Words & Music Outreach Program
The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum launched its Words & Music Outreach program during the 2010-2011 school year. Funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and free to teachers and students, this new initiative transports the museum's cornerstone Words & Music program to a group of 4th grade classrooms in Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools.
Words & Music Outreach provides students with a creative outlet to express their feelings or tell a story through song. At the same time, students learn important elements of writing, such as the use of imagery, meter, mood, rhythm, and rhyme. Utilizing the museum's award-winning lesson guide, teachers lead students though the lyric-writing process. In the final lessons, students write or co-write their own song lyrics. Their lyrics are then forwarded to a professional songwriter, who puts the words to music. The songwriter, accompanied by a museum educator, then visits your school to perform several of the students' songs. Additionally, they comment on other song lyrics, field questions about the profession and craft of songwriting, and relate stories about their personal journey as a writer. Not only is this last portion of the program engaging and fun, it is often quite memorable for the kids. Whether they get to proudly hear their song performed in front of their peers or have their question answered by the visiting songwriter, they all share in the rare opportunity to see how the lessons and skills they have been learning in the classroom connect to life outside of school.
Lyric sample from Words & Music session:
Kids Don’t Lie
Crept down the hall and found mom asleep
She said to try counting some sheep
I turned around and went back to my room
It was time that I faced my impending doom
I picked up my flashlight, found the batteries dead
Maybe if I jump on top of the bunk bed
By that time I saw the morning light
No sleep at all and I look a fright
Kids don’t lie about scary things
The sounds that they hear and the dreadful night dreams
Kids don’t lie, so leave on the lights
Kids don’t lie about monsters at night!
PROGRAM DETAILS
- Before teaching this unit for the first time, teachers sign up for a one-day workshop held at the museum where they learn practical methods for teaching students to write a song.
- Teachers receive detailed instruction on the contents of the Words & Music guide.
- This guide assists teachers in preparing students for the Words & Music program. It contains classroom lessons that guide students through writing a song lyric.
- It contains fifteen easy-to-use lessons that address Tennessee State Curriculum Standards in both Language Arts and Music.
- The guide also includes worksheets with answer keys, a rubric to assess student learning, and a CD with ten songs written or performed by popular artists, many of whom are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Contact Information
To participate in this program or if you have any questions, please contact David Bogart, Words & Music Outreach Coordinator at dbogart@countrymusichalloffame.org or 615-480-3971.
Registration also available here.
Made possible by the Country Music Association Endowment for Words & Music
Words & Music Outreach is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts
|
|
|
