Culturally Responsive Literacy Lesson for Beginning Music Class

Teacher Name: Mitchell Betancourt__

Introduction:
What make my students unique and different?
My school district (Corona-Norco Unified School District) has over 52000 students 80% of
which are minority students. Additionally, 30% of the district’s students fall under the
“economically disadvantaged” bracket, 30% of which fall within the 0-99% poverty threshold. I
will likely have students which struggle to have the necessities we take for granted such as clean
clothing, and a stable home life. 13% of the district’s students are English Learners. This will
create additional teaching challenges as students will need additional culturally relevant
instructional strategies.
What are the linguistic and learning needs?
Students will need literature which is available at different reading levels a/o additionally text
available in their native language to assist in their understanding. Because my course is not
focusing on primarily helping my students learn English, I feel comfortable sharing a copy of the
text in their native language to assist in the core teachings of music.
What factors did you take into consideration when planning this culturally responsive
literacy lesson?
Some factors I considered were: How can I frame the lesson so that students feel engaged and
have a sense of ownership in their participation? What are some ways that I can negate the
language barrier for ELL / ESL students? How can I create a safe environment for students to
share their diverse backgrounds through music?

Lesson Title : “Music with a friend!”

Total Time: 45 minutes

Standards Being Addressed:
1.MU:Re7.2 With limited guidance, demonstrate and identify how specific music concepts (such
as beat or pitch) are used in various styles of music for a purpose.

1.MU:Re8 With limited guidance, demonstrate and identify expressive qualities that reflect
creators’ and performers’ expressive intent.

1.MU:Cn10 With limited guidance, discuss how personal interests connect to creating,
performing, and responding to music.

2.MU:Cn11 Describe connections between music, society, and culture.

 “Music with a Friend!” Visualizer Form

Your Name: Partner Name:

Song Title:

Why did you pick What sounds do

this song? you hear?

Do you know
Where do you other songs like
normally hear this this? Song Name?
song?
To us this song is:

Lesson Sequence
Entry Activity/Transition:
T: Goodmorning Class! I’m so excited to start our “Music with a Friend” activity today! I hope
that you all picked a super cool song! Now, Can anyone tell me what items I asked you to bring
today?
S: [Responds with various answers, Looking for “Song from your cultural background with
Lyrics”, Written or Printed Excerpt of Lyrics that are important to each students, and audio
playback device]
T: That’s exactly right! Can I have everyone take out the following:
1) Device to Play Music on, such as phone or iPad.
2) Something to write with
3) And your written or printed copy of the songs lyrics?
T: Our activity will be a partner activity, which means you will need someone to listen to music
with! Can I have everyone partner up? If you don’t have a device that can play music, can you
find a partner who does and sit by them today? If you and your partner do not have a device, can
you sit together and raise your hands so that I can bring you a school iPad?
Objective: Students in 6th grade will analyze and describe audio recording and lyric text as
it pertains to society, culture, history and music.

1. Familiarize students with handout (10 Minutes)

[Teacher passes out 1 copy of the “Music with a Friend!” Visualizer Form to EVERY
student (2 per partner group)]

T: Can everyone look at the worksheet I’ve just passed out? Please put the name in the
box at the top left, it states “your name:” Raise your hands when you and your partner are
done! Who can do it first??????
a. Good opportunity to use a whiteboard and illustrate instruction, recreate the
box and add your name in the box.
b. Ask partners to check
T: Now look at the top right box! Can you put your partners name in that box? If you
don’t know your partner that well, introduce yourself! Raise your hands when you
and your partner are done!
c. Allow 20 seconds for introductions
T: Can Everyone take 30 seconds and look over the remainder of the sheet? What are
some things that you see? What catches your eye? What might be the purpose of the
worksheet? What can we learn from filling out this worksheet with our partner?
Discuss with your partner, annnnnnd GO!
d. Intermingle with class and listen to conversation
T: Alright class bring it back in. What did we observe? What did we talk about?
3 Replies, annnnnnd GO!
e. Encourage discussion.
T: Lets look at the handout together now. Here is how we will use the handout today:
The most important concepts to cover for the handout are:
1) the fact that there are 2 sides, the left to be filled out by you, and the right to
be filled out by your partner
2) you most only fill out the thought bubbles on the side with your name on it.
The bubbles can be filled with either words or pictures. The most important
aspect of the content of the bubble is that students can freely express
themselves at the literacy level that they are comfortable with.
3) Each group member must answer 2 questions, independently.
4) There is a box at the bottom which they will need to complete Together.

2. Students Fill out the Left Side (10 Minutes)

T: Talk with your partner for a minute about anything that is still confusing to you? Raise
your hand if you have questions that you could not answer, ill come over to you and
answer them.
a. Teacher walks around room listening to discussion and answers questions
where necessary.
T: Let’s begin our first activity. I would like you to take 2 minutes and fill out the song
name in the center of the worksheet and the 3 bubbles on your side of the worksheet! You
 may choose to listen to the song again at a quite level if you need to be reminded about
what your song sounds like. Feel free to find a corner of the room with your partner.
a. Walk around and observe student progress.
T: Remember, you can use pictures, or words you know to describe your interpretation of
the song. Bonus challenge, can you find one word that you have seen in our band music
that you think describes the song you chose?

T: Can you fill out the two questions to the left of your bubble? You may use your
devices if you need to do research. Google is your friend! You have 5 Minutes to answer
those questions. If you finish early, discuss your findings with your partner.
[Students finish up left side]

3. Switch Papers, Fill out Right Side (10 Minutes)

[Teacher returns to front of class if not partnered with a student]

T: Now class here comes the fun part! Its time to switch papers!! I need you to hand your
partner the following, the handout we just filled out, the printed or written lyrics that you
brought with you, and the device your partner will be using to listen to your song. Make
sure to Introduce the song you chose, to your partner!

T: Lets familiarize ourselves with the context of the piece, read what your partner
answered for the 2 questions on the left side, BUT DON’T TALK TO THEM.
a. Silent

T: Lets begin listening class, lets follow the same procedure that we went with on the left
side of the handout. Take 4 minutes to listen to the piece and read the lyrics,while you fill
out your thought bubbles. What do you here? Are their any familiar aspects or sounds
you recognize?
a. Teacher walks around and observes the progress of the students and provides
guidance where necessary.
T: Lets answer our 2 questions when we finish with our thought bubbles. 2 minutes.
[Students finish up right side]

4. Partner Discussion + Analysis Synthesis (5 Minutes)

T: Turn to your partner and talk to them about your experiences listening to the song and
your experience reading through its lyrics. Compare each side of your handout,
similarities and differences? What did you find interesting about the song? What
was something you don’t understand? Talk to your partner about something you
are confused about. 5 minutes
[Students discuss aspects of the handout]
T: Now that we’ve discussed our observation, I want you to create a sentence which
describes the songs you have each chose. Work with your partner for 3minutes, on each
of your handouts and craft a sentence together in the bottom boxes on both of your
handouts.
5. Class Discussion/Assessment: (10 Minutes)
[Teacher returns to front of class and takes on role as discussion facilitator]
T: Class lets come back together! How did your discussion go? Was everyone able to
create a synthesis sentence?
Discussion Questions:
1) Did anyone read texts that were NOT in their native language?
a. How did you navigate that challenge?
b. How did your partner assist you in your understanding, or how did
they offer support?
2) Did anyone choose a song written a language that is not in a language they are
fluent in?
a. Can we appreciate music of a culture that we aren’t familiar with?
i. YESSSSS, YES WE CAN.
3) Did anyone find that they had a DIFFERENT interpretation than their partner
of the SAME piece of music?
4) What were some interesting words or pictures that you saw in our thought
bubbles?
5) Did anyone learn something about another culture that they didn’t know
before?

Transition and Closer:

T: Hey class, we are just about out of time! Did you guys have fun listening to music? I did! I
enjoyed listening to all your interesting selections. I’m going to put together a playlist of all the
music we listened to today and Ill be posting a QR Code of all the music our class enjoys. Look
for it on the wall!
Make sure that you and your partners name is on your handouts and pass your handouts to the
left so that they can be collected!