If you want to engage students, start with the things they love. Music is a universal language that is also a powerful gateway to many things, including learning.
Some of my earliest Building Outside the Blocks projects, before I knew that I was going to call them BOBs, used music as a route to teach specific skills. Word Beat, Music and Lyrics and POETS were ways students could use poetry or lyrics for analysis of both message and devices. When I created the Personal Soundtrack (PS2), I realized how influential music really can be in the classroom. Between the nostalgic, identity and theme song components of the assignment, every student was able to use music to tell a story about themselves, their lives, and their interests. When I came up with the idea for History Beats, I wanted to have students use music to take them beyond the curriculum.
History Beats is about selecting a song lyric relating to an historical time period, person or event. Students research at least 3 different perspectives on the song’s meaning, annotate the lyrics, develop a research question and answer it through a written, oral, visual/auditory presentation. This was my first run at History Beats but, after reading all three Grade 8 classes’ reflections, the evidence is clear that is a really powerful assignment. Every student gleaned something meaningful from the experience of their own investigation and by being an audience for their classmates’ presentations. Every Monday for the last 2 months, a few students in each Grade 8 class presented their History Beats.
When I introduced the History Beats assignment, I reviewed the outline and sent the students to a link with an alphabetical list of “historical” songs from which to choose (http://www.songfacts.com/category-songs_about_historical_events.php). I then gave students the remainder of the period to investigate the song options and consider selections based on the song or the topics. That was the last bit of class time allotted for this Building Outside the Blocks project. The rest of the work was done at home.
The students were so into the assignment from the start, that I thought it would be fun to include their parents in extending the song list options. I sent a Google Doc to the Grade 8 parents to add songs to the History Beats list. It was the first time all year that I had gotten that kind of response from the Grade 8 parents, and many were being really playful about it. One parent even “complained” that he’d have to take the afternoon off work just to begin adding his song list to the doc. By the time the Google Doc was completed, there were almost one hundred songs.
Through History Beats, students taught themselves and each other about events, places, people and time periods that made the learning truly global. The stories of individual figures like Hurricane Carter, John F Kennedy and Buddy Holly were shared along with tragedies like the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster, the Kent State shootings and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii. The songs presented came from every era and genre and included such themes such as:
-racism
-equal rights
-war
-rebellion
-disease
-colonialism
-indigenous peoples
Students learned things even beyond the songs themselves. One student reflected, “In my opinion the most interesting part of listening and watching others’ History Beats was the fact that I learned so much information that I didn’t know before when I was mindlessly listening to the song.“ They experienced the power of music.
There were many elements that made this a successful project. Students had to determine which lyrics to annotate for the class as they were able to interact with the text on the Smartboard as they explained their annotations. They listened to the songs cued to the spot that best encapsulated the track as the presenter analysed the music’s role in terms of the lyrics and the song message. Seeing how students passionately prepared to present their song or reading how they critically evaluated the text demonstrated learning skills along with content knowledge. History Beats is packed with possibilities.
I have already begun sharing this BOB with other teachers who have given me different ways to use it, and they are equally excited about the potential applications. “If you are teaching about the American Civil War,” one acquaintance thought, “why not assign a History Beats with songs related to civil wars around the world?”
“If you are looking into nationalism,” another peer commented, “why not analyze the national anthems of different countries and the stories they tell?” History Beats can be geared to protests songs and social commentary or they can have no theme and the students can be given carte blanche to pick a tune, investigate it, and construct a meaningful question to answer with the lyrics and tell the backstory. History Beats could also be converted into a tri-BOB where students focus on the different aspects of the song, revisiting the project over the school year and practicing new skills with every iteration.
The History Beats Playlist 2016:
We Didn’t Start the Fire- Billy Joel
Changes- Tupac
American Pie- Don McLean
Pompeii- Bastille
Ring Around the Rosie- unknown
London Bridges- unknown
Be Free- JJ Cole
Starry Night- Don McLean
Amerigo- Patti Smith
Zombie- Cranberries
A Great Day for Freedom- Pink Floyd
Canadian Railroad Trilogy- Gordon Lightfoot
Not Ready to Make Nice- Dixie Chicks
January 28,1986- Owl City
Canada in My Pocket- Michael Mitchell
Indian Sunset- Elton John
Sun City- Artists Against Apartheid
Biko- Peter Gabriel
Sunday Bloody Sunday- U2
Ghetto Gospel- Tupac
Scarborough Fair- Simon and Garfunkel
Brother Can You Spare a Dime?- Bing Crosby
The Big Bang Theory Song- Barenaked Ladies
Ohio- Crosby, Still, Nash and Young
Wavin Flag- Young Artists for Haiti
S.O.S.- Saxon
99 Luftballons- Nena
Smoke on the Water- Deep Purple
The Longest Day- Iron Maiden
Wind of Change- Scorpions
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald- Gordon Lightfoot
Run to the Hills- Iron Maiden
In the Summer of His Years- Connie Francis
Fifty Mission Cap- Tragically Hip
Respect- Aretha Franklin
Big League- Tom Cochrane and Red Rider
Buffalo Soldier- Bob Marley
Kenji- Fort Minor
The Door- Martin Page
Strange Fruition- Lupe Featso feat. Casey Benjamin
The Hurricane- Bob Dylan
Some Grade 8 History Beat Reflection Highlights:
The most interesting part of my History Beats to me was how much meaning my song had. It was a great experience to be able to look into my lyrics and see the historical events that took place. –Cooper
This task was very interesting because I have never gone through song lyrics and looked at the meaning behind them. It was interesting to look at the lyrics and realize that the song had a much deeper meaning behind it and it related to something in the past. The most interesting part of watching other projects was seeing their annotations. The reason why this was the most interesting part was because even though I haven’t heard a lot of these songs before, I got to see how other people unpacked the lyrics and how they all had a different meaning that connected to some event in the world. –Kayla
I believe my favourite part of this project was actually finding the realism of the songs in the project. I chose the song “Longest Day” by Iron Maiden and it is about the longest day, otherwise known as D-Day. After fully analyzing the song and annotating, I realized the real similarities of the war and the song. I realized that the song was as if it was a memoir by an American soldier talking about D-Day, spoken in first person about the horrors of war.- Cameron
The most interesting part about my History Beats was finding out about the historical event behind the song (the research aspect of the project). The reason why I was so intrigued into this part of the assignment was because I got to learn and understand how songs can be a reflection of a historical event and real life. Even though songs are supposed to be something for your own entertainment, the messages and the feelings that songs have can truly impact one’s emotions. –Tamara
The most interesting part about my History Beats was delving into the history of African Americans. While listening to others, I realized some fascinating facts and real struggles. Russell’s presentation on “Changes” by Tupac made a big impact on me. – Noah L.
The most interesting part of other people’s presentations was learning about events I had never heard of. It seems like there were some underrated events that should be more famous. For example, the IRA bombings that were talked about were very interesting, and I am surprised I’ve never heard of them. I liked this project and I liked the freedom of choosing any song. Jackson
I used many learning skills throughout this project. A lot of research was required in making sure that everything that I was saying was true and important. I also developed thinking skills. I always had to think and infer different things, especially in my annotations. I had to think critically and make sure that my thoughts are relevant and important. Lastly, I developed self-management skills. Right when I got the assignment I planned what I would be doing for the next two weeks and what day I would do it on. I would check off what I did when it was complete. This kept me organized, on task and made sure that I was ready on the day of my presentation. - Josh
Doing this project was a very unique way for me to learn about very important issues. Watching my classmates present their History Beats was also a great experience for me as I was able to learn about 16 other important events/times in our history. I don’t think that I would change or improve anything about this project because I enjoyed it the way it was.
- Shawnee
Some of these events had great interest to me as they talked about historical sports events. Also, I learned about some surprising meanings and events that some of the songs talk about. For example, Sabrina talked about “Ring Around a Rosie” which I always thought to be just some nursery rhyme. Through her presentation she showed me that this song has so much more meaning. It talks about the terrible disease that is the “Bubonic Plague”
– Noah N.
The whole process of History Beats was very educational and I learned a lot from it. Whether it was picking my song or annotating the lyrics, I enjoyed it. I learned a lot from each of my classmates’ presentations as well. It was interesting to see their inquiry and research question. I really enjoyed annotating the lyrics on the board. It was very interactive and it gave me a chance to explain some confusing or unclear lyrics to my audience. It also gave me a reason to do more research that could better help my actual presentation.- Carly
I really enjoyed watching other people present their History Beats. I got to learn so much about countless different historical events. I learned something new from each and every one of my classmates’ presentations. -Jamie
