Lesson Plan Title: CHORUS & VERSE Concept / Topic to Teach

Lesson Plan Title:

CHORUS & VERSE

Concept / Topic To Teach: The deﬁnition, attributes and functions of a chorus (refrain) and a verse in a song, and their respective relationships to main idea / supporting detail.

Advanced curricular connection with literacy and ELA: Point out how a chorus contains the main idea of a song, and the verses contain the supporting details. Point out that this mirrors the meta-concept of main idea / supporting details in all types of writing — narrative, descriptive, persuasive, and so on.

Target age group: 4th / 5th graders. Curriculum standards addressed:

From current TN standards on music: (http://www.tn.gov/education/article/arts-education) Standard 6.0 Listening and Analyzing Students will listen to, analyze and describe music. 6.1 Explain characteristics of same and different sections.

From current TN standards on ELA: (http://www.tn.gov/education/article/english-language-arts- standards) Reading Standards for Informational Text 2. Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; Introduction: Writing lyrics for an original song, or rewriting the lyrics to a familiar song, is a step by step process. In order to write (or rewrite) the lyrics to a song in the chorus / verse form, one must begin with an understanding of the purpose and function of a chorus (refrain) and of a verse in a song. This chorus / verse form directly mirrors the educational meta-concept of main idea / supporting detail. In songs, the chorus contains the main idea of the song, the verses contain the supporting detail. In writing, the topic sentence of a paragraph contains the main idea, the remainder of the paragraph supports the topic sentence. General Goal(s): To familiarize students with the the concepts of chorus and verse, the concept of songs having a form and the linkage between chorus and main idea and between the verses and supporting details.

Speciﬁc Objective(s): Students will demonstrate the ability to identify the chorus of a familiar song and differentiate it from the verses of a song. Students will also demonstrate the ability to identify the MAIN IDEA of a song, from hearing its chorus. Deﬁnitions/Attributes:

CHORUS: It repeats; it often contains the title of the song; it is the part of the song where many people may join in and sing; it often has its own unique melody; it often has end-of-line rhymes; and it contains the MAIN IDEA of the song. VERSES: They do not normally repeat; they tell the story, if it is a narrative song or they describe a place or scene or feeling; verses often have a melody different from that of the chorus; they often have end-of-line rhymes; verses are more likely to be sung by one person rather than by an entire group of people, and verses contain the SUPPORTING DETAILS of the song. Required Materials: CD player and CDs or MP3s containing versions of “This Land is Your Land” written by Woody Guthrie and “Lean on Me,” written by Bill Withers

Step-By-Step Procedures: 1) Introduce the concepts and the terms “chorus (refrain)” and “verse.” 2) Ask students what songs they know which have this form. Remind students that many popular ballads and folk songs are written in a chorus/verse form, as are many gospel songs. Remind students that not all songs are in this form, that it is one of many song-forms. 3) Write “CHORUS” and “VERSE” side by side on the Smartboard. 4) Ask what makes up a chorus? What qualities does it possess? (Use the list from “Deﬁnitions/Attributes” above.) Ask what makes up a verse. Write these qualities under the appropriate word, on the board. See how much correct information you can glean from the students. Add to the list of qualities until they include all that are mentioned in Deﬁnitions/Attributes. 5) Underline or otherwise emphasize “main idea” listed under “Chorus,” and “supporting detail” listed under “verse.” Ask students if this reminds them of any concepts in language arts or creative writing. 6) Play “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie and ask the students to listen to it in its entirety.

7) Play the song again, and ask students to raise their hands (or stand up) when the chorus occurs. [The chorus begins with “This land is your land, this land is my land...”] Ask them to put their hands down (or be seated) when a verse begins. 8) Ask them why they chose as they did. How did they know that the chorus was, in fact, the chorus? 9) Play the song again and ask them to listen carefully to the verses this time. 10) Ask each student to pick out one descriptive supporting (visual) detail from any verse. Have them read their answers aloud. 11) Choose and play “Lean on Me” (or another contemporary song in the chorus / verse form), ask them to do the same activity: hands up on the chorus, hands down on the verses. 12) Ask each student to write down the MAIN IDEA of this newer song, gleaning it from the chorus of the song. 13) Ask them to write down the MAIN IDEA of Woody Guthrie's song. 14) Assessment: Ask each student to pick up a familiar song she or he likes that is written in a chorus / verse form. Assess if the song is, indeed, written in that form. Have the students write down the chorus (or a verse) of the chosen song to the best of their memory, and also write down the reasons why they think it is a chorus (or a verse). What qualities of a chorus (or verse) does it contain? I.e., “I think this is the chorus of this song because, as you can see, it repeats and it contains the title of the song.” Or, “I think this is a verse in my song, because it does not repeat and it is very descriptive.”

Further activities: Look at the rhyme scheme of the chorus, and of one verse, of a chosen song. Often the rhyme schemes are different. In ballads, AABB, or ABAB are common rhyme schemes. Discuss how song lyrics (in choruses or verses) are similar to, and dissimilar to, poems. Is a song simply a poem with music added on top? Or is a song something which combines both melody and lyrics in a way that is not easy (or effective) to separate?