A Musical Prompt: Postcards From the Concert

Materials and Technology

Student Interactives

Printouts

Websites

Preparation

 

MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY

• A CD or tape of a concert of your choice, and CD or tape player
  
  
• Computers with Internet access
  
  
• Overhead projector and transparencies
  
  
• Paper, pencil, and art supplies

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STUDENT INTERACTIVES

Grades   K – 8  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing & Publishing Prose

Postcard Creator

The Postcard Creator helps students learn to identify all the typical parts of a postcard, and then generate their own postcard messages by typing information into letter templates. After printing their texts, students can illustrate the front of their postcards in a variety of ways, including drawing, collage, and stickers.

 

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PRINTOUTS

• Sentence Combining and Postcard Project Rubric
  
  
• Postcard Planning Sheet

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WEBSITES

• Stormy Weather
• Gift of the Indus: The Arts and Culture of Pakistan: Music
• Xploring Xtremes Interactive: The Concert Program

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PREPARATION

1.	Ensure that your students are comfortable with forming simple, complete sentences as this will be the foundation for the lesson.
2.	Select a piece of music to use as the writing prompt. In this lesson Summer from "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi is used as an example. This song can be accessed online through Stormy Weather, a resource developed by ArtsEdge. Make sure your classroom computer is set to play the music at an appropriate volume. As an alternative, find a different musical selection of your choice (online, on CD, or on tape) and obtain the appropriate equipment to play it in your classroom. A few additional online music selections are suggested in the Resources.
3.	Copy the Sentence Combining and Postcard Project Rubric on an overhead transparency for students to refer to throughout the lesson.
4.	Bookmark and test the interactive Postcard Creator on the computers students will be using. This interactive tool enables students to create and print postcards. If you experience technical difficulty, check to make sure that computers have the most recent version of the Flash plug-in installed, which can be downloaded for free from the ReadWriteThink Technical Help page.

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