CPS: The Arts

The Arts: Keystones to Learning

My Contribution

I was the choir and general music teacher at Skinner Elementary for the 2004-2005 school year - the third year of this Arts program. In the spring I collaborated with first- grade teacher Jennifer Christensen on a project for this CPS Arts program.

1) After students wrote poems about Chicago in language arts, Ms. Christensen and I team-taught a weekly class; the goal being that the students collectively write a song about Chicago. We kept ideas and words from the original poems, but helped the students mold them into lines of lyrics with a consistent rhyming scheme and a larger structural form by using a pattern of shapes they liked.

Rhyming Scheme: 

ABAB, AABB, ABAB, AABB

Large Form: 

△ □ △ □

2) Next we talked about the word or words we wanted accented in each line, and what melodic contours we could use to accompany each line. The students took turns adding solfege syllables beneath each syllable of text to create the contour and accents we wanted.

3) Once the solfege was complete, we entered the notes and lyrics into Finale and printed out the sheet music.

4) Finally, each student was given a copy of their song with the notes on the staff and lyrics beneath. We rehearsed it for a few weeks before walking down the street to Whitney Young High School, and recording it in their studio.