On a Musical Note: Exploring Reading Strategies by Creating a Soundtrack

Lesson Plans

Student Interactives

Calendar Activities

Professional Library

 

LESSON PLANS

Grades   5 – 10  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Songs of Our Lives: Using Lyrics to Write Stories

Students learn about the life and music of John Lennon, write a short story from their lives integrating lyrics from some of their favorite songs, and create a class book of stories.

 

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STUDENT INTERACTIVES

Grades   K – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing & Publishing Prose

CD/DVD Cover Creator

The CD/DVD Cover Creator allows users to type and illustrate CD and DVD covers and related booklets for liner notes and other information. Students can use the tool to create covers for books, music, and films that they explored as well as to create covers for media they compose individually or as a class.

 

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CALENDAR ACTIVITIES

Grades   K – 12  |  Calendar Activity  |  February 1

Take part in the African American Read-In!

Students come together with family and friends to take part in a read-in of books by African American authors and report their results.

 

Grades   3 – 12  |  Calendar Activity  |  June 3

Jesse James robs the Obocock Bank in 1871.

Students listen to folksongs and related information about Jesse James, and then research James' life and write new folk songs about James or another famous outlaw.

 

Grades   3 – 12  |  Calendar Activity  |  August 12

Walter Dean Myers, author of the Printz Award-winning novel Monster, was born in 1937.

Students discuss how the form of a film script affects the story, why the author may have selected this writing style, and write a story using a similar format.

 

Grades   5 – 12  |  Calendar Activity  |  October 6

The Jazz Singer debuted on this day in 1927.

Students think about the sound in a movie they have seen multiple times. Then students predict what sounds they expect to hear in a short scene from a film with the sound turned down.

 

Grades   3 – 12  |  Calendar Activity  |  March 3

Music in Our Schools Month is in March.

Students explore the effects of music on a story by reading a story, novel, or play, viewing the musical version, and comparing the two. Students can then select a text read in class and create a musical adaptation.

 

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PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY

Grades   9 – 12  |  Professional Library  |  Book

Reading in the Dark: Using Film as a Tool in the English Classroom

In this practical guide, John Golden makes direct links between film and literary study by addressing reading strategies (e.g., predicting, responding, questioning) and key aspects of textual analysis.

 

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