SING ME A STORY

SING ME A STORY

Learning Description

In this lesson, students will explore how music contributes to the meaning of a story through the use of storybooks that were inspired by songs.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 4-5
CONTENT FOCUS: MUSIC & ELA
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"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can use musical vocabulary to explain what I hear in a song.
  • I can use good posture, breath support, and accurate pitch while singing.
  • Grade 4: I can explain how images and music add meaning to a story.
  • Grade 5: I can compare and contrast a print text and a multimedia version of the same text.

Essential Questions

  • How does analyzing and evaluating music help me understand its meaning?
  • How can I use my voice to express emotions and communicate a message?
  • Grade 4: What do images and music add to a story?
  • Grade 5: How does reading a text compare to listening to and singing a song?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 4:

4.P.AC.1.d Describe, analyze, and evaluate the design and organization of the text, explaining how specific formats, structures, patterns, and features influence the audience, contribute to the text’s accessibility, and support the text’s purpose.

 

Grade 5:

5.P.AC.1.d Describe, analyze, and evaluate the design and organization of the text, explaining how specific formats, structures, patterns, and features influence the audience, contribute to the text’s accessibility, and support the text’s purpose.

Arts Standards

ESGM.PR.1 Sing a varied repertoire of music, alone and with others.

ESGM.RE.1 Listen to, analyze, and describe music.

ESGM.RE.2 Evaluate music and music performances.

ESGM.CN.2.c Describe and demonstrate performance etiquette and appropriate audience behavior.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 4:

ELA.4.AOR.10.1 Determine and explain how visuals (e.g., illustrations, photographs, maps) and/or multimedia elements (e.g., video, audio) contribute to the meaning of a print or non-print text.

 

Grade 5:

ELA.5.AOR.10.1 Compare and contrast a print format of a text (e.g., literary, informational) to a non-print format (e.g., film, image, performance), explaining each media’s portrayal of the subject.

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 3: I can sing alone and with others.

Anchor Standard 6: I can analyze music.

Anchor Standard 7: I can evaluate music.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Determine and explain - Find out and make clear by describing
  • Compare and contrast - Identify what is similar; what is different
  • Texts - Can include, but is not limited to, materials such as books, magazines, newspapers, movies, paintings, television shows, songs, political cartoons, online materials, advertisements, maps, digital media, infographics, podcasts, charts, graphs, diagrams, notes, captions, lab reports, scenarios, and works of art

Arts Vocabulary

  • Lyrics - Words to a song
  • Instrumental - Music with instruments and no lyrics or singing
  • Pitch - The highness or lowness of sound
  • Rhythm - Long and short sounds and silences
  • Dynamics - Loud and soft sounds; volume
  • Tempo - The speed of the beat
  • Timbre -The distinctive quality of sounds; the tone color or special sound that makes one instrument or voice sound different from another
  • Form - The organization of a piece (how the music is put together)
  • Articulation - How a performer moves from one note to the next; how notes are connected or not

 

Materials

  • Projection board with internet access
  • Implements for completing writing assignments
  • Graphic organizer for comparison
  • Printed song lyrics
  • Song recording
  • Story book
  • Harvard Project Zero Thinking Routines

 

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Hear, Think, Wonder (modification of See, Think, Wonder Harvard Project Zero Thinking Routine)

  • Prepare students for a “Hear, Think, Wonder” listening activity by telling students they are going to listen to a song excerpt (do not reveal title yet!) (**Song and book suggestions are in the Additional Resources section of the lesson plan) and answer three prompts. Students will need implements for documenting their responses. **Make sure only the music is played without showing the accompanying video! This practice allows deeper analysis of the musical sounds!
    • “I hear”: What sounds are heard, not what they think they hear. Musical sounds can include pitch (high/low sounds), rhythm (long/short), dynamics (loud/soft), tempo (fast/slow), timbre (instruments), form (same [repetition], different [contrasting]), articulation (smooth/detached).
    • “I think”: What does the music make you think about? Draw an appropriate image that the music makes you think about.
    • “I wonder”: What “wonderings” do you have? Wonderings are generally questions.
  • Students listen without talking the first time and answer the first prompt (I hear) using words or images.
    • Tell students to “Turn and Talk” about their response with a neighbor.
    • Call on students to share responses with the class.
      • Restate students’ responses. All responses are acceptable.
    • Students listen without talking a second time and answer the second prompt (“I think” and draw) using words and images.
      • Tell students to “Turn and Talk” about their responses with a neighbor.
      • Call on students to share responses with the class.
        • Restate students’ responses. All responses are acceptable.
        • Ask students, “What did you hear in the music to make you think about …?” or “What did you hear in the music to make you draw…?” to encourage deeper connections to the music.
      • Discuss how students’ drawings help them understand the song’s meaning.
      • Students listen without talking a third time and answer the third prompt (I wonder) using words or images. **The “I think” and I wonder” prompts can be combined into one listening event instead of two separate events.
        • Tell students “Turn and Talk” about their responses with a neighbor.
        • Call on students to share responses with the class.
          • Restate students’ responses. All responses are acceptable.
          • Tell students that they are going to be learning how images, words, and music contribute to the meaning of text.

Work Session

  • Provide students with the printed lyrics of the song they just listened to. Read the lyrics together. Help students annotate key words, phrases and imagery.
    • For younger students, read a selection, such as a verse or a chorus, out loud.
  • Discuss:
    • What message do the lyrics tell?
    • What words or phrases stand out?
    • Discuss how the images help tell the message.
  • Play the full audio version of the song with lyrics. Students listen without talking and answer “How does hearing the music with lyrics add to your understanding of the message?”.
    • Tell students to “Turn and Talk” about their responses with a neighbor.
    • Call on students to share their responses with the class.
      • Restate students’ responses. All responses are acceptable.
    • Play the song with lyrics again while students sing along. Teacher reminds students to demonstrate good posture, breath support, and accurate pitch while singing.
    • Display the storybook that accompanies the song. Tell students that the book was inspired by the song.
      • Play the song version of the book the first time while students listen and watch.
      • Play the song version of the book a second time and encourage students to sing along. Teacher reminds students to demonstrate good posture, breath support, and accurate pitch while singing.
    • Discuss how the visuals in the book help students understand the song’s meaning.
      • Document responses on the board.
    • Ask students which format (printed lyrics only, song with lyrics, illustrations in the book accompanied with music) did they prefer? Why?
      • Students document their responses then share their responses with the class.
    • 4th Grade: Ask students to explain how each media format adds meaning; have them identify what each medium added.
    • 5th Grade: Have students complete a graphic organizer, such as a Venn diagram, comparing the media formats to encourage deeper comparisons of the media’s portrayal and effectiveness.

 

Closing Reflection

  • 4th Grade: Have students explain how each media format adds meaning; have them identify what each medium added.
  • 5th Grade: Have students share their comparisons of the different media’s portrayals.

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Teacher observation of students’ engagement and participation in “Turn and Talk”, class discussions, and singing
  • Responses to Hear, Think, Wonder

Summative

  • Written responses to reflective and discussion questions
  • 5th grade: Completion of comparison graphic organizer

 

 

Differentiation

Accelerated: 

  • Students can create their own short song story with illustrations.

 

Remedial:

  • Provide sentence stems and graphic organizers.
  • Allow multiple listenings to the music.
  • Provide individual copies of the text.
  • Allow students to draw images for responses instead of words.
  • Allow students to work with a partner.

 

Additional Resources

 

Credits

Ideas contributed by: Dr. Rue S. Lee-Holmes

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Revised and copyright:  May 2025 @ ArtsNOW

 

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