Lesson Plan & Projects: Discovering Latinx & Hispanic Musicians & Composers Podcast
Each year we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 through October 15th. The purpose of this lesson is to have students explore the lives of many Latinx & Hispanic musicians and/or composers of traditional, popular, and classical music. After learning about their assigned musicians and/or composers, students, working in groups, will create a 3-to-5-minute podcast that provides the listener with information about the musician or composer, their impact on music, and selected listening examples.
This lesson plan and the projects are included in the Podcasting Across the Curriculum resource that I authored exclusively available in the MusicFirst Classroom. If you already Soundtrap and/or the MusicFirst Classroom, you can use this lesson and projects to help celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month. If you don’t yet have an account, sign up for a FREE 30-day trial and get started today! Enjoy!
Discovering Latinx & Hispanic Musicians & Composers Podcast
Objectives
The learner will learn about the life and music of an assigned Latinx & Hispanic musician and/or composer and write a script that answers the questions posed in the project description
The learner will gather representative works of the musician and/or composer and find audio clips (if available) to incorporate into their podcasts
The learner will produce a 3-to-5-minute podcast that demonstrates their understanding of the assigned musician and/or composer
Standards
Create - Conceive and develop new artistic id...
Perform - Realize artistic ideas and work thr...
Respond - Understand and evaluate how the art...
Connect - Relate artistic ideas and work with...
Materials
Hispanic Heritage Month: https://www.hispanicheritagemonth.gov/for-teachers/
Chicago Youth Symphony: https://cyso.org/news/celebrating-hispanic-latinx-composers/
18 Latino Composers You Should Know: https://www.cpr.org/2020/09/15/18-latin-composers-you-should-know-besides-piazzolla/
The Essential Latin American Composers Collection: https://open.spotify.com/album/08RB4Q01CTt2JzbMwQap6X
Essential Latin Classical Composers: https://open.spotify.com/album/17BpPYLs4tzqdrdBWa1yc4
Composers & Musicians of Latin America Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0CRFhcCSoQs8cSzGOsZVBQ
Spanish & Latin American Composers – Classics for Kids:
Spanish & Latin American Composers – Classics for Kids: https://www.classicsforkids.com/spanish-latin-american-history-month/
Hispanic Heritage Month Playlist (Popular musicians): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/47TyYi8VF68BMQqZHatDjr
Upbeat Hispanic Heritage Month Songs for Kids: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/63vn6PxW8RCtlUJTGZOJKl
Soundtrap
USB microphone or a microphone with audio interface
Procedure
Review some of the many recommended resources with your students to provide them with some background information about National Hispanic Heritage Month, including the https://www.hispanicheritagemonth.gov site as well as the various websites about Latinx & Hispanic musicians and composers
It is up to you to decide whether you would like the students to focus their podcasts on classical music, traditional music, or popular music.
Play segments of the recommended podcasts provided in the materials section to give an example of how to produce a podcast about National Hispanic Heritage Month.
Assign students into groups of 2-4 students.
Assign each group a Latinx/Hispanic musician and/or composer.
After sufficient review, present the students with the SCRIPT project.
Once students have completed their first drafts of their scripts, you should review, make any recommended edits (hit Clear Submission if you want students to make any changes to their scripts), and when finished, let them know it is approved.
You will not be assigning a grade for the SCRIPT task, as it is part of the larger podcast project requirements.
Once scripts are approved, have students begin to produce their podcasts with Soundtrap, following the criteria laid out in the task.
If you and/or students want to include audio clips in their podcasts, you will likely need to procure those clips for them, being mindful of copyright laws and Fair Use guidelines.
Provide students with ample time to produce their podcasts. It is likely that this may take 5-10 days to complete, depending on how often you see the students.
Once the podcasts are complete, use the included Scoring Rubric to grade.
If available, post student podcasts to a school-based podcasting site.
Student Script Project:
National Hispanic Heritage Month takes place every year from September 15th to October 15th as a way to recognize and celebrate the many contributions, diverse cultures, and extensive histories of the American Latino community. To find out more about National Hispanic Heritage Month, visit https://www.hispanicheritagemonth.gov/
National Hispanic Heritage Month has been celebrated nationwide since 1988 through festivals, art shows, concerts, and other events. The month also celebrates the independence days of several Latin American countries, including: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua on September 15th, Mexico on September 16th, and Chile on September 18th.
The music world is rich with the beautiful and uplifting sounds of Latinx & Hispanic musicians and/or composers. There are many traditional music, classical music, and of course popular music musicians and/or composers to learn more about. From music used for all different types of dancing, traditional songs, and composers whose compositions have been played for more than a century by symphony orchestras around the world, there is a lot for the Latinx & Hispanic peoples to be proud of.
In this project, you will create a podcast that will highlight the life and music of a musician and/or composer that your teacher assigns you. Follow the project requirements in the Task below to get started.
For this project, you will write a script for your podcast that is roughly 3-to-5-minutes in length, that includes the following information:
Where/when they were born?
Information about their parents & family - were they musical?
What musical instruments did they learn?
Information about where they studied music
What are their most famous compositions?
Have they won any awards for their work?
Who were they influenced by?
How have they impacted Latinx/Hispanic music?
How have they impacted music in general?
You should use whatever Word Processing software you have, such as Google Docs, to create your script. You will submit your script as a web link, so be sure to copy the location of your file and carefully submit it using the URL window. Your teacher will likely have recommendations for edits, so you may need to submit this multiple times. Good luck!
Student Podcast Project
Discovering Latinx & Hispanic Musicians & Composers Podcast
Once your script has been approved for recording, you will use Soundtrap to record and produce your podcast. When you launch Soundtrap, be sure to click on the Podcast template.
Your podcast MUST satisfy the following criteria:
3-to-5-minutes in length
Biographical information about the musician and/or composer listed in the Script Task.
If available, include short musical clips (each under 30-seconds in length) so that listeners can hear their music. You will need to Import them into Soundtrap and edit them. Ask your teacher how to do this.
Include music at the beginning and end of the podcast. If you do not have access to audio clips, compose your own music using the Soundtrap Loop Library
When finished, Save your podcast and submit to your teacher for assessment.