Project Launch and Deliverables

Project Launch

Students will begin the project in each subject by listening to different examples of protest music. In each content area, students will also view a brief documentary on protest music. In the student’s history course, students will be presented with various examples of protest music. They will be asked to consider the time period (contextualization) during which the music originated and to consider the issues (motives/purpose) which might have been present that inspired the musician to compose the music. What message was being sent? Who was the musician’s intended audience? What are the messages contained in the song’s lyrics? Against what issue was the musician reacting? Students will be required to reflect on the ways oppression and injustice inspired the composers to address those issues and consider what other avenues of political participation the people may have had? Were those mechanisms open or limited to them?

In science, students will be asked to consider why, in terms of waves, different types of music sound different and how this enhances the effect of the overall piece of music. How are waves different and how does this relate to the sounds that we hear? How might a musician use these differences to enhance the overall effect that they hope to present?

Finally, in their music course, students will listen to a variety of protest music while considering how this music might inspire them to create their own piece of music. What style do they plan to imitate? What components of this style do they need to include?

Final Project

Students will be creating their own piece of protest music and presenting it to the Roosevelt International Middle School community. They will compose the music ,write the lyrics, and create a video or album art based on a social justice issue that they chose to investigate. All student products will be uploaded to a YouTube playlist which will be included on our Google Site for the project. The students will also create a digital portfolio in which they demonstrate all the subject area components that resulted in their creation of the piece of protest music. These would include, for history: a written ballad; an analysis of a piece of music from history using the historical thinking methodology; a research paper on a genre of music in U.S. History and its social/historical contextualization. For science, students would include a written and visual analysis of the physics components which relate to their created piece of music, including the relationships between wavelength and amplitude of the various components of their music and the sounds of the finished piece.

Culminating Event

Roosevelt holds a festival at the end of every year in which students showcase their work in every class. This event brings all current Roosevelt students and their families to campus as well as providing a venue for prospective students to see Roosevelt’s activities and student accomplishments. Assuming that this event will be virtual this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students will record their piece of music and also include a video or an image that will be viewed with the music.