Grade Level/Subject: Ms.

Lathams Grade 5 General Music

Take the A Train: Music by Billy Strayhorn

Stage 1 Desired Results
Established Goals
Goals: Students will be able to understand the structure and rhythmic characteristics of Take the A Train by
Billy Strayhorn
CCSS and Essential Standards:

NYC DOE Music Curriculum Benchmark for Grade 5: Making Connections: Identify common forms in literature,
visual arts, dance, and music (e.g., essay/sonata).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.4
Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in
a story, poem, or song.
National Core Arts Standards: Anchor Standard #10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to
make art.
Understandings:
Students will understand form (A and B sections).
Students will understand rhythms (straight versus swung
or Syncopation)
Students will understand how Jazz music was written
about every day life.

Essential Questions:
What makes jazz music multi-cultural?
Did the creation of jazz impact segregation in America
before the Civil Rights movement?

Students will be able to analyze the form in terms of A and B sections.

Students will be able to hear:
syncopation When the rhythm is on the 2 and 4 counts, or upbeat, instead of the strong 1 and 3 counts, or
downbeat.
form How musical ideas and phrases are used to make a musical work.

Stage 2 Assessment Evidence

Performance Tasks:
1.) Listen to Take the A Train by Billy Strayhorn and
Duke Ellington twice.
2.) Ask the children to raise their hands and tell me what
patterns they hear in the music
3.) Listen to the song again, but have the whole class
raise their hand when the music changes.
4.) Have students clap and speak a 4 quarter note
rhythm, a quarter eighth note rhythm, and a
syncopated rhythm with an eighth note/rest rhythm.
5.) Have the students listen again for syncopated rhythm
6.) Have students share about if theyve taken the A train
before and what they experienced.

Other Evidence:
1.) In class Written Activity: Have each student write on an
index card the first A of for the form. When the music
changes, have them write down an A or a B if the music is
the same (A) or different (B). I will then walk around and
help students who are struggling or who are incorrect. I will
diagnose by asking why they wrote particular letters and
help the students based on individual needs.

Stage 3 Learning Plan

Learning Activities:
1.) Write A B A on the board.
2.) Have students look for the pattern.
3.) Tell the students that the As are the same music underneath with different words on top, and the Bs are
different than the As.
4.) Play Take the A Train two times.
5.) Ask the children to raise their hands and tell me what patterns they hear in the music.
6.) Listen to the song again, but have the whole class raise their hand when the music changes.
7.) Administer the In class writing assignment as mentions in stage 2, other evidence, #1.
8.) Write out the rhythms on Artifact 1 (attached) and allow the students to clap and count the different rhythms.
9.) Have the students explain why they are different from the last.
10.) Remind students that this is what syncopation is and that this is what they did earlier in class.
11.) Listen to the song one more time and have students listen for syncopated rhythm
12.) Now ask the class to raise their hand if they have taken the a train before. If they have, allow students to tell
stories about their experiences.
13.) Explain that the composers of the song wrote this song when Duke Ellington asked Billy Stayhorn to come to his
house.