Song Writing Residency
A Songwriting Residency reinforces popular “6 Traits Plus One†writing skills. Students and Staff choose a topic in advance of Ken'’s visit (either curriculum-based, or current events, or pure imagination --- or everything combined!). Ken will discuss and brainstorm ideas with students, collaborating to develop an “angle†from which to write about the topic.
A residency includes:
- Opening Concert on the morning the residency begins
- Six Songwriting Sessions per Day (40 minutes each)
This schedule will typically yield 6 original songs during the residency. In a smaller school, each grade will meet 3 times (once per day) for songwriting. In larger schools, each grade may need to be divided into classes which will work “cooperatively†on the same song, each group meeting only once for a songwriting session.
- Final Concert on the evening of the last day (or in the following week), as students join Ken in performing their songs for their parents, families and community.
Topics & Themes
Teachers may focus the songwriting activity on whatever curriculum or subject area they wish. For example, songs have emerged from ...
a history unit that yielded in— a song called “A Letter Homeâ€, written with fourth graders which realistically painted the struggles of German immigrants to Wisconsin in the 19th Century;
an English class created a fantastical “story song (Greetings Earthlings)†about aliens visiting Earth to abduct a new washing machine (!);
a science unit yielded “Everything Matters†(yes, ALL about liquids, solids and gasses).
Really, a song can be written about anything under the sun! Other topics explored in songwriting residencies: changing people’'s attitudes toward bats (the song 'Bat' is a love song to the furry winged critter); the concept of fractions, decimals and percentages in 'Decimal Cat'; even geothermal activity! The song 'Volcano Land' begins,
Everybody's rockin', talkin' subduction
One plate can't wait, pushin' up against another one...
One goes under and you're gonna get an eruption...
When it melts then everybody better study how to run!
Hey Mon... welcome to the Volcano Land...
Residency songs have been written about the poet Maya Angelou, the Solar System, local history, native peoples...
you name it!
Articles:
Students Band Together With Roving Music Man
Songwriting Sessions Bring Out Style, Creativity
by Jill Saito, Ft. Collins Coloradoan, October, 1997
Their Own Songs
Artist-In-Residence Tunes Up Richards School
by Melinda Kozulis, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal
Quack? Quilts? Quarries?
Budding Lyricists At Burleigh Elem. Learn To Make Hard Choices
by Adam Kirby, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal, 2005
Artist-In-Resicence Lonnquist
Brings Creative Song/Story Process To Lakeshore
By Laurie Ottery, Fond du Lac Reporter
Melodies Carry Strains Of History, Government & Character
Artist-in-residence helps students write lyrics for class lessons
By Stephanie Scott, Greenfield Observer, 1/26/06
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Sense Of Place Residency
This residency involves students conducting pre-songwriting research activities in their own community…, interviewing their elders to learn about the area’'s past, doing library research, etc. With Ken, they pool this information and turn it into a body of songs celebrating the geography and people that make their community unique.
This Land We Love: Crafting A Song Writing Legacy
By Kathleen Regnier, Peninsula State Park Naturalist, and Joan Blackwood, Coordinator for Friends of Gibraltar
EE News, Environmental Educ. in Wisconsin, Summer, 2001
Students Learn About Mayville's History
Summer school program focuses on areas backyard
By Colleen Kottke, Fond du Lac Reporter, 7/10/03
