Medieval Era and Assassins Creed

Even though music history was not enjoyable for me to learn as a student, teaching it is a completely different feeling. I went all out on my Medieval Era lesson plan with my 6th graders.

It’s all about the atmosphere when they come in. You can use battery powered candles (although I didn’t use those until Renaissance Era lesson)- easily find them at the dollar store. Put them ALL OVER the classroom. I had a Medieval costume from Halloween a while back and put that on before class started. The lights can be turned on after the introduction of the lesson (so they can take notes).

So, let me set the scene up for you: 

You are a 6th grader who just came from math, thinking it would be a normal day. Then you walk into what you thought was your music room, but to your surprise, the lights are off with candles everywhere, you are being bowed to as you walk in and you hear strange (medieval) music.

Wouldn’t that catch your attention?

So, here is the lesson:

I have the Prezi up, ready to go with music playing in the background. I keep character as I pass out the Medieval Worksheet to each student walking through the door (WARNING: they will ask a ton of questions, but refrain from talking…it’s fun to hear them guess what’s happening in class that day).

Introduce the lesson how ever you want. I did something like, “We are going to take a journey back through time to learn about the great music from each era…blah blah blah”. I make it a grand announcement.

1. On the Prezi, I have Musical terms first that we go through. I introduce Gregorian Chant; define monophonic and play the Gregorian chant examples. I ask them what they hear and how it is different from todays music.
   • I also bring up Assassins Creed: Brotherhood (based in Italy) and Skyrim, two very popular video games. Both games are based in the Middle Ages. Assassins Creed has Gregorian Chant playing whenever the character enters into churches. The kids got a kick out of this! Skyrim also has it playing when the character goes up to the Greybeard mountain (which is a religious setting in the game).
2. Definitely play a snippet of the dubstep video- they love it.
3. Next, Ars Nova, Motet, Sacred, Secular are discussed.
4. Show them the Gregorian Chant Sheet music.
   • Ask the students what is different from this music to the music they see in Band or Choir. Have them discuss it in class. It’s fun to hear what they come up with.
   • After the discussion has died down, I talk about how things were handwritten, therefore, written music was very special-specifically in the church.
5. Then, we go over to the Medieval Instruments. Describe the instruments to the students and then show them the videos (you can always add more, but my 45 minute time frame didn’t allow it).
6. Show them the dances they did back then. (I tell them it was like our Cupid Shuffle)
7. Then, have ALL the students get up and make a circle in the room and teach them a very simple medieval dance (look at the first video and mimic what they do, I did about 4 dance moves and taught it to my class). This took about 10 minutes to teach.
8. Once the dance was taught, the students dance to music.
9. By this time, the bell is probably about to ring. : )

Seriously, the kids LOVED the dance section. I was really nervous about teaching that part but after them sitting in desks all day, this was like a nice recess.

I even felt like a KID teaching this lesson (dubstep, video games, dressing up, and dancing). Feel free to change it up or share it in different ways. Would love to hear what you did to make this work for you!