Crossing Borders/Breaking Boundaries 2000:

A Multidisciplinary Institute for Arts Educators

 
   

Africa & Its Influence

Teacher: Lori Pellock, Spring Ridge Middle School
Arts Discipline: Music
Grade Level: Spring Ridge Middle School
Team: B
Topic: Africa & Its Influence

Click here to view the lesson plans of other Team B members.

UNIT PLAN--OVERVIEW

Learner Outcomes and Expectations

Identify and perform simple examples of monophonic and polyphonic textures.

  • Describe musical qualities of African and American music.
  • Sing a simple African melody, adding movements and dynamics.
  • Describe ways in which African music influenced the development of an American style.
  • Improvise rhythms to live or recorded music.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

  1. Where is spirited music heard in African society?
  2. Where is spirited music heard in American society?
  3. Within spirited music and events, how do we find our identity?

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:

Students will be able to:

  • sing an African song with correct pronunciation and pitches.
  • move freely and with a steady beat throughout the selected song.
  • discuss with the class or a partner what events involve music in African and American society.
  • listen to a piece of African "spirited" music and identify the polyphonic texture.
  • find Ghana on the map.
  • define the term "spirit" in African and American societies.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

  • an African song ("Pata, Pata" from Ghana is being used in this presentation).
  • Power Point equipment
  • CD player
  • a recording of a piece of African polyphonic music with examples of call/response

SET-UP:

  • Power Point presentation
  • vocabulary words on the word wall or chalkboard
  • call-response
  • spirit
  • steady beat
  • "num'
  • improvise

WORD OF THE DAY -"NUM!"ENERGY"RAISE THE ROOF"

WARM-UP

The teacher will :

  • use nonverbal cues for students to sit in a circle, which represents unity in the African culture.
  • use call-response to teach the song "Pata, Pata" in 4 phrases (use 3 red and 1 green pieces of paper to represent the 4 phrases. The 3rd phrase piece of paper should be placed higher than the other three to represent how the 3rd phrase is the only one that is different.)
     

LESSON ACTIVITIES:

The teacher will:

  1. speak with the students about call-response or "echoing."
  2. Ask if they have ever heard music with call-response such as GoGo. Play an examples of this in the African and American cultures.
  3. Discuss how music becomes more spirited through repetition and dance. More energy increases the "num."
  4. Ask students where Ghana is.
  5. Stand and cue the students to stand
  6. Begin stepping with a steady beat in place and then moving clockwise in a circle. As the "num" increases as students begin stepping correctly, step louder.
  7. Begin singing the song again while stepping to a steady beat.
  8. Ask the students to improvise movements during the 3rd phrase only then step with the steady beat again on the last phrase.
  9. Cue students to step steadily to their seats.******In later lessons the teacher can add pieces of fun, printed fabrics, instruments, or props to this song.
  10. Discuss the steady beat versus the spirited improvised movements that the Africans would add to their celebrations, etc.. This relates to free style rap, GoGo, and jazz which are genres of music with their roots in jazz. Also improvised theater.
  11. Brainstorm with the students in pairs or as a class about what the word spirit means to them versus what it means to people in Africa. Using Venn Diagrams would be a great way to distinguish connotations of the word spirit in both cultures.
  12. Ask where they have heard the word spirit before; Oprah perhaps.
  13. Show a clip of spirited African dancing and singing.
  14. Ask students where these spirited musical events take place in Africa, such as in their weddings, funerals, celebrations, etc.
  15. Play a piece of polyphonic, African music. Close your eyes!
  16. How did that piece of music make you feel or what did it make you think of?
  17. Say how music, dance, acting, and storytelling are part of the African peoples spirits because they are surrounded by it their entire lives. For example, a baby on his mother's hips while she is dancing all day.
  18. Have the students tell their partner what they feel is part of their spirit because of what they have grown-up with,
  19. Discus with the students how African people find their identities with large families of 55 children-------Improvising!!!!!!!
  20. Play a short clip of African music and have the students add their own improvised "desk or lap drumming." A student with a neat beat may want to be the caller and have the class respond. This is spirited music. You can use spirit reading in class also.
  21. Review the "Pata" song and the terms used in the Power Point presentation.


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Last updated 25 April 2001