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- Fables, Fairy Tales, Legends and Myths
through Song Writing (Grades 2-5) - Where I Come From! Songs and Poems from
Many Cultures (Grades K-6) - Get Ready For Boston! Exploring Boston and its Neighborhoods in Songs, Poems, and Stories
(Grades 2-6) - Links to Literacy: Lyrical History Civil Rights Era, Industrial Revolution, Social Change (Grades 1-8)
- Focus on American Poets: Hughes, Dickinson, Frost (Grades 3-8)
Fables, Fairy Tales, Legends and Myths through Song Writing (Grades 2-5)
This series of workshops integrates song lyric writing into the study of Fables, Fairy Tales, Legends, or Myths, leading students and teachers in the methods and techniques of creating song-stories. Using descriptive techniques, narrative sequencing, meter and rhyme, the story is retold in lyrical form. No musical experience is needed. Melodies are taken from traditional folk tunes and the occasional invented melody. A community performance by the students, teachers, and visiting songwriter celebrating these songs has become a yearly tradition in some schools. This workshop addresses numerous principles and standards of the Massachusetts State Frameworks in Social Studies and Language Arts.
Where I Come From! Songs and Poems from Many Cultures (Grades K-6)
Where I Come From! explores racial and cultural diversity through songs, poetry and other art disciplines. WICF! is a valuable curriculum theme, germane to the diverse populations which comprise today's school communities. It is a multicultural classroom curriculum including two audio CDs and a 24-page activity book containing 63 songs and poems sung or spoken in 12 languages with transliterations and translations. Writing activities are arranged by the following themes:
- Poems and Chants from Many Cultures
- Home and Community
- Family and Culture
- Using Your Senses
- Inspiration
- Seasons and Nature
When working with English Language Learners, we honor children's first language and help them translate to English when sharing their own songs and poems with a larger community. English-speaking students will listen to these poems and songs in other languages and begin to learn words, hear the cadences and find patterns in the structure of each language. Finding pleasure in a range of styles and languages will increase students' acceptance of each other. Furthermore, WICF! clearly demonstrates that poets and songwriters from many cultures are inspired by similar feelings and themes.
The Get Ready for Boston! writer's residency is perfect for third and fourth graders studying Boston, for second graders studying community, and for all students involved in field trips to Boston and its neighborhoods. Troubadour writers will use the model songs, poems and stories from this curriculum (text and recordings), as a basis for research, discussion, oral interpretation and original writing, revising, and sharing. The Get Ready for Boston! curriculum includes songs about the Children's and Science Museums, the Black Heritage Trail, Huntington Avenue, Fenway Park and Roxbury; poems about the Freedom Trail, Chinatown, the Boston Public Library, and stories about Lucy Stone, the Boston Tea Party, among many others. We address specific reading strategies that help students identify key concepts, historical information, and literary techniques. Students will create their own poems, songs, stories, brochures, murals, maps and/or festivals based on pieces from the curriculum, other relevant literature and their study of Boston, a specific neighborhood, or a local community. This workshop addresses numerous principles and standards of the Massachusetts State Frameworks in Social Studies and Language Arts.
As a teaching tool, song lyrics can be as valuable as text and visual aids when learning about an historic period of time or place. In the classroom, a recording of songs (original or revived) from a specific era can provide students with an emotional connection and documented information through both the music and the lyrics. Through the Lyrical History program of hearing, singing, and writing original song lyrics, students in grades 1-8 will meet many of the academic requirements of the Massachusetts English Language Arts and History and Social Science Frameworks, as they:
- practice and acquire habits of listening to and following stories,
- write properly sequenced descriptions and summaries,
- memorize historical poetry and songs,
- incorporate their understanding of history through use of timelines,
- consider such questions as "turning points" and "what if?",
- identify events by date and historical period,
- convey understanding of a subject through oral, written, dramatic, or artistic expression.
Focus on American Poets:
Hughes, Dickinson, Frost (Grades 3-8)
Troubadour writers now offer units on three essential American poets: Langston Hughes, for grades 3-6; Robert Frost for grades 5-8; and Emily Dickinson for grades 5-8. Each unit engages students in reading, discussing and writing about the poems and life of the specific poet as a whole class and in small groups. The unit includes writing original poems based on the themes or literary devices of the poet. Appropriate poems and reading strategies have been selected for the targeted grade levels. These units, developed by Judith Steinbergh, Director of Writing Programs, provide professional development for faculty, classroom materials, bibliographies, and classroom support.