Appalachia and Music

Class begins with the teacher asking students, in a whole group setting, what their favorite kind of music is, and what makes that kind of music their favorite. The teacher will allow students to answer out loud, and guide students to think about what instruments are used and what the artists talk about in their songs –2 minutes. Students are be divided into pairs to annotate the excerpt using the annotation guide provided. The annotation guide provides a scaffold to help students learn the skill of annotating a text –4 minutes. Students are then called back together as a whole, and each pair will read their annotations to the class. The teacher will facilitate discussion, and once all pairs have shared their annotations, the teacher will guide students back to the song lyrics of My Tennessee Mountain Home, and explain that the students will be writing their own song about where they are from –5 minutes. The teacher will explain the directions of the graphic organizer to students, asking them to fill out each box to create their own song. Students will work independently –10 minutes. Students will then turn and talk to a neighbor about the song that they created about where they are from –2 minutes.