ALEX Learning Activity

  

Determining a Mother's Love Through Music and Poetry

A Learning Activity is a strategy a teacher chooses to actively engage students in learning a concept or skill using a digital tool/resource.

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  This learning activity provided by:  
Author: Samantha Bonner
System:Jefferson County
School:Jefferson County Board Of Education
  General Activity Information  
Activity ID: 2300
Title:
Determining a Mother's Love Through Music and Poetry
Digital Tool/Resource:
How Music Affects the Brain Video
Web Address – URL:
Overview:

This activity is designed to allow students to write a comparison-contrast essay comparing song lyrics dealing with a mother's love. Students will analyze multiple literary texts and engage in each step of the writing process.

 This activity was developed as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

  Associated Standards and Objectives  
Content Standard(s):
English Language Arts
ELA2021 (2021)
Grade: 9
R5. Utilize a writing process which includes planning, revising, editing/peer-editing, and rewriting to create a focused, organized, and coherent piece of writing for a specific purpose and audience.
Unpacked Content
Teacher Vocabulary:
R5.
  • Writing process
  • Plan
  • Revise
  • Edit
  • Peer-edit
  • Rewrite
  • Focused
  • Organized
  • Coherent
  • Purpose
  • Audience
Knowledge:
R5. Students know:
  • The writing process steps are to plan, revise, edit, and rewrite.
  • Editing can be completed by the writer or by a peer.
  • Peer-editing skills.
  • Completed writing projects should be focused, organized, and coherent, and written for a specific purpose and intended audience.
Skills:
R5. Students are able to:
  • Plan, revise, edit, and rewrite to create a focused, organized, and coherent piece of writing.
  • Compose a writing piece for a specific purpose and intended audience.
  • Engage in the peer-editing process.
Understanding:
R5. Students understand that:
  • Writing is a process that requires multiple drafts, edits, and versions.
English Language Arts
ELA2021 (2021)
Grade: 9
6. Compare and/or contrast the perspectives in a variety of fiction, nonfiction, informational, digital, and multimodal texts produced from diverse historical, cultural, and global points of view, not limited to the grade-level literary focus.
Unpacked Content
Teacher Vocabulary:
6.
  • Fiction texts
  • Nonfiction texts
  • Perspectives
  • Informational texts
  • Digital texts
  • Multimodal texts
  • Historical viewpoints
  • Cultural viewpoints
  • Global viewpoints
Knowledge:
6. Students know:
  • Strategies to identify the perspective of fiction, nonfiction, informational, digital, and multimodal texts.
  • Strategies to identify the historical, cultural, and global viewpoints of a variety of texts.
  • Methods to compare and contrast texts.
Skills:
6. Students are able to:
  • Compare and contrast perspectives in fiction, nonfiction, informational, digital, and multimodal texts.
  • Compare and contrast diverse historical, cultural, and global viewpoints demonstrated in a variety of texts.
Understanding:
6. Students understand that:
  • The texts they read will have a variety of historical, cultural, and global viewpoints, which offer a multitude of perspectives on different topics.
  • Similar and different ideas and themes can be presented in a variety of textual formats.
English Language Arts
ELA2021 (2021)
Grade: 9
9. Compose both short and extended narrative, informative/explanatory, and argumentative writings that are clear and coherent, use an appropriate command of language, and demonstrate development, organization, style, and tone that are relevant to task, purpose, and audience.

Examples: paragraphs, constructed responses, essays

a. Write a memoir, narrative essay, or personal or fictional narrative to convey a series of events, establishing a clear purpose and using narrative techniques.

Examples: dialogue, pacing, description, reflection

b. Write explanations and expositions that incorporate evidence, using transitions and techniques that objectively introduce and develop topics.

Examples: relevant and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations

c. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning, relevant and sufficient evidence, transitions, and a concluding statement or section that follows from the information presented.
Unpacked Content
Teacher Vocabulary:
9.
  • Short writings
  • Extended writings
  • Narrative writing
  • Argumentative writing
  • Informative/explanatory writing
  • Writing development
  • Writing organization
  • Style
  • Tone
  • Task
  • Purpose
  • Audience
  • Command of language
9a.
  • Memoir
  • Narrative essay
  • Personal narrative
  • Fictional narrative
  • Narrative techniques
9b.
  • Explanations
  • Expositions
  • Evidence
  • Transitions
  • Techniques
9c.
  • Arguments
  • Claims
  • Substantive topics or texts
  • Valid
  • Relevant
  • Sufficient
  • Reasoning
  • Evidence
  • Transitions
  • Concluding statement or section
Knowledge:
9. Students know:
  • Writing pieces can be short, such as a paragraph, or extended, such as constructed responses and essays.
  • A narrative is a piece of writing that tells a story.
  • The purpose of argumentative writing is to convince the reader to take action or adopt a particular position.
  • Informative or explanatory text is a piece of writing that provides factual information that was gathered from multiple research sources.
  • The development, organization, style, and tone of writing will change depending on the writing task, the purpose of the writing, and the intended audience.
  • Formal academic writing should demonstrate an appropriate command of language.
9a.
  • A narrative is a piece of writing that tells a story, such as a memoir, essay, personal narrative, or fictional narrative.
  • Narrative writing includes techniques, like dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection.
  • Events in narrative writing should be sequenced in a coherent manner.
9b.
  • Explanatory and expository text is writing that examines and explains complex ideas or processes, utilizing information from multiple credible research sources.
  • Explanatory and expository writing has an organized structure, and usually begins by clearly focusing on the topic, incorporating credible evidence, and ends with a conclusion.
  • Explanatory and expository writing should utilize techniques that objectively introduce and develop topics.
  • Words that indicate transitions.
9c.
  • The purpose of argumentative writing is to defend an opinion or state a claim.
  • Argumentative writing includes introducing the topic by stating an argumentative claim, valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence to support the claim, and a concluding statement that coherently follows the presented information.
  • Words that indicate transitions.
Skills:
9. Students are able to:
  • Compose short and extended clear, coherent narrative, argument, and informative/explanatory writings.
  • Identify the writing task, the purpose of writing, and the intended audience in order to appropriately adapt the development, organization, style, and tone of the writing.
  • Demonstrate command of the written language.
9a.
  • Write a narrative with a coherent sequence of plot events and a clear purpose.
  • Incorporate narrative techniques in their narrative writing, including dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection.
9b.
  • Gather credible information and data from multiple sources.
  • Write an explanatory and expository text with an organized structure and formal style that objectively develops the topic and utilizes appropriate transitions and credible evidence.
9c.
  • Write an argument to support claims in an analysis of topics or texts that utilizes appropriate transitions.
  • Gather relevant and sufficient evidence from accurate and credible sources to support the claim.
  • Use valid reasoning to support a claim.
  • Include a concluding statement or section that logically follows the presented information.
Understanding:
9. Students understand that:
  • There are different genres of writing that serve various purposes.
  • The writing task, purpose, and audience should be considered in the development, organization, style, and tone of the writing.
  • Formal academic writing should display their command of the English language.
9a.
  • Narrative writing can take many forms, but there should be a coherent sequence of events.
  • Literary techniques are tools that can be used to create a piece of narrative writing.
  • Literary techniques in narrative writing contribute to the overall meaning and purpose of the text.
9b.
  • Explanatory and expository writing should be free from opinions and supported with evidence.
  • Explanatory and expository writing follows a predictable, organized text structure that utilizes appropriate transition words.
  • They must gather their information and data about the topic from multiple credible research sources.
9c.
  • To effectively defend a position or make a claim, they must present relevant, sufficient evidence from accurate and credible sources.
  • An argument can be more effective if the writer includes a concluding statement that logically follows the information presented previously.
Learning Objectives:

Following this activity students will be able to:

1. listen/read poems and songs to determine the themes of each work.

2. write a comparison/contrast essay analyzing the central theme of two songs.

3. analyze two or more text to determine the theme of each.

4. Participate in the writing process by doing the following:

     a. Brainstorm

     b. Pre-write

     c. Write the rough draft

     d. Participate in the peer editing process

     e. Type/write the final draft.

  Strategies, Preparations and Variations  
Phase:
During/Explore/Explain, After/Explain/Elaborate
Activity:

To begin this activity students will need to complete an anticipation guide, How Does Music Affect You? This activity begins after students read the poems "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes and "How Do I Spell Father" by Marshall Davis Jones. Students will also listen to two or more songs that have a similar theme or message as the poems read in class. The songs that could be used for this activity are "A Song for Mama" by Boyz II Men and "Sadie" by The Spinners (I also attached a copy of the lyrics for each song: A Song for Mama Lyrics and Sadie Lyrics). After thorough class discussions dedicated to analyzing each work to determine the central message or theme, students will proceed to the writing component of this activity. Students will locate textual evidence demonstrating similarities and differences between the two works read and/or listened to in class. They will use a Comparison/Contrast Essay Organizer to chart and explain their findings. After successfully completing the comparison/contrast graphic organizer, students will then write their rough drafts. Next, students will be placed in groups of two so that the Peer Editing session can begin. (Attached is a peer editing form that is a student-friendly way to edit a peer's work.) Once the peer editing session is complete and students have made the necessary corrections, the typing or writing of the final draft can take place.

Assessment Strategies:

The following methods will be used to evaluate the student's mastery of the objectives:

1. Completion of the Comparison/contrast essay organizer.

2. Completion of the rough draft and peer editing form.

3. The submission of the final draft.

(Attached is a suitable Comparison/contrast rubric to grade student essays.)


Advanced Preparation:

To be prepared for this lesson you should:

1. have copies of the peer editing form already cut and copied.

2. have the organizers prepared for each student.

3. copy a class set of the songs used in the activity.

4. have highlighters, pens/pencils, and sticky notes available.

5. have computers/laptops with Wifi access accessible for student use.

Variation Tips (optional):
 
Notes or Recommendations (optional):
 
  Keywords and Search Tags  
Keywords and Search Tags: comparison, contrast, essay, lyrics, music