Ella Fitzgerald Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan #3

Read Aloud

Performance Standard: MMSIC.7 – Evaluating music and music performances

MMSIC.8 – Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts

MMSIC.9 – Understanding music in relation to history and culture

 Essential Question: How is jazz related to the visual artwork of this historical era?

Objectives: Identify and describe relationships between music, dance arts, theatre arts, and visual arts.

Demonstrate literacy skills through reading and discussing musical settings of varied literature.

Supplies: Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuoso

By: Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney

                                                                                 Music CD

New Word Vocabulary Worksheet

1.    Students will listen as the teacher reads the book aloud. The pictures are shown after each page is read.

2.   The students listen to the story and write down any unfamiliar words on their worksheet.

3.   After the story, students are given time to complete the worksheet. Students create their own definition of the word based on the story. They also make any personal connections to remember what the word means. Drawing pictures or making a visual connection is also a great way to remember a new word and definition.

4.   The class discussed the vocabulary words discovered.

5.   Vocabulary: scat; bebop; jazz; syncopation; improvisation; and virtuoso.

Extension activity: Students discuss the Apollo Theatre and Carnegie Hall and the types of music that made these music halls famous. The students will also listen to Ella’s scat singing and experiment with improvisation. The students discussed the art work in the picture book, talked about the style of the art, and how the illustrations made the text come to life.

 The next time I teach this lesson I will bring some instruments to demonstrate different jazz techniques. I will also let the students listen to recordings before the book is read.