pre-selected CD’s. They will then pick out some vocabulary words that they don’t understand and discuss them with each other and listen to the song again to see if they can discover the meaning of the words. Finally, we will meet back as a whole class and each group will talk about the song they listened to and how it helped them to learn some new vocabulary words.

9. Lesson 2 “ The Power of Music ” First, I will play a song called “Butterfly Kisses” to the students (father and daughter song). We will discuss how the song makes us feel and why we think the song is so powerful. Then, we will listen to another song that is very upbeat and happy (YMCA) and we will talk about how that song makes us feel and why we think it makes us feel that way. Next, I will discuss some vocabulary words from each of the songs and we will talk about some synonyms that we could use to replace those words and if they would create the same feeling in the song. The students will turn and talk to their neighbor about the synonyms. Then we will discuss word choice and how that is so important in a song and that the words and the rhythm of the song are what make it so powerful. After that, the students will break up into the same groups from the previous lesson and they will listen to the same song that they chose previously. This time they will be listening for powerful words and thinking about how the song makes them feel and what ideas they have after listening to the song. The students will create a web of the powerful words from their song. Then as a class we will create a vocabulary quilt of all the vocabulary that the students put in their web. Each group will choose 3 or 4 words and illustrate the meaning of those words on a small square piece of paper, then we will glue them all together to create a quilt.

10. Lesson 3 “ Rhyme and Rhythm ” The class will watch a united streaming video called A Race in Space . As a class we will create a list of rhyming words. I will give some words and students will think of words that rhyme with those words. After brainstorming words they will come up with some sentences to use those words in. In pairs they will write those sentences on sentence strips and place them on the board. Then we will listen to a song “RESPECT” by Stevie Wonder. We will talk about the words that rhyme. The printed lyrics will be on the projector and students will come up and use highlighter tape to highlight the rhyming words. Then I will talk about how when words rhyme it helps us to remember the information that the writer is trying to relay to us. I will give an example of a rhyming song that teaches us the 50 states. Next, we will talk about what rhythm is and how it is different from rhyme. We will talk about simple rhythms and the students will clap them out. I will show students how they can use the rhythms of certain songs to make new songs. For example “The Farmer and The Dell” rhythm is used to make many songs to help us remember things like “The Shape Song” (A circle is round, a circle is round, hi-ho the dairy oh, a circle is round). The students will then think of a song with their partner and see if they can fit their rhyming sentences into that song. Together they will sing their song for the class.

11. Lesson 4 “ Writing Music ” I will introduce this lesson by singing for them some lyrics that I created and show them how creating music can be fun and help us to learn. Then I will have them work in their groups brainstorming what their song will be about. The must create some kind of plan for their song (web, rough draft, outline etc…) and have it approved by me before writing. As a group they will then create the lyrics to their song (this may be done over several days). When they think they are finished they will trade lyrics with another group and that group will edit their lyrics and give them ideas. They will then trade back and make the necessary revisions. Finally, they will record their song onto the computer with their music and I will create a class CD of all of the songs. The students must present their song using a presentation style of their choice (power point, poster board, and projector). They will be given a rubric for what I expect from their song and their presentation. Students will then take the written test on the vocabulary learned in the unit.