Compare Text and Music: Shuffle Along’s “Love Will Find a Way” | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA 2019 G7:M3:U1:L3

Compare Text and Music: Shuffle Along’s “Love Will Find a Way”

In this Lesson

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Focus Standards: These are the standards the instruction addresses.

  • RL.7.2, RL.7.4, RL.7.7, L.7.5a

Supporting Standards: These are the standards that are incidental—no direct instruction in this lesson, but practice of these standards occurs as a result of addressing the focus standards.

  • RL.7.1, L.7.4
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Daily Learning Targets

  • I can determine the meaning of figurative language in "Love Will Find a Way." (L.7.5a)
  • I can compare the written version of "Love Will Find a Way" to its audio version, analyzing the effects of techniques in each medium. (RL.7.7)
  • I can identify themes in "Love Will Find a Way." (RL.7.2)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Opening A: Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 3 (RL.7.7)
  • Work Time A: Analyze Figurative Language: "Love Will Find a Way" (RL.7.4, L.7.5a)
  • Work Time B: Compare Text and Music: "Love Will Find a Way" (RL.7.7)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Engage the Learner - RL.7.7 (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Analyze Figurative Language: "Love Will Find a Way" - RL.7.4, L.7.5a (20 minutes)

B. Compare Text and Music: "Love Will Find a Way"- RL.7.7 (10 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Determine Themes: "Love Will Find a Way" - RL.7.2 (10 minutes)

4. Homework

A. Compare Text and Music: "Love Will Find a Way": Students complete Homework: Compare Text and Music: "Love Will Find a Way" to synthesize their learning about the textual and musical techniques and effects in "Love Will Find a Way."

Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

  • RL.7.7 – Opening A: On an entrance ticket, students explore musical techniques and their effects while listening to “Love Will Find a Way.”
  • RL.7.4 – Work Time A: Students read and analyze another scene from Shuffle Along and analyze how repetition and language create meaning. 
  • L.7.5a – Work Time A: Students read and analyze another scene from Shuffle Along and learn to identify and interpret figurative language in the text of “Love Will Find a Way.”
  • RL.7.7 – Work Time B: Students listen to a performance of “Love Will Find a Way,” comparing it to the text and analyzing the musical techniques and effects.
  • RL.7.2 – Closing and Assessment A: Students review the concept of theme and work together as a class to determine and trace the development of a theme in “Love Will Find a Way.”
  • In this lesson, students focus on working to become effective learners by collaborating with peers to compare and contrast a written song with its performance.
  • The Think-Pair-Share and Readers Theater protocols are used in this lesson. Protocols are an important feature of our curriculum because they are one of the best ways to engage students in discussion, inquiry, critical thinking, and sophisticated communication. A protocol consists of agreed-upon, detailed guidelines for reading, recording, discussing, or reporting that ensure equal participation and accountability in learning.

Opportunities to Extend Learning

  • Release more responsibility more quickly to students as they comprehend the tasks or concepts. For example: 
    • Allow those students who have more familiarity with musical performance and singing to serve as mentors for their peers in identifying how these techniques impact the text. 
    • Students identifying the techniques more easily can also highlight and annotate other areas of interest in the text and share out their findings with peers.
    • Also, students can develop their own text-dependent questions and exchange them with peers. Learning to ask and answer one’s own questions about a text is a skill students will need for high school, college, and even in careers.

How It Builds on Previous Work

  • In previous lessons, students have focused on comparing the written lyrics and performance of a song, noting how techniques unique to each medium affect the presentation of the work. In this lesson, students continue this work by comparing text and music in a new song and scene of Shuffle Along.

Support All Students

  • Students may need additional support identifying the aspects of musical performance that impact the meaning of the text. Organize groups so that students with more experience in musical performance can assist their less experienced peers. ▲

Assessment Guidance

  • Review students’ Compare Text and Music: “Love Will Find a Way” questions to ensure their understanding of the relationship between the text and the musical performance.

Down the Road

  • In the next lesson, students will continue practicing comparing and contrasting the texts of songs with their musical performance in preparation for the mid-unit assessment.

In Advance

  • Ensure there is a copy of Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 3 at each student's workspace.
  • Prepare
    • Set up the track "Love Will Find a Way" from Shuffle Along so that students can listen to it as they arrive and complete their entrance ticket.
  • Post the learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see Materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

  • Opening A: "Love Will Find a Way" song from Shuffle Along
  • Work Time B: "Love Will Find a Way" song from Shuffle Along
  • Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout previous modules to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to review with students later and to share with families; and for students to listen to and annotate text, record ideas on note-catchers, and word-process writing.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 7.I.A.1, 7.I.B.5, 7.I.B.6, 7.I.B.8, 7.I.C.10, and 7.I.C.12.

Important Points in the Lesson Itself

  • To support ELLs, this lesson provides teacher-led analysis of figurative language in Shuffle Along's "Love Will Find a Way" as well as peer support for analyzing the music techniques. Interpreting the text and music techniques may be challenging, but the teacher and peer support throughout the lesson, as well as the selected response questions that provide answer options, will help ELLs successfully participate in the analysis.
  • ELLs may find it challenging to write a constructed response to synthesize the class responses analyzing the text and musical techniques. In addition to the lesson supports and those suggested below, allow those students who need the most support to write, dictate, or orally process with a partner in their home language.

Vocabulary

  • allusion, figurative language, metaphor (DS)

Key

(A): Academic Vocabulary

(DS): Domain-Specific Vocabulary 

Materials from Previous Lessons

Teacher

Student

  • Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart (one for display; from Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 4, Opening A)
  • Domain-specific word wall (one for display; from Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 1, Work Time B)
  • Techniques anchor chart (one for display; from Module 3, Unit 1 Lesson 2, Work Time B)
  • Vocabulary log (from Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 2, Opening A)
  • Excerpts from Shuffle Along (text; one per student; from Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 2, Work Time B)

New Materials

Teacher

Student

  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 3 (answers for teacher reference)
  • Audio recording of "Love Will Find a Way" from Shuffle Along CD
  • Techniques anchor chart (example for teacher reference)
  • Compare Text and Music: "Love Will Find a Way" (answers for teacher reference)
  • Harlem Renaissance Themes anchor chart (example for teacher reference)
  • Homework: Compare Text and Music: "Love Will Find a Way" (example for teacher reference) (see Homework Resources)
  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 3 (one per student)
  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 3 ▲
  • Compare Text and Music: “Love Will Find a Way” (one per student)
  • Compare Text and Music: “Love Will Find a Way” ▲
  • Homework: Compare Words to Music: “Love Will Find a Way” (one per student; see Homework Resources)
  • Homework: Compare Words to Music: “Love Will Find a Way” ▲

Assessment

Each unit in the 6-8 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize students' understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

OpeningLevels of Support

A. Engage the Learner - RL.7.7 (5 minutes)

  • Repeated routine: Students respond to questions on Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 3. 
  • Once students have completed their entrance tickets, use a total participation technique to review their responses. 
  • Repeated routine: Follow the same routine as with the previous lessons to review learning targets and the purpose of the lesson, reminding students of any learning targets that are similar or the same as in previous lessons. 
  • With students, use the vocabulary strategies on the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart to deconstruct the term figurative language (words or phrases not meant to be interpreted literally). Record this term on the domain-specific word wall with translations in home languages, where appropriate, and invite students to record words in their vocabulary logs.

For Lighter Support

  • Challenge students to use the music technique terms they learned in Lesson 2 in their responses to Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 3. Display the Techniques anchor chart to support students. As necessary, allow students time to orally rehearse their responses in pairs to ensure they can properly use the terms.

For Heavier Support

  • During Opening A, invite students to use the Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 3 ▲. This resource supports student writing and comprehension with sentence frames.

Work Time

Work TimeLevels of Support

A. Analyze Figurative Language: “Love Will Find a Way” – L.7.4, L.7.5a (20 minutes)

  • Review appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

“I can determine the meaning of figurative language in ‘Love Will Find a Way.’”

  • Ask students to retrieve their copies of the Excerpts from Shuffle Along. Inform students that they will now read more of the play Shuffle Along, including both dialogue and the lyrics to a song. Next, they will listen to a performance of the song to compare the two mediums. 
  • Explain to students that they will first read the dialogue and song lyrics from the second excerpt together as a class. Assign roles or have students volunteer to read lines in turn to play the different parts in this scene: Harry Walton, Williams, and Jessie. Ask volunteers to consult their notes in the first excerpt to review where the scene takes place and the relationship between the characters. (The scene is outside the hotel in the City Square in Jimtown, Mississippi. Harry Walton is running for mayor, Jessie is Harry’s girlfriend, and Williams is Jessie’s father.)
  • Read the scene and song along with student volunteers.
  • After students finish reading, ask these follow up questions to ensure comprehension of the dialogue:

“What does Williams tell Walton that upsets him?” (Williams tells Walton that he won’t be allowed to marry his daughter unless he wins the race for mayor.) 

“What is Jessie’s reaction to this news?” (She responds by reassuring Harry that “love will find a way,” that their love will survive this challenge.)

  • Tell students that before they answer questions about the lyrics in groups, they will take a moment to explore the author’s use of figurative language in this song. Explain to students that in songs and poems, writers often use figurative language to help explain abstract ideas and to develop themes. 
  • Reread aloud the first stanza of “Love Will Find a Way” and model identifying and interpreting the figurative language. Note how the writer compares their love to a “fires burning bright” (2). Use a think-aloud to interpret the figurative language. For example:

“To understand what a writer is saying with figurative language, first we describe the thing to which the abstract idea is being compared. Love is the abstract idea; fire is the thing to which love is being compared. What is fire like?” (hot, powerful, important for warmth and cooking, destructive)

  • Note that the writer tells us how powerful, important, and possibly destructive love is by using figurative language.
  • Reread aloud the second stanza of “Love Will Find a Way” and ask students to Turn and Talk to identify and interpret the figurative language in that stanza, using the following questions:

“To what does the writer compare love in the second stanza?” (a heavenly beacon.) As necessary, define beacon for students as a bright light. Sketch a picture of a beacon to build background knowledge of students who need more support. ▲

“What is a beacon like?” (bright and powerful)

“What is the author saying about love by comparing it to a beacon?” (Love is bright and powerful.)

  • Explain that these two examples of figurative language are called metaphors because they make comparisons between two different things. Display the Techniques anchor chart, and record metaphor under literary techniques. Invite students to record metaphor in their vocabulary logs and place the word on the domain-specific word wall.
  • Reread aloud the final stanza and note the line “Cupid’s not schooled that way.” Ask students to Turn and Talk:

“Who is Cupid?” (Roman god of love.) If necessary, explain who Cupid is. If possible, sketch or display a picture of Cupid to build background knowledge of students who need more support. ▲

“What does it mean to be schooled in something?” (To be schooled means to be taught something.)

“What is Cupid not schooled in?” (making rules for love) If necessary, explain that the line means that their love cannot be limited by rules, because the god of love won’t allow it.

  • Explain that this reference to Cupid is a special kind of figurative language called an allusion. Writers make references to other works like the Bible or myths to help the reader understand something more about an abstract idea. Record allusion under literary techniques on the Techniques anchor chart and on the domain-specific word wall. Invite students to record the word in their vocabulary logs.
  • Ask students to Think-Pair-Share:

“How does the allusion to Cupid help explain more about Jessie and Harry’s love?” (The allusion to Cupid shows that their love is so powerful and true that even the god of love is watching out for it.)

  • Display and distribute Compare Text and Music: “Love Will Find a Way.” Ask students to work in pairs to identify and interpret the figurative language in the lines “No matter how dark one’s path may grow” and “We’ll just keep our hearts aglow” by answering the questions in the Text section. Circulate and support as necessary.
  • Ask for student volunteers to share their responses to the questions in the Text section of the handout. Consult the Compare Text and Music: “Love Will Find a Way” (answers for teacher reference) as necessary for sample responses. 
  • Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target.

For Lighter Support

  • In Work Time A, challenge students to confirm their comprehension of metaphors by creating their own about love. They can illustrate their metaphors and share them with the class or students who need heavier support.

For Heavier Support

  • In Work Time A, increase students' comprehension and engagement with the figurative language by asking them to sketch images. For example, they could sketch a heart with an equal sign and then a fire. Then provide a sentence frame for students to discuss the figurative language and confirm their comprehension:
    • Love is like _____ because it is ____. (Love is like a fire because it is powerful, warm, and dangerous.)

B. Compare Text and Music: "Love Will Find a Way" - RL.7.7 (10 minutes)

  • Review appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

"I can compare the written version of 'Love Will Find a Way' to its audio version, analyzing the effects of techniques in each medium."

  • Inform students that they will now compare the performance of the song with the written version, as they did in the previous lesson. 
  • Direct students' attention to the questions in the Music section of their Compare Text and Music: "Love Will Find a Way" questions.
  • Explain to students that although the song is a duet in the musical, this recording only has one singer, so they will be focusing on how that singer's performance impacts the text.
  • Play audio recording of "Love Will Find a Way" from Shuffle Along once and allow students to work in pairs to record and discuss their initial impressions of the singing and music. Encourage students to use the notes they made on their entrance tickets to also guide their discussion. 
  • Play the song again and invite students to Turn and Talk with their partners about the second "Music" question on the handout. 
  • Play the song once more and ask students to Turn and Talk with their partners about the final question on the handout. Review and discuss student responses as a class. As necessary, guide the discussion with the following questions:

"In what ways are the text and musical version different?" (The singer sings slowly with a passionate voice. He also repeats some lines. The text does not include suggestions for repeating lines or changing the speed or emotion of the song.)

"In what ways are they the same?" (Both the text and music show that love is powerful.)

"Both the text and the music convey the same general feeling. What is that feeling?" (Love is powerful.)

"What techniques are used in the text to show the power of love?" (The text uses figurative language such as comparing the couple's love to a "heav'nly beacon" that guides them through the "darkest night.")

"What techniques are used in the song to show the power of love?" (The singer sings slowly with a passionate voice. He also repeats some lines, showing how important and powerful love is.) 

  • Record and confirm student responses on the Techniques anchor chart (Effects of Techniques: creating a mood). See the Techniques anchor chart (example for teacher reference) for guidance.
  • Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target.

For Lighter Support

  • N/A

For Heavier Support

  • In Work Time B, invite students to use the Compare Text and Music: “Love Will Find a Way” ▲. This resource supports student writing and comprehension with sentence frames.

Closing & Assessments

ClosingLevels of Support

A. Determine Themes: "Love Will Find a Way" - RL.7.2 (10 minutes)

  • Review appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

"I can identify themes in 'Love Will Find a Way.'"

  • Display and distribute the Harlem Renaissance Themes anchor chart. Remind students that they used a similar note-catcher in Module 1 when they discussed themes in A Long Walk to Water. Ask volunteers to remind the class what a theme is. (It is the main idea in a text that can apply to many different situations or to life in general, such as how A Long Walk to Water develops the theme of how harsh nature can be.)
  • Inform students that throughout this module, they are going to discuss themes in the poems, songs, stories, and artwork they read and analyze. Review each part of the anchor chart: The first column is where the class will record the title of the work and explain the gist of it. The second column is where the class will record the theme(s) they see in the work. The third column is where they will record evidence of the theme. The fourth column is where they will synthesize how the evidence develops the theme.
  • Reread aloud "Love Will Find a Way," and ask for student volunteers to give the gist of the song. Record this in the first column of the anchor chart. Consult the Harlem Renaissance Themes anchor chart (example for teacher reference) for sample answers.
  • Ask volunteers to identify a theme in the song. If necessary, ask:

"What message do the authors give about love?" (Love is so powerful that it can overcome many difficulties.)

  • Record the theme in the second column of the anchor chart. Then ask:

"What evidence do we see of this theme?" Consult the Harlem Renaissance Themes anchor chart (example for teacher reference) for sample answers. Record the evidence on the anchor chart.

  • Use a Think Aloud to model tracing the development of the theme across the song, noting that each image or example of figurative language further emphasizes the theme. Ensure that students understand that the songwriter often develops a theme through the figurative language, examples of which they explored in Work Time A. Record the theme "development" on the anchor chart. Consult the Harlem Renaissance Themes anchor chart (example for teacher reference).
  • Invite students to reflect on the learning target and habits of character focus in this lesson, discussing what went well and what could be improved next time.

For Lighter Support

  • Allow students extra think time to identify a theme in the song. As necessary, prompt with questions such as
    • What is the author's message about love? What does the song tell us about love?

For Heavier Support

  • Provide students with a sentence frame to share their thoughts about theme, so that they have the language structures and aids for comprehension to participate fully in the discussion:
    • The author's message is that love is _____.

Homework

HomeworkLevels of Support

A. Compare Text and Music: "Love Will Find a Way" 

  • Students complete Homework: Compare Text and Music: "Love Will Find a Way" to synthesize their learning about the textual and musical techniques and effects in "Love Will Find a Way."

For Lighter Support

  • Before students leave class, ask them to read the homework assignment. If time allows, students can discuss their responses to the homework prompt. Remind students to use the text and music technique terms they learned in this and the previous lesson. Display the Techniques anchor chart to support students. This oral processing helps confirm comprehension and advances their speaking, listening, and writing skills.

For Heavier Support

  • Before students leave class, review the homework assignment. Also, encourage students to use the Homework: Compare Text and Music: “Love Will Find a Way” ▲. This resource includes sentence frames that support students in comprehension and writing. If time allows, students can use the sentence frames in the homework to discuss their responses to the prompt. This oral processing helps confirm comprehension and advances their speaking, listening, and writing skills.

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