JUMP DOWN,
TURN AROUND
How can songs teach us about
the feelings of people?
Katherine Penner
Edison Bethune Charter Academy, 2nd grade
Month of February
Standards
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Prior knowledge:
1) Reading of basic words
2) Recall story sequence
3) Understand the concept of rhyme
Content Standards:
Reading:
Literature
1) ELA.2.RL.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why and how to demonstrate understanding of
key details in a text.
2) ELA.2.RL.2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message,
lesson, or moral
3) ELA.2.RL.4 Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beat, alliterations, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and
meaning in a story, poem, or song.
4) ELA.2.RL.7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of
its characters, setting or plot.
Informational Text
5) ELA.2.RI.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why and how to demonstrate understanding of key
details in a text.
6) ELA.2.RI.3 Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical
procedures in a text.
7) ELA.2.RI.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or subject area.
8) ELA.2.RI.7 Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text.
9) ELA.2.RI.8 Describe how reasons support specific points the author makes in a text.
Standards - continued
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Writing
10) ELA.2.W.8 Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
Speaking and Listening
11) ELA.2.SL.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger
groups.
a) Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions
b) Build on others’ talk in conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others.
c) Ask for clarification and further explanation as needed about the topics and texts under discussion
12) ELA-Literacy.SL.2.2 Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
13) ELA-Literacy.SL.2.3 Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to clarify comprehension, gather additional information, or deepen
understanding of a topic or issue.
14) ELA-Literacy.SL.2.6 Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification.
Language
15) ELA-Literacy.L.2.5a Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., describe foods that are spicy or juicy).
Skills:
1) Categorize vocabulary terms by product production groups: Cotton, slavery, work songs, spindles, bale, boll, pick, clothes, corn, husk, shuck, rows,
food, ears, bushels, kernels, cobs
2) Sequence the production of an item
3) Draw inferences from textual details
4) Use Think-Pair-Share strategy with a partner
5) Use graphic organizers to demonstrate understanding of a song’s compare/contrast activity and of expository text
Music and Dance Standards
Prior knowledge:
1) Keeping a steady beat
2) Singing a simple tune
3) Understand tempo and adapting to its changes in a single song
4) Using axial and locomotor movements and beat and rhythm in a dance/song
5) Physical control to stop and start basic movements 3
6) Physical control to stop and start vocal sound
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Building a bridge to successful lesson outcome
RHYTHM AND BEAT
The Basics First
Prior Knowledge: Rhythm and Beat
MATCHING PITCH
Echo the teacher to learn the song.
Watch Video of Jump Down being taught
• http://my.brainshark.com/Jump-Down-782592934
TEMPO
Standards - continued
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State Standards (Dance):
Artistic Perception 1.1
Show a variety of combinations of basic locomotor skills.
Artistic Perception 1.2
Show a variety of combinations of axial movements.
Creative Expression 2.1
Create and improvise movement patterns and sequences.
Creative Expression 2.4
Create shapes and movements, using fast and slow tempos.
Creative Expression 2.6
Create, memorize, and perform original expressive movements for peers.
Creative Expression 2.7
Work cooperatively in small and large groups.
Creative Expression 2.8
Demonstrate Partner skills
State Standards (Music)
Creative Expression 2.1
Sing with accuracy in a developmentally appropriate range.
Creative Expression 2.2
Sing age-appropriate songs from memory.
Historical and Cultural Context 3.1
Identify the uses of specific music in daily or special events.
Historical and Cultural Context 3.2
Sing simple songs and play singing games from various cultures.
Aesthetic Valuing 4.3
Identify how musical elements communicate ideas or moods.
Skills:
1) New vocabulary: accelerando, adagio, moderato and allegro
2) To combine movements to create a dance
3) To collaborate in small groups
4) To sequence movements and lyrics so there is an accumulative effect.
5) To sing, act out and improvise
Integrated Learning Outcome
• Students will work in groups to improvise a work/dance
song and demonstrate movements that show the feelings
of slaves/servants/workers.
Text
• 1) Vocabulary on post-its to categorize: Cotton, slavery, work songs,
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spindles, bale, boll, pick, clothes, corn, husk, shuck, rows, food, ears,
bushels, kernels, cobs
2) “Working Cotton” by Sherley Anne Williams
3) http://www.cotton.org/pubs/cottoncounts/story/upload/The-Storyof-Cotton...
4) http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html Digital ID fsa8a41267,
picture of piled cotton and picture of cotton fields
5) Cotton bolls from Cotton's Journey.com
6) Voices from the Days of Slavery - The Library of Congress,
memory.loc.gov Platt, Rev. Mose "Clear Rock"
7) Description and diagram of a bale of cotton:
http://www.cotton.org/tech/bale/bale-description.cfm
8) "Pick a Bale of Cotton," Kodaly Approach, Method Book Three, by
Katinka Scipiades Daniel, Mark Foster Music Co., Page 211
9) "Cotton Needs A-Pickin," Kodaly Approach, Method Book Three,
by Katinka Scipiades Daniel, Mark Foster Music Co., Page 176
Creative Process:
Imagine/Examine/Perceive
What pieces of the project require students to examine the world,
perceive artwork or imagine something new
• Preview/Warm-up/Set:
• Students are grouped in teams of 3 or 4.
• Provide a set of Post its or index cards with key terms (shown above) and have students categorize them
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on chart paper. Tell students there is no wrong answer, but to group these terms however they think they fit
together. Have them share what they already know about any of the terms.
Post charts in classroom.
Explain that we are beginning a new unit in music. We will be singing and enjoying stories about the work
that people do.
Say: "Our first lesson will be about the work it takes to pick or harvest a certain item I have in a paper
sack." Pass around and allow students to put their hands in the sack and then have them write down what
they think it is. (Cotton bolls)
Say: "The history of cotton goes back at least 7,000 years. Today, the world uses more cotton than any
other fiber, and cotton is a leading cash crop in the U.S. Cotton is a part of our daily lives from the time we
dry our faces on a soft cotton towel in the morning until we slide between fresh cotton sheets at night. It has
hundreds of uses, from blue jeans to shoe strings."
Pass out the hand-out, "The Story of Cotton," and have students see how many other things can be made
from cotton. Ask: "How many different things can you name that come from cotton based on what you know
and what you read in this hand-out?" "Who can find out what a cotton boll is?" Form student partnerships.
Hand out a web graphic organizer to each partnership, and have them develop their web around cotton's
story: where and how it is grown, marketed, processed and manufactured.
Let's see what a bale looks like. Display the picture of a bale on the white board from your classroom
projector from this site: http://www.cotton.org/tech/bale/bale-description.cfm
• Display pictures of cotton fields, piles of cotton, records of cotton picked on the
white board as well. (These can all be found on line: ohiohistory.org and
http://memory.loc.gov.) Explain that, in the 1800's, it took incredibly large groups
of people to pick cotton. Say: "Many times groups of people are bought and
traded to do work that require large groups of people. These people are called
slaves. The African Americans who were enslaved often made up songs to sing
while working the cotton fields. They sang to make the day go faster. Often these
songs were called "field hollers." Many cultures around the world have some form
of songs for people to sing to pass the time while working.“
• Teach, by rote, the cotton work song, "Pick a Bale of Cotton."
• Ask: "How would your life have been different if you had been a slave? Have you
ever worked together with your family to get a job completed? Has your family
ever done field work? If so, where and what was being done - planting, harvesting
...?" (Think, pair, share in partnerships)
• Say - "Let's read a book about a young girl who was not a slave but whose family
was migrant workers right here in the San Joaquin Valley.“
• Read, "Picking Cotton" by Sherley Anne Williams. Stop to discuss the beautiful
pictures. Stop to ask and discuss the following on corresponding pages using T-PS strategy: "How do they think this little girl feels?" "How heavy do you think those
bags were?" "Would you like to work in the fields all day?" "Tell your partner one
thing that would be difficult about picking cotton." Stop and act out picking cotton.
• Ask: "How do songs help when you work?" (T-P-S)
• Say: "Work songs actually helped to ease the burden of hard labor like cotton
picking, and the beat and rhythm kept the workers together in sync." Let's
sing "Pick a Bale of Cotton" and act it out as we sing. Let's add more things
we can do - jump down, turn around ...... Develop this into an accumulative
song and sing it faster and faster or slower and slower - review the musical
tempo terms - accelerando, adagio, moderato and allegro while you're at it.
Ask (assess): How does the tempo reflect the feelings of the workers? When
would they dance and sing faster? Slower? Student partners C – P – R
Create, perform and revise and then share with class what works and what
doesn’t and why.
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• Let's hear how this song sounded being sung in 1939 by Platt, Rev. Mose
"Clear Rock"
• Play recording and get their opinions: Ask: "How is Rev. Platt's version the
same and how is it different from the one we just sang?" Have students
construct a Venn diagram, as partners, using the graphic organizer hand-outs
to compare and contrast the two versions.
Creative Process:
Explore/Experiment/Develop Craft
• Which activities ask students to explore the content, experiment
with ideas and build new skills?
1. Preview/Warm-Up/Set:
• Students are grouped in teams of 3 or 4.
• Provide a set of Post its or index cards with key terms (shown above) and have
students categorize them on chart paper. Tell students there is no wrong answer, but
to group these terms however they think they fit together. Have them share what
they already know about any of the terms.
• Post charts in classroom.
2. Pass around and allow students to put their hands in the sack and
then have them write down what they think it is. (Cotton bolls)
3. Pass out the hand-out, "The Story of Cotton," and have students see
how many other things can be made from cotton. Ask: "How many different
things can you name that come from cotton based on what you know and
what you read in this hand-out?" "Who can find out what a cotton boll is?"
Form student partnerships. Hand out a web graphic organizer to each
partnership, and have them develop their web around cotton's story: where
and how it is grown, marketed, processed and manufactured.
Graphic Organizers
• Student tools
Creative Process - Continued
• 4. Read, "Picking Cotton" by Sherley Anne Williams. Stop to discuss the
beautiful pictures. Stop to ask and discuss the following on
corresponding pages using T-P-S strategy: "How do they think this little
girl feels?" "How heavy do you think those bags were?" "Would you like
to work in the fields all day?" "Tell your partner one thing that would be
difficult about picking cotton." Stop and act out picking cotton.
• 5.
Play recording and get their opinions: Ask: "How is Rev. Platt's
version the same and how is it different from the one we just sang?"
Have students construct a Venn diagram, as partners, using the
graphic organizer hand-outs to compare and contrast the two
versions.
Creative Process:
Create
What pieces of the project are devoted to students creating their
artwork?
• Teacher will say: "Work songs actually helped to ease the burden of
hard labor like cotton picking, and the beat and rhythm kept the
workers together in sync." Let's sing "Pick a Bale of Cotton" and act it
out as we sing. Let's add more things we can do while we work in the
fields - jump down, turn around ......Partnerships TPS ideas for the
dance. Develop this into an accumulative song and sing it faster and
faster, or slower and slower - review the musical tempo terms accelerando, adagio, moderato and allegro while you're at it. How
does the tempo reflect the feelings of the workers? When would they
dance and sing faster? Slower? Student partners C – P – R Create,
perform and revise and then share with class what works and what
doesn’t and why.
• When it is time to perform: Students practice entering and exiting the
area they will perform. They decide where the audience and camera
should be.
Creative Process:
Reflect/Assess/Revise
• Which activities ask students to reflect on their work, assess their progress and revise
their project?
• Provide a set of Post its or index cards with key terms (shown above) and have students categorize
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them on chart paper. Tell students there is no wrong answer, but to group these terms however they
think they fit together. Have them share what they already know about any of the terms.
Post charts in classroom. At the end of the lesson, groups take their charts and revise as desired.
Repost in the classroom.
As students do their dance with a partner, they perform C - P- R Create, perform, revise chosen
actions – what works, what fits with the tempo, rhythm and beat, what fits with a work song.
Have them work in partnerships and list three reasons why cotton was and is important.
Ask teams that were formulated at the beginning of class the following questions and discuss as a
class:
"Why did African Americans create work songs to sing while working in the fields?"
"Who were the people who would have been singing, "Pick a Bale of Cotton"?
"In reading, "The Story of Cotton," how do you think that cotton picking has changed from the 1800's
to now?
Go back to their charts, and see if any teams want to re-categorize their Post its or index cards.
Students write Self-Reflections at the end of the unit.
Creative Process:
Time to Share!
• How will students share their work with others?
• Students will perform their song and dance, “Jump Down,
Turn Around”, for their first grade friends during the school
day at their Specials’ music time.
Formative Assessment of the Visual
and Performing Arts Content
• Teacher observation of student body control
• Teacher observation of in-tune singing and articulation
• Dance and music rubric
Formative Assessment of Other Content
Areas
• Teacher observes students collaborating as they
categorize their post-its or index cards about work.
• Web graphic organizer used to show understanding of
cotton’s story
• Students construct a Venn diagram, as partners, to
compare and contrast the two versions of “Jump Down,
Turn Around”.
• Teacher observes TPS strategy during discussion of the
book, “Picking Cotton”.
Authentic Performance-Based Summative
Assessment
• Add picture(s) of final project with brief comment
• Optional– include data reflecting student performance
Rubrics
Music Rubric
Tone Quality
Superior
Excellent
Good
Average
Poor
Even tone quality
throughout the vocal
range, well-supported,
resonant, focused,
vibrant, projecting
Some inconsistency
in the vocal range,
mostly supported,
mostly consistent
breath support,
beginning to be
resonant.
Breathy,
unsupported
tone in some
sections.
Lacks focus. Weak,
poor tone production
Intonation/
Always on pitch with
correct notes
Always on pitch with
a few incorrect notes
Much
inconsistency
between the vocal
registers, but
beginning to be
focused and clear;
more breath
support needed
Somewhat on
pitch with a few
incorrect notes
Recognizable
but rarely on
pitch
Never on pitch
Articulates clearly and
the text of the music is
always
understandable;
shows excellent
command of all
languages
Dynamic levels are
obvious, consistent,
and phrasing is
always consistent and
sensitive to the style
of music being sung.
Performs with a
creative nuance and
style in response to
the score and limited
coaching.
Articulates words
somewhat clearly
and text can be
understood most of
the time
Sometimes
articulates the
words but the text
is often not
discernible
Rarely
articulates the
words and the
text is not
discernible
Never clear with no
command of foreign
languages
Dynamic levels and
phrasing is usually
consistent and
sensitive to the style
of music being sung.
Typically performs
with nuance and
style that is indicated
in the score or which
is suggested by
instructor or peer.
Dynamic levels
fluctuate but can
be discerned.
Phrasing is
usually consistent
and occasionally
sensitive to the
style of music
being sung.
Sometimes
performs with
nuance and style
that is indicated in
the score or which
is suggested by
instructor or peer.
Attention to
dynamic levels
is not obvious.
Phrasing is
rarely
consistent
and/or rarely
sensitive to
musical style.
Rarely
demonstrates
expression
and style. Just
sings the
notes.
No sense of dynamics
or phrasing and a low
degree of independent
musicianship; severe
technical flaws
overshadow
expression
Shows an excellent
command of the stage
in all styles and
literature; completely
committed to
text/character
Performs with a
creative nuance and
style in response to
the score and limited
coaching.
Has potential on
stage but lacks
consistency in
commitment to
text/character in
some styles; could
use more work on
interpretation and
stage deportment
Shows a lack
of comfort on
stage; rarely
demonstrates
an
understanding
of
text/character
No connection to
text/character and no
stage presence to
speak of
Pitch
Accuracy
Diction/
Articulation
Musicianship
(phrasing,
dynamics,
rhythmic
accuracy
musical style)
Performance
(stage
presence,
commitment
to
text/character
)
Rubrics - continued
Dance Rubric:
Task
Excellent
Good
Needs Improvement
Brainstorm Ideas
The group was able to
brainstorm at least 10 ideas for
the dance.
The group was very
comfortable trying new steps
and experimenting with
different movements which
creatively expressed a work
song.
The group developed an
outstanding plan for the dance
that reflected a work song.
The group worked together in
an excellent collaborative
effort. They listened to all
group members’ ideas, and
tried to incorporate them in the
dance.
The group was able to
brainstorm at least 7 ideas for
the dance.
The group was somewhat
comfortable trying new steps
and experimenting with
different movements which
creatively expressed a work
song.
The group developed a good
plan for the dance that
reflected a work song.
The group worked together in
a good collaborative effort.
They listened to all group
members’ ideas, and tried to
incorporate many of them in
the dance.
The group was able to
brainstorm fewer than 3 ideas
for the dance.
The group was not able to
creatively express a work song
through their movements.
They did not experiment with
different movements.
Practice and Creativity
Record the Dance Plan
Collaboration
The group did not develop a
good plan for the dance that
reflected a work song.
The group did not collaborate
well. They did not listen to
each other’s ideas and did not
incorporate very many ideas in
the dance.
Summative Reflection:
Student Comments
• Reflections about the big idea:
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• Students write Self-Reflections:
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• Describe: What kinds of movements did you use in
“Jump Down, Turn Around”?
• Analyze: How did these movements help explain what
you learned about work songs?
• Interpret: How did it feel to perform for an audience?
• Decide: What other kinds of work or activities would you
like to create a dance about?
Summative Reflection:
Teacher Comments
What I loved!
• What did I learn?
• What surprised me
about the lesson?
• Add picture here with
a brief description.
I wonder if I….
Finish the statement with any
changes you would make to
the lesson. Include a photo if
applicable.
Extension Activities
• Learn the song, "Cotton Needs a- Picken" by rote, and sing it
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as a partner song with "Pick a Bale of Cotton." Add ostinati and
perform for the school talent show.
Interview, as a class, people who have picked, planted or
grown cotton.
Have students go on a scavenger hunt, and find as many items
as they can around their homes that are made out of cotton.
Create artwork depicting cotton: fields, work, etc.,
Create a mural depicting the planting, growing, picking,
shipping, ginning, marketing, spinning and weaving of cotton.
Also, include the products cotton gives us.
Hand out signs to the teams that were formed at the beginning
of the lesson. These signs will have one word that describe one
part of the sequence in cotton's story from where it's grown to
it's manufacture. See which team comes the closest to getting
them into the correct sequence.
This lesson was the result of the work
done at the Arts Every Day workshop
offered through the Fresno County Office
of Education.