Writing and Listening Lesson Plan - Grade 6-8

Standard(s):
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.1.a
Introduce claim(s) about a topic or issue, acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from
alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.
Grade Level : 6
Learning Targets:
I can discuss how I feel about the song and support my reasoning with evidence.
I can identify the musical time period.
I can compare my interpretation of the song to the composers.
Concepts:
Gain an understanding of what the composer is trying to make the listener feel (emotion).
Explore the similarities and differences of emotions that other students have.
The need to learn to cooperate with others.
Strategies:
Model expectations
Engage students
Walk around the classroom while students are working with their peers
Ask critical thinking questions
Clarify the task
Complement students who are working hard and paying attention
Procedure:
1. The students will sit at their desks and listen to a classical music piece.
2. The students will write down how the song made them feel and why the song made them
feel that way. The teacher may play the song a second time so that the students can write
their explanation for why the song made them feel a certain way.
3. The students will break into small groups so that they can share and compare how the
song made each of them feel. Can you find a piece of todays music that would compare
your feelings to what you feel when listening to the classical music piece?
 4. Students will return to their desks and the teacher will tell them the name of the piece and
who the composer was.
5. The teacher will show students how to research and will find the resources of
Beethoven's life, era of when the song was written, historical events that were happening.
a. Have students pick a time period that they would like to research.
6. The teacher will ask the students different questions about the pieces. What was the
artist's feelings when he/she wrote this piece? How did the time period that the artist
lives/lived in influence his/her written piece?
7. The students will share what they have found with the class in a class discussion. The
teacher will help the students answer the question, how did the time period that the artist
lives/lived in influence his/her piece?
8. The teacher will hand out a graphic organizer and ask the students to write down how
they felt about the piece versus how the artist felt. The students will also write down their
reasoning for why they felt how they did and why the artist felt how he/she did.
Materials/Resources :
Pencil
Paper
Graphic Organizer
Research articles about Beethoven and the time period he lived in
Youtube Clip of Beethoven - Spring Sonata (Violin Sonata No. 5)
Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAXA6ofwZrc
Rationale :
All throughout this lesson plan the teacher is asking the students to use the four language
skills; reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students are listening to the teacher use the
target language, to a song, to one another in a pair activity. Theyre using their writing skills to
describe in a couple of sentences what they feel after listening to the piece and then sharing their
reasoning with their peers. The students are using these four language skills for a greater purpose
and that is to learn how to think and express their thoughts and knowledge in an organized way.
By pairing listening to music with writing, students can use emotion and reasoning to compare
their thoughts and feelings with the thoughts and feelings of another person. The purpose of this
lesson is to help students use music to gain more insight about a certain topic and help them
remember what they have learned long after they leave the classroom.

Research Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1801_in_music
http://artsalive.ca/collections/nacmusicbox/chronologique-
timeline/index.php/en/html/vue-view/26
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1800to1809.html
 Graphic Organizer

How do I feel?

Reason
How did the Composer feel?

Reason