Classroom Music Lesson Plan

Bridging the Gap Between Western and Middle Eastern Culture

Teachers Name: Julia Nigro

Grade Level: High School

Learning Goals
Behavioral:
By the end of the lesson students will be able to recall the characteristics of
Western and
Middle Eastern pop music with a success rate of 80%.
Cognitive:
After listening to, and researching the similarities and differences of Western
and Middle Eastern pop music students will have self-knowledge of the cultural
struggle between the West
and Arabic countries.
Experiential:
Students will hear pop music from Middle Eastern music, in addition to their
Western
counterparts, and then research examples of Middle Eastern and
Western music that have either music or subject matter similarities.
Constructivist:
Members of the class will appreciate the similarities and differences between
their style of
pop music and that of the Arabic world.

Focusing Question
In what ways does pop music help foster understanding between Western and
Middle Eastern cultures?
Materials
-Computers Speakers
names on them
-a container to put strips of paper in
-youtube video of Googoosh- Do Panjereh
-youtube video of Taraband

-strips of paper with country

- map of the Middle East

-youtube video of Lucky- Colbie Calliat and Jason Mraz

Assessment
Formative: The teacher monitors the quality of discussion and observes
throughout the process of the students research.
Summative: The teacher grades the students presentations of the students
respective country and song.
Integrative: The teacher makes entries in a reflective journal throughout the
lesson process to record and document personal thoughts, reflections, and
comments from the students, which the teacher can then use to readjust the plan
as appropriate.

Process
Partner: Students bring to class their favorite radio hit. Teacher focuses the
listening by suggesting that the students write down common characteristics they
hear between each students chosen pieces. Teacher then asks students to
volunteer to share what it is that they heard with the class. Students and teacher
engage in a conversation of what those characteristics. After listening to the
teachers examples of pop music from the Middle East the teacher and students
engage in a conversation discussing and analyzing what they heard in the music,
and then what the similarities and differences were between it and the Western pop
music.

Present: After the listening and discussions students will pair up and be assigned a
country from the Middle East which they will then have to research background
information on the country and its culture, with the information ranging from
popular native dishes to the type of governmental system it is ruled by. The
information is to be presented in a visual presentation to the class the next time the
class meets.

Personalize: The students find a native musician from their selected country and
compare and contrast one of that artists songs to a Western pop song of their
choosing (which must be approved by the teacher). The students will learn each of
their two pop songs to perform them in class during their presentation, either in a
vocal or instrumental performance. Students are welcome to do both pieces as a
duet or one on each individually as a solo.

Perform: The students will present their research and songs to the class. After the
students present their song a discussion will be opened amongst the class and the
presenting students to discuss if there were any other similarities or differences that
the class additionally heard.