iCurriculum...Now on Shuffle! By: Vicki McGarry Adam Yasenosky

ABC's and 1,2,3's How many of you sing the abc's to get to a specific letter of the alphabet? or you sing the months of the year? Learning material by putting it to music is not a new idea, however it is a strategy that we as educators sometimes forget to use when teaching concepts in our curriculum. We are going to walk you through one way to bring technology, music and your curriculum to life where students are engaged and enjoy what they are participating in as well as retaining information.

STEP ONE: Targeting Standards You, as the teacher, will need to decide what subject matter you want your students to write/sing about. For example, you are a social studies teacher and you are teaching in the History Strand: Feudalism and Transitions "Describe the conditions that gave rise to feudalism as well as political, economic and social characteristics of feudalism in Asia and Europe." Now, students need to locate appropriate content to use in STEP TWO.

STEP TWO: Music and The Writing Process Now that you and your students have a topic you will select an instrumental beat to use for the song you are about to create. Instrumental tracks can be downloaded from a variety of sites that are free. One of our personal favorites is: There are many of sites that offer free mp3 downloads, here are a few: 7http:// 7

STEP TWO: Music and The Writing Process Now that your topic AND your beat, you are are ready to begin the writing process. 1.Have the students listen to their tracks a few times so they can "feel" the beat. 2.Have the students brainstorm and create a project outline (any graphic organizer will do). 3.Once their outline is created they will then "write the story." 4.Take that "story" and break it into managable pieces... create your song (verses and chorus)

STEP THREE: Setup Recording Area Once students have their song written and you have approved their lyrics, it is time to record. You can use freeware sites such as: 3ZjOnZ8CFaM45QodyUsoLwhttp:// 3ZjOnZ8CFaM45QodyUsoLw or purchased equipment from For this process you will need a computer, microphone, and a set of headphones.

STEP FOUR: Recording Now that you have your beat, written lyrics, the recording software and equipment... it is time lay it down! Keys items to remember: 1.Save often 2.You can always edit your recording 3.You can o add sound effects o record yourself more than once o show your personality 4.Have fun! Once your song is recorded you will need to finalize it as an.mp3 or.wav file to import into your music video.

STEP FIVE: Music Video Now that you have finalized your song you are ready to create your music video. You can use freeware sites for either OS such as: Windows: o Windows Movie Maker (it comes standard on all machines) o CamStudio-- Mac: o iMovie (it comes standard on all Macs) You will need a computer, your song, a digital camera or video camera (optional)

STEP FIVE: Music Video Once you have chosen your video software, you will need to decide how detailed and creative you want your students to be when creating the video. Some options you may want to include: Pictures from the internet that match your curriculum (Google Images works well) Pictures that students have taken using a digital camera Images created in Paint to use as transitions Video footage taken by students of themselves to insert into their movie

STEP SIX: Putting It All Together Now here's what you've got: 1.A finished student created song (based on your curriculum) o Hard copy lyrics o The song audio (.mp3 or.wav file) 2.A movie project containing o Song audio o Project related images o Student video footage o Paint creations (optional) Once the movie project has been finalized, students can view it from any computer or dvd.

RAPPING IT UP Students have now looked at content information in at least three different ways and through three different levels of learning: 1) Linguistic, 2) Musical and 3) Spatial By targeting more than one intelligence through the use of technology students are more apt to retain knowledge. International Society for Technology in Education website. NETS…on the left it is broken down into categories. NOTE: This entire project can still be completed without computers and recording. Students can simply write and perform songs for the class.

CONTACT INFORMATION:  Vicki McGarry  Adam Yasenosky 