The Star-Spangled Banner ” Lesson Plan



“The Star-Spangled Banner” Lesson Plan

National Standards:

1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

5. Reading and notating music.

6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

7. Evaluating music and music performances.

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

9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

Objectives:

· Students will perform a song using correct posture, correct rhythms, and accurate pitches.

· Students will read music notation and lyrics of various patriotic tunes.

· Students will analyze the purpose and meaning of patriotic songs.

· Students will discuss the social and cultural context of our national anthem.

· Students will understand the story of our national anthem.

Materials:

· Student copies of “The Star-Spangled Banner”

· 2004 WLC Rehearsal CD and/or piano accompaniment

· Complete lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner” (provided below) on a chart or a transparency

· Lyrics to Verse 1 of our national anthem, cut into sentence strips (see below)

· Recording equipment

Prior knowledge and experience:

· Students have familiarity with “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

· Students can sing unison songs as a group.

Procedures:

1. Sing the first verse of “The Star-Spangled Banner” for the students, or play the 2004 WLC Rehearsal CD. Ask the students if they recognize the song, where they have heard it played or sung, and what is expected to happen when the song is performed.

2. Display the song lyrics for Verse 1 of our national anthem for the class on a chart or transparency.

3. Sing or play the song again and ask students to follow the chart and think about the meaning of the words. Check for understanding of the following words:

Dawn : beginning of day

Proudly : feeling very good about something

Thro' : poetic abbreviation for “through”

Hail'd : cheered; poetic abbreviation for “Hailed”

Twilight : the time between sunset and dark

Gleaming : shining

Perilous : dangerous

O'er : poetic abbreviation for “over”

Ramparts: piles of earth around a fort to help provide defense

Watch'd : poetic abbreviation for “watched”

Gallantly : bravely

Streaming : constantly moving

Rockets : bombs

Glare : a strong, bright light

Proof: evidence

4. Ask students to choose a partner, or assign pairs or groups of students to work together. Distribute a set of sentence strips (see below) containing the lyrics to the first verse of our national anthem to each pair/group of students in the class. Ask them to cooperatively arrange the sentence strips in the proper order as they listen to the song. Play the song once again and ask the students to check their work. Play the song a third time, asking the students to sing along.

5. Explain to the students that Francis Scott Key (1779-1843), a 34 year-old lawyer, wrote the words to our national anthem. Ask them to imagine that they are Key, thinking about how he might have felt that morning in September 1814, and why he wrote the poem that would become our anthem. Share the following with the students to help them imagine the scene:

“The date is September 13, 1814. Your name is Francis Scott Key, and you are a lawyer-poet. For more than two years, the War of 1812 has been raging between the United States and England, our former mother country. The President of the United States, James Madison, has chosen you and another person to go on board the British warship, Surprise, anchored in the Chesapeake Bay, to negotiate an American prisoner's release. Meanwhile, the British have begun to bombard Ft. McHenry, which is guarding the city of Baltimore. Unfortunately for you, the British are now holding you captive. During the night, you anxiously pace back and forth on the deck, hoping to catch a glimpse of the coastline; but you cannot see the coast clearly due to the fog, smoke and haze. You know if the flag is lowered, it is a sign that your fellow countrymen have surrendered to the English. Then, as dawn draws near, with the flash of bursting shells you can occasionally see the fort and the over-sized flag bearing fifteen stars. You are elated! Finding an envelope upon your person, you jot down your thoughts to remind yourself of your feelings of the long and restless night. Also, an old English tune comes to mind, ‘To Anacreon in Heaven'. Since this tune is well recognized by your fellow Americans, your version, a parody, that you originally titled, ‘The Defense of Ft. McHenry', quickly becomes popular. ”

Of course, this is exactly what Francis Scott Key did, and his lyrics quickly became well known. They were played shortly thereafter when the British surrendered at the Battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815. On March 3, 1931, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was officially declared America's national anthem, 117 years after it had been written, and with forty-eight stars on the flag.

6. Distribute student copies of all four verses of “The Star-Spangled Banner” (see below). After reading through the other verses, discuss why the second and third stanzas are now often omitted when it is sung. (They are strongly anti-British.)

7. Distribute student copies of “The Star-Spangles Banner,” Service Version, from the online 2004 WLC Teacher's Guide. After several class periods of singing the national anthem, tape record the students' performance and ask that it be played over the intercom on Wednesday, March 3, 2004, the 73rd anniversary of Congress' declaration. Send a copy of the tape to a local Assisted Living Center or nursing home nearby. Connect with Music!

Sentence strips

Copy onto cardstock paper, laminate, cut into strips, and place in envelopes.

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Our National Anthem

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

- Francis Scott Key

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O say! can you see, by the dawn's early light,

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What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?

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Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,

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O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming!

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And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

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Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

************************************************************************

O say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave,

************************************************************************

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

************************************************************************

Complete Lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner”

O say! can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight'

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming!

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

O say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen, thro' the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the mornings first beam,

In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream;

'Tis the Star-Spangled Banner: O long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion

A home and a country should leave us no more?

Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,

And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O, thus be it ever when free men shall stand,

Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land

Praise the Pow'r that has made and preserved us as a nation.

Then conquer we must, when for our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust".

And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Francis Scott Key

 

Extensions:

1. Using the newly learned vocabulary discussed in Step 3, ask the students to create a crossword puzzle or a word search.

2. Encourage students to use technology to research national anthems from other countries. Ask them to find another country's anthem from which we borrowed the melody for another American patriotic tune. For example, the melody to “America” is from the British National Anthem, “God Save the Queen.”

3. Some have said “The Star-Spangled Banner” is difficult to sing, and it has often been suggested that it be replaced by “America,” “America, the Beautiful,” “God Bless America,” “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean,” “Hail Columbia,” “O Beautiful My Country,” or “God Bless Our Native Land.” Ask the students to a) find the lyrics and melodies to the recommended replacements for the national anthem; b) with a partner, compare and contrast at least two possible replacements with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Have the class role play as members of Congress, and “decide” which song should be the national anthem.

4. Select other professional recordings, each made by a different soloist or performing group, and present them to the class. Using a Venn diagram, ask the students to compare and contrast the different renditions.

Indicators of Success:

· Students perform song using correct posture, correct rhythms, and accurate pitches.

· Students show ability to read music notation and lyrics of patriotic tunes.

· Students demonstrate a deeper understanding of patriotic music.

· Students realize the social and cultural context of the national anthem and can retell its story.

Supplemental Resources:

Star Spangled Banner Web sites:





Lesson plan for “The Star Spangled Banner” provided by Maryanna T. Jones, EMEA Member; Elementary Music and Middle School Choral Director, Fort Knox Community Schools, Ft. Knox, KY, in dedication to Stephanie Redmon, and other young music educators, in hopes that they sustain MIOSM with the WLC as its centerpiece for many years to come.

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