Write a Song About American History

After playing the song for students, provide textbook or supplemental resources to help students learn some of the history behind the battle that inspired the song.

Learn More About the Battle

Talk about historical facts gleaned from those resources that support the song lyrics. For example,

• Colonel Andrew Jackson led the U.S. forces.
• The Americans were outnumbered by the British forces ("We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin"), but the Americans turned them back.
• Pirates, led by Jean Lafitte, were known to have supported the American effort.
• The Americans whipped "the britches off of Colonel Packingham." British forces, under Major General Edward Pakenham, were soundly defeated. They suffered more than 2,000 casualties.

You might share some other songs about famous events in history from the History in Song Web page:

After listening to the song(s) and discussing the facts behind the lyrics, invite students to write their own songs about famous events or periods in American history. Students might work in pairs to research and write their songs. If you wish to provide a "seed list" of events about which students might learn and write songs, here is a starter list:

Additional Resources

Assessment

• inclusion of accurate/researched historic information (to be explained by they students).
• ability of their song lyrics to "teach" about an event or time period in history.

Lesson Plan Source

EducationWorld.com

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

FINE ARTS: Music
GRADES 5 - 8
NA-M.5-8.7 Evaluating Music and Music Performances
NA-M.5-8.8 Understanding Relationships Between Music, Other Arts, and Disciplines Outside the Arts
NA-M.5-8.9 Understanding Music in Relation to History and Culture
GRADES 9 - 12
NA-M.9-12.7 Evaluating Music and Music Performances
NA-M.9-12.8 Understanding Relationships Between Music, Other Arts, and Disciplines Outside the Arts
NA-M.9-12.9 Understanding Music in Relation to History and Culture

LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.1 Reading for Perspective
NL-ENG.K-12.2 Reading for Understanding
NL-ENG.K-12.4 Communication Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.5 Communication Strategies
NL-ENG.K-12.6 Applying Knowledge
NL-ENG.K-12.8 Developing Research Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.9 Multicultural Understanding
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills

SOCIAL SCIENCES: U.S. History
GRADES 5 - 12
NSS-USH.5-12.1 to 10 All Eras

See more Lesson Plans of the Day in our Lesson Plan of the Day Archive. (There you can search for lessons by subject too.)

For additional history lesson plans, see these Education World resources:

• Lesson Planning: History
• History Subject Center
• Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plans: History
• Work Sheets from Teacher Created Materials: History

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Originally published 01/03/2006
Last updated 03/25/2009