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Title - Study of the Musicals
By - Cheryl
Primary Subject - Music
Secondary Subjects - Language Arts
Grade Level - 6-9

Procedure:

Discuss the musical of your choice with the class. Create a listening worksheet for students to complete while they listen to the prologue or overture. The questions should help the students determine the setting of the musical by asking what do they think is going on at certain points in the music, what instruments do they hear, etc. Continue to describe the story of the musical, stopping to play each song. Additional listening worksheets can be created as desired.

Once the students have heard each piece, obtain (with permission) a script or modified script of the musical. Assign parts to each of the students. If the class is large, narrator parts and large group or chorus members may be assigned. Read the musical and play the songs again. If desired, the students could act them out as a reader's theater or sing some of the songs.

After reading the script, watch a video of the musical. The students are often very excited to point themselves and classmates out as the characters as they watch.

Create a test that includes questions that involve listening to the pieces.

After this lesson is finished, I find that many students sing the songs for years, and enjoy performing the songs for classmates. Many times, they will ask their parents to buy them the soundtrack of the musical we watched in class.

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