Music and Media
Music and Media Teaching Unit

Music and Media

Drama Teaching Unit for 7th Grade (6 Lesson Plans)

This teaching unit teaches students to interpret music at a basic level and how to incorporate it into their own performance work. They will learn how music can be linked to exaggerated movements by watching a cartoon orchestra in action and will understand how music is used by the media to help advertise products. A number of video clips and musical pieces are included with this scheme of work.

Each lesson plan has clearly stated objectives and learning outcomes. They are structured to include introductory warm up, development and plenary sessions. A home work task is also included.

Music and MediaTooltip

The teaching unit contains 6 drama lesson plans.

  • Lesson 1: Exaggerating Body Language
    Students develop awareness of non-verbal communication through the activities ‘Mirror Exercise’, ‘The Orchestra Game’ and Mime.

  • Lesson 2: The 7 Levels of Tension
    Students explore the use of music as a performance script and look at the idea of tension.

  • Lesson 3: Developing Awareness of Physical Movement
    Physical acting skills are developed through the class activities ‘The Opposites Game’ and ‘Invisible String’, along with additional group work.

  • Lesson 4: Interpreting Music
    Visualisation of a piece of music is used to help students understand mood and atmosphere, followed by mime to different musical styles.

  • Lesson 5: Interpreting the Mood of Music
    By watching and interpreting the rhythm, pace, mood, changes of emotion and comic characters in a classic cartoon clip, students devise an original scene set to music.

  • Lesson 6: Assessment - Adverts
    Observations of classic TV commercials are used to develop a new improvised piece for assessment.

Supporting materials include

  • 6 musical pieces of different styles
  • 4 video clips (1 full cartoon, 3 adverts)

Additional resources are included in the appendices

  • 7 Levels of Tension
  • Basic Drama Skills
  • End Of Unit Self-Assessment Form

The document is supplied as a ZIP file. It contains the teaching unit (PDF, readable on most computers) along with 6 music files (MP3 format) and 4 video clips (MP4 format). This is a large file ~100Mb.