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Hey music educators! Those of you who know me already know how much I love creating curriculum materials. I am an artist and creative at heart; designing lessons & learning experiences for me is a part of my artistic craft as an educator. This week I’m excited to share some of that work with you!
Introducing Song of the Month
We all know the importance of thoroughly knowing the background, history, and context of the songs and musicians we teach AND music educators absolutely need more resources that prioritize diversity, cite their sources, and give proper context to repertoire. It’s unfortunate that we don’t have more music education curriculum resources that prioritize these things.
It’s also true that our learners deserve better content right now; it’s up to us to make that happen, we can’t wait for others to do this for us.
To support you, every month, I’ll be sharing a “Song of the Month,” a piece of musical content that I have researched along with a lesson plan. Of course, you have to do your own due diligence, too: hold yourself to the standard that you will thoroughly know the musical content that you present to learners beyond just a surface level understanding. Don’t take my – or anyone else’s – word for it! You need to do that work.
The lesson plans I’ll be sharing will include a variety of learning pathways that you can take back to your classroom.
Celebrating Dr. King: From Bill to Law
In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr day, this month’s song is Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday.” For as long as I can remember, I have always known the “Black Happy Birthday Song,” but it wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned how that song came to be.
“Happy Birthday” is a song Stevie Wonder wrote in the pop/R&B genre and features him on the keyboard synthesizer. Wonder wrote the song about Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as part of the campaign to enact a national holiday celebrating Dr. King’s birthday and contributions.
Here’s Stevie Wonder performing the song, if you’ve never heard the song (or even if you have!) take a listen!
Four days after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in April 1968, Rep. John Conyers introduced legislation to enact a national holiday to honor Dr. King’s birthday. It would take 15 years for this legislation to be passed.
Stevie Wonder first met Dr. King when he was 15 and quickly joined Rep. Conyers in support of a bill to declare a national holiday in King’s honor. Eventually, Wonder wrote “Happy Birthday” to commemorate Dr. King’s birthday and support the campaign for declaring his birthday a national holiday. Wonder wrote and later recorded “Happy Birthday” and it was included on his 1980 album, Hotter Than July.
There was significant opposition to the bill, in particular from Sen. Jesse Helms who said that Dr. King had followed a philosophy of “action-oriented Marxism” that was not “compatible with the concepts of this country (Roberts, 1983).”
While our history textbooks would tell us otherwise, it’s important to remember that while he was alive, Dr. King he was targeted by the U.S. government and labeled a communist because of the work he did to fight for civil rights. Now lauded as one of our most significant civil rights leaders, mainstream information about Dr. King omits much of his stances on issues including his longstanding critique of police brutality. I encourage you to seek out Dr. King’s writings and be informed on the totality of his work and views.
In the later years leading up to the bill’s adoption, Wonder committed to significant rallying for the holiday including a four-month tour to publicize the drive for MLK day concluding in a rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The movement to officially enact MLK day finally succeeded in 1983, when the bill passed the Senate 78 to 22. The holiday was officially celebrated for the first time nationally on January 20th, 1986 (it’s also important to note that some states and cities began honoring Dr. King’s birthday as early as 1970. Also, remember that the national MLK holiday falls on the 3rd Monday of January, not necessarily Dr. King’s actual birthday).
A Music Unit to Celebrate MLK Day
I know there are a lot of songs and music lessons that have been created to celebrate Dr. King and MLK day, but what better way to celebrate than with a lesson on the very song that helped MLK day become a national holiday!
In this week’s resource, I’m sharing a unit I wrote celebrating Dr. King and MLK day. The unit includes four lessons where students will sing, create movement, explore song writing, and learn about Dr. King and the movement for MLK day utilizing Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday.”
Here’s what you’ll get:
- Info about Stevie Wonder
- Info about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Info about the song and it’s background (the research I’ve done, be sure to also do your own due diligence!)
- Reference and resource lists for further reading and learning
- Full unit plan with four written lesson plans including pathways for performing, connecting, responding, and creating
- Lesson objectives and learning pursuits crafted using the Culturally and Historically Responsive framework by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad
- Authentic assessment throughout
- Visuals and student handouts
This particular unit was written for upper elementary, however I have used variations of it with a variety of grade levels. I encourage you to adapt it to suit your students’ needs!
Here are a few suggested adaptations:
- For younger students, focus on the form and movement lesson portion of the unit. With younger students I typically use ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ instead of verse, refrain, bridge, and coda if we haven’t learned those particular terms yet.
- Allow options for students to write song lyrics in their home language.
- Focus on whole group songwriting rather than small group.
- Have students work in groups to write 1-2 phrases of song lyrics rather than a full verse
I encourage you to consider the unique strengths and needs of your students in how to best deliver this unit!
Because my class periods are short (“30 minutes,” but really more like 20-25 minutes of actual instruction time), you’ll notice that the lessons are written to focus solely on “Happy Birthday” (with one appearance by Kool and the Gang) so that we can go really deep.
When adapting for your classes, you may want to add some additional songs; here are my suggestions: Stevie Wonder’s “You Haven’t Done Nothin” from his album Fulfillingness’ First Finale (make sure you dig into who the ‘you’ is in this song!), and “Tomorrow Robins Will Sing” from Stevie’s album Conversation Peace. Again, make adaptations to suit the needs and strengths of your students!
What do you think of this unit and the lessons?
I would love to know what you think of the lessons! Comment below or share on social media and tag me: I’m @ACuthbertson10 on both Twitter and Instagram.
Also, let me know what you think of this post! If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for my weekly email newsletter where I’ll be sending these blog posts each week, as well as other music education resources and tips.
Until next time,
Ashley
P.S. Don’t forget to grab your copy of the unit plan and lesson resources for Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday” & MLK Day, it’s free! Let me know what you think of the lessons in the comments or by tagging me on social media.
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I want to thank you for pointing me in the direction of a new approach to my MLK lessons!! This was a very well-developed lesson, and I’m eager to implement it.
Thanks again!!
You are very welcome, Dee! I’m so glad it is useful to you, let me know how the lesson went with your students!